A small delicate flower which is looking wonderful in my garden this week is the Tiarella Spring Symphony or foam flower.

This perennial dies back to below ground level each year in autumn, then, fresh new growth appears again in the spring. It has attractive, deeply lobed leaves with a small dark blotch in the centre, they make a great carpet of foliage throughout the summer. In late spring, slender stems rise up and hold spikes of tiny star-shaped, blush white flowers. This is a brilliant plant for covering the ground in a shady spot. I have mine in a large container, in deep shade, at the back of the house and lift them each autumn and store in the greenhouse, as they do not like the frost.

They are very easy to look after. Just remove the faded blooms regularly, which will prolong flowering and encourage more to come. Cut back and compost the spent flower stems in autumn and apply a dry mulch around the crown of the plant to protect against frost damage, or, as I do, lift and protect inside.

It has been a real dilemma this week at Driftwood. I usually take all my succulents out from the house and greenhouse and arrange them in groups across the garden. The problem has been the cold nights. While some days have been lovely and warm in the sunshine, the evenings and through the night it has still been very cold. So, it was a compromise of taking each one out, removing the dead leaves and generally tidying the plant up before replacing it in the greenhouse until the nights warm up, hopefully next week.

The big job still to do is a thorough clean of the greenhouse, which will now have to wait a little longer. Another pending big job is the planting up of my summer annuals.

The problem will be that my spring bulbs are all still looking pretty spectacular at the moment. They all seem to have flowered much later, this means the planting of my summer annuals in those same containers will have to be delayed. I cannot plant them up with the tulips still blooming.

Ordinarily, I’d be having visitors in the garden from the June 1 but have delayed this year until June 21, thus giving me three extra weeks grace to ensure it looks its best.

I will visit the nursery in Polegate in mid-May and make my selection from what’s on offer. I never decide on a colour palette, I create one once I get back home from whatever plants were available.

Read more of Geoff’s garden at www.driftwoodbysea.co.uk