January

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.

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.

Awarded a Fleuroselect Medal for striking colour, plant habit, and flowering performance, Penstemon barbatus 'Twizzle Blue' is a first year flowering perennial that will add height and high-impact colour to the border, giving superb flowering performance from mid to late summer.

Penstemon barbatus 'Twizzle Coral' adds a graceful twist to the garden. A first year flowering perennial, that is hardy and vigorous, it boasts twice the length of flowering stems, giving longer, more elegant wands for the vase while preserving the natural elegance of Penstemon barbatus.

A winner of both an AAS and Fleuroselect Awards, Penstemon ‘Twizzle Purple' is a first year flowering perennial that boasts twice the length of flowering stem. Strong, trouble-free plants produce trumpet shaped magenta-violet blooms that flutter all along tall, slender stems.

Persicaria orientalis ‘Cerise Pearls’ is a new, modern-day variety that grows to a more manageable height of 100 to 140cm . Tall enough to give the same airy effect, yet so much easier to place in the garden. From August to October the whole plant is spectacularly draped with long, dangling, velour-like cerise tassels.

Silvery white petals are dressed in tints of blush pink that darken with age, against a darker pink eye. The blooms carry a fresh fragrance reminiscent of lilacs and make delightful cut flowers. Uniform with outstanding weather tolerance they will flower right through the summer until October. Leave the colour in your borders or cut regularly through summer for wonderful vase displays.

Clusters of blooms in a range of fashionable new colours: coffee, caramel, raspberry and cream, many with dark centres, the colours combine to create an antique appearance. Phlox 'Cherry Caramel' are uniform and have outstanding weather tolerance and will flower right through the summer until October. Leave the colour in your borders or cut regularly through summer for wonderful vase displays.

'Sugar Stars' is a fabulous new annual Phlox variety that blooms with a confection of purple-blue and white clustered blooms. One of the most useful of annuals they flower from mid July right through to October. For spectacular display, romantic excess and sweet fragrance, they are without peer.

Phlox is one of the most useful of annuals, they are extremely rewarding garden subjects and lack real competition in the late summer garden. Uniform, with outstanding weather tolerance they will flower from mid July right through the summer until October. Perfect for wedding work and bouquets, Grandiflora 'Alba' provides pure white flowers combined with a delicious scent.

Phlox drummondii grandiflora 'Isabellina' is an annual flowering phlox that is very easy to grow. Fast to flower it produces abundant blooms with a light melon fragrance. The clusters of creamy, linen-yellow flowers are the colour of condensed milk. A must-have for wedding work, this delicious variety is a great addition to the garden border and bouquets.

Potentilla 'Helen Jane' is a beautiful new semi-dwarf cultivar that displays gorgeous crimson-eyed, bright pink flowers, with petals that are attractively crinkled just like crepe paper. Flowering over a long period, new buds open repeatedly in a long succession, from late June to September.

Venerating a former plant curator at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, Scotland, 'Ron McBeath' is a beautiful new semi-dwarf cultivar. This diminutive potentilla repeat-flowers for months, sending up wands of rosy carmine flowers even in shade. It outlasts other potentillas by far.

Delicate in appearance and yet very cold hardy, Sedum acre is beautiful from the first stirrings of early spring to the twilight of autumn. Hardy and very easy to grow. Started early it will form a nice dense ground cover the very first season. If the weather is favourable it will flower within six months.

Sedum album is one of the most popular forms of sedum, known for its dense foliage as it changes colour throughout the seasons. The leaves emerge a coral-salmon in spring, change to bright green in summer and then to reddish bronze with the arrival of cooler temperatures. In summer the plants explode in masses of tiny, white star-shaped flowers.

Sedum forsterianum ‘Silver Stone’ is one of the more unusual textured species, with whorls of silver-green foliage. In late summer bright yellow star shaped flowers appear. This low-growing succulent plant grows to a height of 15 to 20cm, extremely hardy it can cope with temperatures down to minus 34°C.

If you’re looking for a beautiful plant that thrives with virtual neglect, Sedum reflexum just might fit the bill. The small bushes spread over the ground and the foliage resembles mini spruce branches. They are at their loveliest spilling over edges of walls and rocks to create the illusion of a living waterfall.

Sedum spurium coccineum is the most robust sedum, with deep crimson blooms and bronze-green leaves. Low maintenance, durable and interesting, they enhance the appearance of green roofs, rockeries and containers. In July, dense clusters of showy crimson blooms smother the evergreen plants.

Sedum spurium 'Voodoo' is a stunning little perennial groundcover for hot, sunny locations. The intense dark mahogany foliage that provides a stunning contrast to the almost neon, luminous rosy-red flowers which appear June through August.