Many new gardeners have trouble with colour. This is not helped by knucklehead writers enthusing about a “splash” or a “riot” of colour. A riot is the last thing I need outside my front door and British writer Val Bourne agrees.

Here, with the help of excellent pictures from Jonathan Buckley, she presents twelve seasonal, colour inspired overviews of ways to bring colours together effectively and illustrated with real life planting combinations. So often plans seem just too good to be true – because they are. There are soft pastels and bold primary colours; delicate harmonies and vivid contrasts… A tempting range.

But it’s not just a matter of choosing plants that go well together, choosing exactly the right varieties is often crucial and this is something that many gardeners simply don’t think is important. It is, and again Val Bourne agrees; just check her thoughts on crocosmias and kniphofias.

This is a great book for Brits and for American gardeners in Britain-like parts of the country such as the Pacific North West; but it makes no attempt to provide ideas for gardeners in much colder or much hotter areas. Great for Brits, not much good for Texans. Just so you know.

Colour in the Garden by Val Bourne, with photography by Jonathan Buckley, is published by Merrell.

• Excellent season-by-season guide packed with good planting ideas.
• Lots of ideas for both large and small plantings.
• Larger format and better reproduction of the pictures would have made this book even more useful.
• She's good, she's well known - put her name in larger type on the cover!