Gone to seed: Anyone who planted seeds earlier this year only to be disappointed when they didn't bloom over the summer shouldn't be too hard on themselves - it could be the fault of the seeds and not their gardening skills.

The annual seed report from Which? Gardeninghas revealed that, once again, a number of leading flower and vegetable seed brands are not up to scratch. In one packet of pepper seeds, all nine seeds were dead, while a packet of parsnip seeds had 80 per cent dead seeds.