Informal / Cottage

Created from the resurgence of interest in breeding sweet peas for scent, Spencer Modern sweet peas provide the best of all worlds for the gardener. Lathyrus 'Zorija Rose' is a brilliantly bright variety with magenta flowers and excellent fragrance. They make exceptionally fine cut flowers.

Lathyrus odoratus 'Arthur Hellyer', produces large undulating flowers in shades of soft lavender, white and light purple. named after the English gardener Arthur Hellyer. Highly fragrant with the classic heady and sweet pea scent, they are absolutely irresistible!

Long-stemmed creamy-white with extra-long, thick stems and a wonderful fragrance, Lathyrus 'Ice-Cream' is a romantic addition to the garden and perfect for wedding work. Stunningly beautiful, with the most delicious vanilla ice cream coloured large undulating petals.

Bred by Roger Parsons in 2011 and named in honour of his wife, ‘Just Julia’ is a modern example of the classic Spencer Sweet Pea. It produces large, frilled blooms on long, strong stems and distinguished by its glowing pink petals with a lilac undertone. Highly recommended.

Introduced in 1981 in celebration of the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, Lathyrus 'Royal Wedding' produces wonderfully large, slightly ruffled flowers with four to five blooms to a stem. They are of course perfect for wedding work.

Munstead Lavender is a fragrant robust English lavender that, due to its short size and tightly held blooms, makes a great hedge. It flowers profusely in the spring, after which a good pruning will provide an attractive grey bush with highly aromatic leaves.

Coveted by every devotee of flower arranging, the perennial variety 'Woodcreek' is extremely useful and popular. Long lived and very productive year after year, it makes a stunning spectacle when in bloom. Airy clouds of tiny white papery flowers hover all summer, on leafless fine stems that are perfect for picking.

With tall spikes of pink and mauve tiny flowers, Linaria ‘Canon J Went’ is an undemanding hardy perennial. Bone hardy, long-lived and drought-resistant, they are wonderful in the perennial border, for naturalised planting schemes, mass plantings or gravel gardens and a great choice for cut flowers.

Honesty is a dual purpose plant, grown partly for its fragrant purple - pink flowers in spring and summer, but also for its unique seed-heads. Oval and translucent, gleaming with an eerie silver light and coveted by flower arrangers. It is a vital nectar plant and therefore popular with bees and butterflies.

Lupin 'Noble Maiden', occasionally called Fraülein, feature soft ivory white buds that open to pure clean white. The flowers open from the bottom up making for a longer blooming period. Stunning in the border or in a vase.

George Russell developed his Lupins aiming for, and achieving a central stalk or spike totally obscured by colourful flowers. 'The Governor' is one of the most popular from the series and features deep ultramarine blue blooms each with white flag.

Each small flower of Band of Nobles ‘Chandelier’ is a glorious shade of golden yellow, and the standard (the upper petal) is often a shade or two lighter. They have been bred for a long flowering period and give unbeatable garden performance.

The magnificent vertical stems of Lupin ‘My Castle’ produce vibrant red blooms bringing height and grandeur to summer borders. The intense colour of this robust variety makes a real statement when planted in drifts, or dotted among other perennials.

Bred for a long flowering period with unbeatable garden performance, George Russell developed one of the most popular and distinctive plants in history. Magnificent vertical stems of densely packed soft pink flowers each with a white flag. The Chatelaine’ provides that rare combination of power, poise and subtlety.

Shorter than the species, Malva moschata 'Appleblossom' grows 45 to 60cm in height. The satiny, single flowers in a lovely soft shade of silver-pink, are textured and striated like crepe, they have a lustrous lacquered quality in sunlight. Wonderfully appealing to bees and other pollinators, they also make a good cut flower.

Considered by many gardeners to be the most desirable of the Malva species, this rare white-flowered form is even lovelier than the normal rose-pink Musk Mallow. Flowering throughout the summer, the pure white, scented flowers contrast beautifully with the ferny foliage.

Classic and richly scented, Brompton Stocks are the aristocrats of the stock family. These tall, elegant biennials produce dense spikes of double and single blooms in a sumptuous mix of colours. The flowers are extremely fragrant, in bloom from late spring and are excellent for cutting.

Full, lush, double blooms, with a velvety texture are dressed in a dusky, old-world hue, soft mauve-pink with hints of smoky lavender. Matthiola 'Mathilda Antique Rose' can be sown early in spring to give a summer flowering display or if treated as biennials, the flowers will be ready for Valentine’s Day.

Matthiola incana, commonly known as 'Stocks' are highly adaptable. They can be sown early in spring to give a summer flowering display or can be treated as biennials. Seedlings started inside in October will have the flowers ready for Valentine’s Day. The extra trouble of overwintering the plants is compensated by the showy spring floral display.