April

Solidago canadensis 'Golden Baby' is an easy to grow hardy perennial that bears flat-topped clusters of golden-yellow plumes. Growing to around 60cm tall they are perfect for borders or containers and provide end-of-season colour. Given an early sowing they will bloom in their first year.

Brought to the forefront of the design world by the Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf, Sporobolus displays a magnificent fountain of fine textured, emerald-green leaves which develop rich shades of reddish-gold or deep orange in the autumn, but the great joy of this plant is that it produces a great cloudy haze of tiny flower heads.

What can I say? Its a plant you can pet!...Bees love it…children love it….and you just have to stoke it on the way past! Lambs' ears is a well-known ground-covering perennial, popular for its soft, fluffy foliage, plus, it’s a great silver accent in between all the green going on in the garden.

Related to Heuchera and Tiarella, Tellima grandiflora form a tidy clump of rounded leaves and are topped by lime-green airy spires. They make excellent groundcover, thrive in shade between flowers in a border and make a good filler for separating strong shapes or bright colours.

Summer-blooming spiky flowering plants - in garden design parlance ‘the verticals’. We all need some, and there are lots of contenders, but a plant that can go just about anywhere in the garden, cope with almost all situations and bloom with copious plush spikes over several weeks is a very rare treat.

Thalictrum aquilegifolium 'Purpureum' features a basal clump of lacy, blueish-green foliage topped by a hazy, fuzzy show of purple flowers. They produce a shimmering hazy effect in beds and borders wildflower gardens or meadows. Both leaves and flowers are good for flower arrangements.

Thalictrum lucidum is a less well known species of meadow rue, it sports luscious deep green, fern-like foliage. In mid-summer the plant is festooned with a superb array of fragrant flower stems, topped with airy puffs of soft cream flowers each with bright yellow stamens.

As they say, white goes with everything and among theme gardens, the white garden may be the most popular. The White Garden Flower Mix gives a selection of spectacular, bright white annual flowers. Calm, soft and serene this beautiful mix will carry borders into early winter with panache.

The Black-eyed Susan vine has recently become a firm garden favourite. They grow quickly and starts flowering at an early age. This twining vine blooms in a bright blend of creamy white, orange and yellow flowers all with the characteristic chocolate-purple centre which inspired the common name.

'Sunrise White' is a white form of the Black Eyed Susan vine. Very quick to bloom, the flowers smother the vine throughout summer to first frosts. White petals surrounded by a bold black eye, these are plants that add a dash of chic to the summer terrace or border.

Thymus serpyllum is one of the most versatile groundcovers. Forming dense evergreen cushions of flowers these low maintenance plants don’t require mowing, watering or care, and can take a lot of abuse. Its leaves can be used as a culinary herb and its uses in the garden are almost unlimited.

Brilliant sizzling, orange-scarlet flowers cover this vibrant ornamental plant, Tithonia produces one of the best flowers for attracting butterflies to the garden. Very easy and rewarding and perfect for new gardeners and children, sow direct in May and June for fast and furious, fabulous flowers.

Nasturtium 'Bloody Mary' is an award winning Nasturtium with a unique flower pattern. Dramatic 5cm flowers in shades of dark red, coral red, cream, and unique bicolours, make a melodramatic scene in the flower bed, container or vase. Highly decorative they are in flower from May right through to October.

Nasturtium ‘Gleam Hybrids’ is a moderate spreading variety and the variety we would recommend for hanging baskets and for containers. They offer a particularly nice colour selection with all the shades you expect, primrose, gold, orange, red and mahogany plus a few surprises.

Tropaeolum 'Purple Emperor' is an exciting brand new palette of nasturtium, with a vintage colouration that is quite unique to nasturtiums. The buds initially open a dusky, antique burgundy and fade in the most beautiful way to a vintage lavender-rose.

Tropaeolum 'Salmon Baby' is a very striking and attractive nasturtium that produces an abundance of semi-double salmon-pink flowers which contrast beautifully against the dark foliage. Extremely easy to cultivate, this neat and compact variety has edible flowers and is an excellent companion plant.

Glowing cherry-coral blooms give this variety a warm, tropical quality, and the versatile colour mixes well with so many things. Nasturtium 'Jewel Cherry Rose' has a more mounding growth habit than other trailing nasturtiums, but stem length is sufficient for arranging, and it won’t overtake the garden.

In multiple hues of apricot, the petals of Tropaeolum ‘Tip Top Apricot’ have a darker veining with a deeply shaded throat. This award winning, premium series produce 45 to 50cm mounded plants that are extremely floriferous and have a long flowering season.