Desirable Plants
Quality Plants by Mail Order
from Sarah & Julian Sutton of
Pentamar, Crosspark, Totnes, Devon.
Acanthus - Athyrium
Plant names highlighted in green have images attached, click to view.
Acanthus dioscoridis perringii £4
A compact beauty, around 50cm tall in flower. Dark green spiny leaves; pink flowers. Once well established, it forms a tight, dense clump and flowers freely: we have it at eye level on top of a steep bank. Definitely for full sun, but thrives on heavy ground.
Acanthus sennii £5.50
Very different. In our climate, this makes beautiful clumps of stiff, spiny leaves, more like a greyish herbaceous holly than any other Acanthus, and reaching a bit less than 1m. In very sheltered gardens, such as the Chelsea Physic, it’s taller and you get the dark red flowers. But it cuts the mustard purely as a foliage plant. Hardier than sometimes thought.
Achillea ‘Schwellenburg’ £4
Grey leaves in a dense clump 15cm or so tall, flower heads bright yellow and solid, really hard, like a chunk of cauliflower on a 30cm stem, definitely for sunny, dry places.
Acis autumnalis AGM £4
A rampant little bulb we’d never be without. Ultra fine leaves, with nodding ivory bells on 10cm stems over a long season in summer and early autumn. For rock garden, sink etc. If the name Acis is unfamiliar, these are the former Leucojum species with fine leaves and small bell-like flowers, without green tips.
Acis nicaeensis AGM £3.50
Pure opaque white bells, 1-3 per 10cm stem, in April. Very easy in a little pot and perfectly do-able in a trough or rock garden.
Acis trichophylla f. purpurascens £3.50
Soft pink bells, several per short stem, in spring. Grow like the others, but best on acidic soil.
Aconitum ‘Blue Opal’ £5
Large blue flowers, stiff dark stems, late August to September. 1.5m tall. Very fine.
Aconitum japonicum ssp. napiforme BSWJ943 £4.50
Late flowering, and dark blue, often with the good autumn foliage colours. 60cm.
Aconitum nagarum KR 7589 £4.50
Rather short and stout, almost fleshy and consequently a bit brittle. Rather big, rather dark flowers. Rather good and now named, too!
Actaea asiatica £4
Attractive, finely divided foliage like the rest of these easy woodlanders. It’s the glossy black (and toxic) berries that set it apart.
Actaea (Cimicifuga) simplex Atropurpurea group £5
Deep purple, almost black, divided leaves perfectly offsetting 1.5m spikes of fragrant white flowers in late summer. Colours best in full sun if you can keep it moist, otherwise part shade. Divisions of our fine dark clone.
Actaea simplex ‘Brunette’ £5
Our stock of the old Bloom’s cultivar has never been through tissue culture, unlike most of what you find nowadays. I value it because in sun it is brown-purple, rather than black-purple.
Actaea simplex variegated £10
Green leaves irregularly splashed white, with white flowers. Does not seem to revert. A plant brought to the West from Japanese cultivation by Dan Hinkley. Very hard to obtain.
Adiantum aleuticum ‘Japonicum’ £5
The Japanese Maidenhair has pink-flushed young growth and black stipes. Superbly delicate, for a sheltered place in shade.
Adoxa moschatellina £3.50
Town Hall Clock is an unmistakeable native woodlander with its flowers arranged as five faces of a cube. Tiny and pale green in all its parts, it’s also a dense and lusty spreader. Dormant from summer to early spring, and favouring moister woodsy conditions, you find it either endearing or utterly uninteresting.
Agapanthus
The African lilies are sun-lovers, which flower freely when left to bulk up undisturbed. Most of these should be hardy in the open ground, except in cold parts of the UK. All look good in large pots, perhaps given protection in severe weather. The evergreen praecox forms are hardy in a sunny position in southern England, and can flower well outside, but a little winter protection helps them look their best.
Agapanthus ‘Buckingham Palace’ £6
A tall Lewis Palmer hybrid, to 1.5m or more. Globular flower heads of deepish blue. Scarce and slow to propagate.
Agapanthus ‘Phantom’ £10
Very large heads of white flowers stained with a clear light blue towards the edges. Tall (1.5m), stout, hardy and very slow to propagate. Fabulous.
Agapanthus praecox ‘Flore Pleno’ £7
Extraordinary and large deep blue double flowers. Evergreen.
Agapanthus ‘Sandringham’ £5
Short, blue and reliable, flowering from slender shoots. Deciduous.
Agapanthus ‘Windsor Grey’ £8
Big round heads of delicate grey-white flowers, with a faint hint of lilac, on stems to 1.2m or so. Deciduous and very hardy. Beautiful, uncommon, and in great demand.
Ageratina altissima (Eupatorium rugosum) ‘Chocolate’ AGM £5
Copious brown-purple foliage makes a lovely effect in the sunny border. Harmless white flowers. Hardy, winter dormant.
Ajuga incisa 'Bikun' £4
Sharply white-variegated toothed leaves and small heads of dark blue flowers make this quite unlike your typical Ajuga. Japanese, and not for hot sun where the white bits will discolour.
Albuca humilis £3.50
One of the smallest of these interesting South African bulbs, with upfacing flowers, white with yellow stamens, to 15cm. Sun and good drainage. All the species we list this year are winter dormant.
Albuca nelsonii £5
A monster among albucas, large bulbs producing flowering stems to 1.5m or more, the tepals being white with a reddish vein. Remarkably hardy! Thanks to Grace Officer who gave us the spare bulbs she’d kept inside over the cold winter of 2009-10 – yet it survived untouched in her Surrey garden.
Albuca shawii £3.50
Many, relatively small flowers which hang nicely from an upright 30cm inflorescence. They are clear yellow with a fruity fragrance. Very nice indeed.
Albuca sp. G&L 13 £5
To 40cm tall with big large white upward facing flowers, lined green on the back. Much like a seriously enlarged A. humilis.
x Alcalthaea ‘Parkrondell’ £5
Pink semidouble perennial hollyhock which doesn’t get rust, a deeper colour than ‘Parkfrieden’. To 1.5m. A very satisfactory garden plant.
Allium beesianum £3.50
The classic sky blue allium. Heads of drooping flowers on 20cm stems at the end of the summer. Rock garden or similar. Long flowering, lovely and usually replaced by something else in the nursery trade.
Allium callimischon ssp. haemostictum £3.50
A dinky summer dormant Cretan with an odd phenology: the flower stem grows with the leaves in spring, seems to wither with them in the height of summer (don’t tidy them away), only for the flowers to open in autumn on the leafless plants. The flowers are white, spotted and veined dark red, and are one of the subtle joys of autumn. Pot or sunny raised bed, etc.
Allium cernuum £4
Nodding heads of pink flowers over blue green foliage, in early summer, on 30-40cm stems.
Allium insubricum £4
Nodding clusters of purple flowers, only 10-15cm high, in early summer again. Extremely pretty.
Allium olympicum of gardens £3.50
A tiny, thin leaved species (perhaps having something to do with stamineum) with plenty of pretty pink flower heads in summer. For pot or rock garden with sun and good drainage, but tolerant of winter wet and high rainfall. Lovely, and rarely seen.
Allium paradoxum var. normale £4
The Snowdrop Allium. Nodding, pure white fls look really big on 10cm stems in spring. Broad, bright green leaves. Forms tight clumps, ideal in a sink. Stunning and safe, unlike the dreaded var. paradoxum on both counts.
Allium schoenoprasum ‘Black Isle Blush’ £4
Particularly attractive chives. The flower heads start a rather ordinary light mauve and you wonder what the fuss is about. Then a very distinct pink blush appears in the centre. From far in the North…
Allium schoenoprasum ‘Silver Chimes’ £3
A miniature, with flowers a very attractive silvery white.
Allium senescens £4
Densely clumping, with upright, slightly twisted leaves from bulbs attached to rhizomes. Lilac pink flowers in June in hemispherical heads, on 30cm stems. Sun.
Allium thunbergii ‘Ozawa’ £4
A tiny, easy, gently clumping species with tight little clusters of bright pink-purple flowers, with long protruding stamens, among ultrafine dark green leaves. At home in the rock garden, a safe little front-of-border corner, or on the AGS showbench for that matter. One of the plants that helps make September my happiest month.
Allium thunbergii 'Album' £4
Just the same, but with clean white flowers. Happy memories of Ingwersens – we had this from them in their final week. Most uncommon.
Allium victorialis 'Cantabria' AMH7827 £4.50
Slow growing, densely clumping species with 2 or 3 bold, upwardly inclined leaves per bulb. Dense round lollipop heads of a strange silvery pale yellow, on stiff stems. Peculiarly attractive, even before you learn that it was the original anti-vampire garlic. This clonally propagated western form is not that different to anonymous ones we’ve sold previously, but still very nice. See the fantastic habitat photo in the AGS Bulletin for June 2011.
x Amarcrinum memoria-corsii ‘Howardii’ £6
Big long-necked bulbs produce umbels of large, clear pink flowers which are so cheering in an unheated conservatory in autumn. Grow it either as a winter grower with protection, and a dry summer, or as a borderline hardy summer grower. Two harsh winters have trained ours onto the latter cycle, and they’re thriving on it.
Amaryllis belladonna white flowered £7
Just what it says, but the real thing for once, not X Amarygia parkeri ‘Alba’ which usually passes for it in the trade. Smaller bulbs than the latter and much more reliably flowering for us. A special thing – thanks to Kevin Hughes.
Amorphophallus konjac £5
Reputedly the hardiest of these big, arisaema-like aroids. Spathe purple-brown. Leaves lobed in a wonderfully complex way, and recall a big shuttlecock. Dark petiole, blotched cream.
Anemonella thalictroides large single white flower £4
You know the delicate woodland species – this is simply a form with rather impressive flowers.
Angelica gigas £4
Classic biennial monolithic umbellifer, with dark purple heads on dark, dark stems. Thanks to Matt Bishop for seed from the Garden House, where a good clump in evening light rekindled our enthusism for the species. Easy from saved seed.
Angelica sylvestris ‘Vicar’s Mead’ £4.50
An umbellifer with dark brown-purple foliage and pink flowers in summer. Not for dry soil. Sometimes dies after flowering, so save seed.
Anthericum liliago ‘Major’ AGM £4
Rather substantial spikes of white flowers, relatively early on a short plant make this for me the finest Anthericum.
Anthericum ramosum £4
Airy branched spikes of starry white flowers in early summer.
Aquilegia 'Fruit and Nut Chocolate' £4
Thanks to Bob Brown for a peculiarly interesting and gardenworthy hybrid. He tells me the parents were viridiflora and something obscure which came to him as brevistyla but wasn’t, so it’s far and away from the usual kinds. Still with me? The greeny-browny flower colour comes from viridiflora, but it’s a much bigger plant and flowers ridiculously early in spring. Oddly, comes absolutely true from seed.
Aquilegia schockleyi £4
A Californian miniature, with long narrow nodding flowers of scarlet and yellow. 20cm. Very pretty, and seems not to outbreed in cultivation.
Aralia cordata BSWJ 5511 £5
With herbaceous aralias, you know you’re going to get fantastically bold deciduous foliage, little round heads of ivylike flowers followed by berries, and SIZE. This Japanese collection is no exception. The bipinnate leaves have big rounded leaflets, the flowers are white, followed by black fruit, and the size – well, not as big as most, under 2m. For rich, not over-dry soil.
Arisaema - See Our Specialties
Armeria ‘Brutus’ £5.50
Our own monster-thrift, a selected hybrid of A. pseudarmeria, with a long succession of very large white heads on 50cm stems, surrounded in bud by smart bracts, fragrant in a carnation/garlic sort of a way, forming a very stout taprooted clump with broad leaves, so a devil to divide. Propagated very slowly by division and basal cuttings. For a sunny, well drained place. We’re excessively proud of this plant, a single clone, and are horrified to see seed appearing as ‘Brutus’ in seed exchanges where doubtless over a few generations it will turn into some depauperate runt, full of genes from boring old maritima. Brian at Avondale, bless him, has taken us seriously and propagates it by basal cuttings. If you see any other nursery offering it, ask if it’s from seed and give them what for if it is. Rant, rant, grumble, gripe.
Artemisia lactiflora ‘Jim Russell’ £5
We think this more elegant than the well known Guizho group. The foliage isn’t quite as dark, but the flowers are properly white, not a dirty off white, and the habit is rather more arching. Still a sound 1.5m clumper.
Arum creticum 'Marmaris White' £7
Unlike the rich yellow spathe and spadix of the familiar Cretan forms, plants from adjacent areas of Turkey have a white spathe contrasting with the yellow spadix. The stem is really dark. Very impressive and not difficult to grow.
Arum creticum x italicum? £4
An odd little thing has been passed around under this name. I’m not sure I believe it, yet it’s not like anything else. We can’t make it flower. Perhaps you’d like to try?
Arum italicum 'Chameleon' £4.50
A gentle, comely plant in leaf through the winter and spring. The large central part of the leaf is a misty blend of small areas of dark, pale and silvery grey greens. Easy in light shade.
Arum italicum 'Tiny' £4
Of the ‘Marmoratum’ persuasion, with white-veined leaves, but smaller. Not exactly tiny, though…
Arum italicum 'White Winter' £4.50
Very very bold creamy white veins. See Graham Rice’s piece on the many forms of A. italicum in The Plantsman, December 2010.
Aruncus ‘Johannifest’ £4.50
Interesting German hybrid. Fuzzy spikes of white flowers age pinkish; leaves finely divided. 60cm.
Asparagus pseudoscaber 'Spitzenschleier' £4.50
A German asparagus grown for ornament rather than food; 1m tall and useful for flower arrangers.
Aster
We persist in the folly of listing a few unfashionable favourites from our garden in autumn. If we still have to mention the m-word, let’s just say that we’ve never seen mildew on any of these, although if you treated them horribly enough for long enough you might be able to prove a point...
Aster ‘Fellowship’ £5
A big shaggy double lilac-pink michaelmas daisy. Julian’s Mum uses it as a very effective cut flower. 1.2m.
Aster 'Glow in the Dark' £5
Lilac pink daisies shine out from among dark tinted leaves and stems. Introduced by Brian ‘Avondale’ Ellis who says it’s ‘Calliope’ x ‘Fellowship’. It has the leaf colour of the former without the daunting height, being rather under1m tall. Different and good.
Aster ‘Kylie’ AGM £5
Loads of very small pale pink flowers on a bushy 1.2m plant. Lasts well when cut. A unique novae-angliae x ericoides hybrid which greatly impressed us as a brand-new cultivar in the erstwhile Wraxall National Collection, about 1990.
Aster ‘Little Carlow’ AGM £5
Heaps of medium sized really blue flowers in September, all over a bushy plant. Bred in Devizes. ‘Creating large clumps of colour year in year out [it] is a first-class, ‘no-fuss’ hybrid’ writes Paul Picton, who really should know. 1.2m.
Aster ‘Ochtendgloren’ AGM £5
Another floriferous hybrid, with slightly smaller pink flowers. Good bushy habit and strong constitution. 1.2m.
Aster ‘Pixie Dark Eye’ £4.50
Lots of medium sized rich purple, yellow eyed flowers on a compact (60cm for us) plant. Quite out of the ordinary.
Aster ‘Sunhelene’ £5
A recent one, with semidouble soft blue flowers at the top of stout 1m stems. Somehow the buds are conspicuous and attractive. ‘‘Marie Ballard’ without the mildew’, as Bob Brown perceptively puts it.
Astrantia
The Masterworts are classic perennials for heavy ground, thriving in sun or part shade. All have dense umbels of tiny flowers, surrounded by a conspicuous collar of bracts and looking for all the world like a large, single flower. All reach around 60cm. Divisions.
Astrantia ‘Buckland’ £4
Very attractive hybrid, with large pink and green flower heads - like all Masterworts, great on heavy ground.
Astrantia major Gill Richardson group £4.50
Dark red flowers on dark red stems. Divisions of a good form (I admit we’ve seen even better) in this sadly varied group, the result of seed raising by a nursery we shall not name here.
Astrantia major involucrata ‘Snape Cottage’ £5
Divisions from Angela Whinfield’s ‘super-shaggy’, which stopped me in my tracks when in flower in Ruth Boundy’s Somerset garden. Like all these large bracted forms, it needs to settle down in good soil in order to look special. Thanks to the ever-generous Ruth and Angela.
Astrantia major ‘Ruby Wedding’ £4
A good red-flowered form, by division.
Athyrium ‘Branford Beauty’ £5
Beautiful hybrid Lady Fern, vigorous and with a grey cast to the leaf. Deciduous.
Athyrium filix-femina var. angustum ‘Lady in Red’ £5
Another good, distinctive Lady Fern, light green fronds with a red rachis (the stalk/midrib bit...).
Athyrium filix-femina ‘Minutissimum’ £4
Adorable little Lady Fern, less than 20cm tall, but perfectly formed, and making a dense, spreading clump. Ignore Martin Rickard’s disparaging comments - these are not dodgy Dutch imports which end up tall but divisions of the plant we’ve cherished throughout our gardening career, originally from Washfield. The epitome of mini-ferniness.
Athyrium filix-femina ‘Victoriae’ £7
One of the classic rarities, we offer divisions of established tissue-cultured plants, close to the ultra-slowly splitting original (which was found by someone named Cosh - just thought I’d share that with you). Avoding mutant fern technicalities, the frond is long, narrow and almost parallel sided, the divisions are narrow and bracken-like, branching into little fingers at the tips, as does the tip of the frond. The divisions are paired on each side, making a cross. Undoubtedly weird and unnatural, but holds a peculiar attraction.
Athyrium ‘Ghost’ £6
On the same lines as ‘Branford Beauty’, but the metallic grey is more pronounced - stunning.
Athyrium niponicum var. pictum AGM £4
Classic easy silvery-grey leafed fern, with a mauve tint around the veins. Deciduous. 30cm.
Athyrium otophorum var. okanum £5.50
The dark red rachis and creamy yellow tint to the pinnae give a unique look. Deciduous, but retaining its colour long into autumn. For reasonably moist shade.
For all those interested in South African plants we've also put all our listings of South African
bulbs and plants onto one website we've called South African Bulbs at Desirable Plants.
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