Hardy Perennials

Digitalis thapsi 'Spanish Peaks' foxglove is a lovely compact foxglove that produces elegant, apricot-cream to raspberry-rose blooms with interior markings. A superb perennial species that can be counted on for a glorious floral show each spring. Very easy to grow in virtually any location, it is often the first foxglove to flower.

Native to the central and south-eastern parts of the United States, Echinacea angustifolia is valued as a short-term stimulant to the immune system. This classic purple flower is easy to grow and continues to be a favorite in home and public gardens, a ‘tried and true’ classic sure to please any home gardener.

Echinacea purpurea 'Cheyenne Spirit' is the latest Gold Medal Winner of the species, this cultivar will provide a mix of flower colours. Not limited to one colour, each plant can bloom in a sumptuous range of colour, Gold, Scarlet, Orange, Rosy-Red, Cream, Purple and Yellow. This vivid new mixture is a complete innovation in first-year flowering seed perennials.

Distinguished by its exceptionally large flowers, Echinacea 'Paradiso Tall Mix' blooms in a large range of shades including some lovely, soft hues. Very easy to grow, with good vigour and robust strong stems that branch from the base, the plants can be used for perennial beds and high-impact landscaping and as a cut or dried flower.

Echinacea 'Paradiso' is an outstanding series of the familiar 'Cone Flower' and one of late summer's most garden worthy forms. A first year flowering perennial they are distinguished by the exceptionally large flowers which grow 8cm to 10cm (3 to 4in) wide. Echinacea 'Paradiso Yellow' blooms in beautiful, illuminating warm yellow shades.

Echinacea pallida is one of the more rare members of the Echinacea family. They have much longer, ray flowers than those of the more familiar purple coneflower, the plants bloom earlier and continue to bloom sporadically through the autumn months.

Echinacea paradoxa is a true paradox – a rare and highly unusual yellow variety of the much loved 'Purple Coneflower'. With large, yellow ray flowers and the classical raised cone, the blooms are slightly fragrant and make excellent cut flowers. Echinacea paradoxa is a beautiful, elegant and easy plant to grow.

Eryngium maritimum is an evergreen perennial plant native to Europe. Often found on sea shores, it is a protected species in many parts of the world. Highly ornamental, it is grown in gardens for its metallic bluish flowers and intensely whitish-glaucous leaves, it is very attractive to bees and butterflies.

Eryngium variifolium ‘Miss Marble’ is a spectacular evergreen perennial. The neat mound of basal leaves are attractively marbled with silver veining. In summer upright stems bear silvery-blue flowers, each thimble is surrounded by long, slender bracts which splay outwards, adding to the prickly appearance.

Long sword-shaped leaves that launch an architectural wonder of tight set thistle-style, white spheres, the flowers of Eryngium yuccifolium are borne on tall branching stems. The unique structure and colour make it highly desirable to gardeners as accent plants in borders and wildflower meadows.

One of the grandest of plants, Euphorbia characias 'Wulfenii' has upright stems clothed with whorls of fleshy, mat grey-green leaves that lend the whole plant a textural quality that is unparalleled. From March to June the plants are topped with intense chartreuse-green flowers'.

Used in many culinary dishes, the leaves and seeds of Fennel have a sweet aroma and an aniseed flavour. The fine clouds of feathery, bronze-purple leaves are wonderful in the herb garden or among tall perennials and grasses. The foliage acts as a delicate veil through which flower heads of plants can be seen.

Diminutive Festuca glauca makes a tight mound of steely blue, needle-like blades and is one of the most tactile of the evergreen grasses. Planted as a specimen or in swathes across a garden, the colour is so unexpected it can't help but catch the eye.

Our native Meadowsweet is a familiar sight, with fernlike foliage and tufts of graceful, fragrant creamy-white flowers. Also known as Queen of the Meadows, the flower heads are frequently visited by bees attracted by the heavy scent which can be so evocative of summer days in the countryside.

Gaura 'Cool Breeze' is a stunning new variety that is now available from seed. It produces a flurry of dazzling pure white, starry blooms on graceful slender stems. They have pale green stamens and buds instead of the usual pink. A first year flowering perennial, very easy to grow it will bloom in around 14 weeks from an early sowing.

Gaura lindheimeri 'Sparkle White' is a stunning hardy perennial. A Winner of the Fleuroselect Gold Medal, this bushy, clump forming variety has a neat, compact habit and produces a flurry of dazzling white, starry blooms on graceful slender stems from early summer right through to autumn.