Autumn is the time when all serious gardeners tidy up after the summer and prepare for the coming year. To help them, the gardens of La Landriana created by Russell Page and Lavinia Taverna are holding their third annual autumn exhibition and market on 8, 9 and 10 Oct. Among the exhibits there will be collections of passion flowers, rosemary plants, lavenders, new specimens of roses, unusual climbers, shrubs and trees for the Mediterranean garden. It will be possible to ask gardening experts for advice, and plants and garden equipment will be on sale.

The nursery Vivinatura Balduzzi, near Rome is running a series of courses on Saturdays throughout the autumn; they are aimed at those who wish to study the theory and practice of gardening, the art of topiary, dried-flower arrangement, or how to prepare and run an organic vegetable garden,

Autunno alla Landriana, Via Campo di Carne 51, Tor S. Lorenzo, Ardea (near Rome) 10.00-18.00. For information tel. 06091014140.

Vivinatura Balduzzi, Via dei Laghi 16, Marino (near Rome). For information tel. 06 9384577.