Gardening expert offers tips for dry weather

Ms Yemm said that as a result of the unseasonably warm weather in April, the soil in her allotment is dry and her plants are weeks ahead of where they usually are at this time of year.

She suggests that one reader goes ahead with their plan to “bring forward the ‘Chelsea chop'”.

Ms Yemm said: “The Chelsea chop … is a technique whereby you manipulate various herbaceous plants by shortening some or all of their stems by up to half, just before they form flower buds.”

She explained that by doing so, gardeners will be able to delay their plants flowering, and they will bloom at a later date but with “stockier, branched stems”.

Gardeners often use the method around the time that the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is on, hence the name, she said.

There is now an iPhone app for those who want to follow the events of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show remotely