April

Helenium hoopesii is considered by some to be the most valuable of the species. It blooms with bright golden yellow disk florets that each form a kind of rounded knob that transforms the flower from your typical two-dimensional daisy into something much more interesting and sculptural.

If there's one plant that can inject a little razzle-dazzle into the border during gloomy late summers it is Helenium. From late July 'Helena' blooms with masses of vibrant blooms in a spectrum of rich colours from gold to mahogany red. Perfect for the back of the border and wonderful for cutting.

Gypsophila paniculata 'Snowflake' is a pretty double-flowered baby’s breath that offers big airy clouds of white blooms in early summer. The flower panicles are strong-stemmed, compact and bloom a bit earlier than standard forms. Each stem has hundreds of tiny white flowers on wire-thin branches, giving an airy, soft impression.

Gypsophila has recently become rather trendy among celebrity and designer florists, even taking centre stage as the main flower focus of bouquets and arrangements. 'Covent Garden' produces hundreds of tiny, single white flowers on wire-thin branches, giving an airy impression.

Geum rivale, the Water avens is a native perennial of slow-draining or wet soils. Flowering prolifically it is particularly useful in damp soils and makes a good show besides ponds. It produces both nectar and pollen and is an excellent plant for attracting pollinators and amphibians to the garden.

Many gardeners look for easy to grow, reliable perennials that provide a bright, cheerful display of colour early in the season. Geum coccineum ‘Borisii-Strain’ flowers the first year from seed producing wonderful vivid orange-red toned flowers from late spring into summer.

A beautiful, robust ground cover variety of the every popular Geranium sanguineum; ‘Vision Violet’ produces masses of large luminescent violet flowers from early spring to summer. The blooms cover this compact, mounding plant with intricately cut leaves.

‘Vision Light Pink’ produces masses of large luminescent light pink flowers with red veins from early spring through to late summer. This long-lived, drought-tolerant perennial is useful as a small scale groundcover and in mixed borders. Use it in rock gardens, stone walls or even in container plantings.

Geranium pyrenaicum is a European species and well known for being one of the most floriferous of Geraniums. 'Summer Snow' is an easy to grow, yet hard to find white flowered cultivar which produces profuse quantities of white flowers each with deeply notched petals.

"Splish Splash" is a fascinating, rare and prized border plant and one of the most beautiful, striking and unusual perennial geraniums. Very easy to grow, the clumps of divided foliage are topped with mauve-blue splashes and flecks on pure white petals, each petal appearing to be individually designed and painted.

'Dark Reiter’, is a fairly new cultivar originating from 'Victor Reiter' whose namesake was the legendary California nurseryman. What sets this plant apart is the new leaves that emerge a light maroon colour then fade to a purple-flushed deep green, it produces violet-blue flowers in spring.

The beautiful, soft violet-blue flowers make the meadow crane’s bill one of our most distinctive wildflowers. Perfect for a meadow, it is often planted in gardens as it flowers for a long time, it must be one of our loveliest wild flowers and worthy of a place in any border.

Geranium phaeum ‘Samobor’ has considerable charm, with luxurious, deep maroon-black flowers which are held high on upright slender stems in late spring to early summer. This beautiful and useful hardy geranium is loved for its amazing deeply scalloped foliage with beautiful dark markings

Geranium 'Orchid Blue' is a simply stunning plant, producing clusters of saucer shaped flowers of a rarely seen shade of pure orchid-blue, each with purple-violet veins. This new-on-the-scene plant soon spreads to form low hummocks of deeply cut soft green, leaves.

Hardy geraniums are undoubtedly one of the most popular groups of plants. Today’s hybrids are the modern flag bearers, they are beautiful, reliable and endlessly various produces jewel-tone, saucer-shape flowers for months at a time. Exceptionally good value this mix always contain a few real rarities.

Introduced in 2008, Gaura lindheimeri 'Summer Breeze' has now been made available in seed form. A hardier, more robust variety, long blooming and floriferous, it produces open, willowy, vase-shaped plants, with long graceful stems that suspend numerous little, dainty, butterfly shaped flowers at their tips.

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.

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.

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.