Desirable Plants

Sarah & Julian Sutton

Pentamar, Crosspark, Totnes, Devon. TQ9 5BQ

sutton.totnes@lineone.net

www.desirableplants.com

Catalogue Autumn 2009 - Spring 2010

Desirable Plants

We specialize in herbaceous perennials, the choice, the interesting and the offbeat. Our bold intention is to list a modest range of immodestly interesting plants from our large and hard won collection. We sell plants by mail order to the UK and at a select group of plant sales across southern England. Almost everything offered here is propagated on site, by the two of us.

Ordering

Place your orders by post or email using the order form. Prices reflect size as well as scarcity and ease of propagation. Most pot-grown plants are in 1 litre or 10cm pots, some have to be larger. We used to show a price range, but this confused lots of people. We now list only one price, but will sometimes charge you less according to plant size, at our discretion. Note that if something looks surprisingly cheaper than something comparable, its probably because we expect to sell smaller plants. Minimum order £15 plus carriage. We can only accept orders accompanied by a cheque! Please write a limit cheque, that is leave the amount blank, work out the cost of your plants plus carriage, then cross the cheque 'Not to exceed £36.50', or whatever. We can't make it out for more than that, but can make it out for less if something's out of stock, cheaper prices apply, or if carriage is less than expected. We will not cash the cheque until just before we send the plants. We cannot accept cards. Please specify substitutes if they'd be acceptable - otherwise we never substitute.

We can deliver prepaid orders to any of the plant sales we attend, carriage free, but you must give us plenty of notice. The days before a plant sale are even more manic here than usual.

We send out from October to early May, avoiding cold periods in winter and unseasonable spring heat. We can't accept spring orders after the end of April. Order as early as you can. Some items sell out really soon. First come first served, but we reserve the right to ration scarce items to one per customer if necessary.

Carriage

Plants are normally sent in closed boxes, by carrier on a 48 hour cycle, but in some areas we may deliver in open boxes with our own van. We charge £9.50 for 1-12 plants, plus an extra 50p per plant thereafter, to mainland England, Wales and the lowlands of Scotland. To the rest of the UK, including all offshore islands, we use Royal Mail: allow as much as the cost of your plants in your 'not to exceed' cheque, but we'll try to keep the cost down. Let us know if you expect to be on holiday so we can avoid these dates. If you include an e-mail address we will advise you on dispatch. Please also note any special instructions to the carrier (e.g. if out please leave in back porch - no signature needed).

On arrival

Unpack immediately. Plant or pot up divisions straight away (but see notes in catalogue on Arisaema, etc). Consider whether to plant pot-grown specimens or to leave them potted until spring. Only you have the experience to judge under your conditions. Please tell us promptly if a plant is in bad condition; we can only consider a replacement or refund if plants arrive dead or ungrowable. Bear dormancy in mind before panicking!

Names, hardiness

We are serious plantspeople who try very hard to name our plants correctly. However, we can make no guarantee of their accuracy, especially at this esoteric end of horticulture where there is sometimes genuine uncertainty and disagreement about naming. We use the Plant Finder as a guide to up-to-date nomenclature, unless we disagree with their view. Similarly, we can only give pointers about hardiness and suitable conditions, based on experience and the literature. But if you have tracked us down, you're likely to be a serious gardener / plantsperson who understands this.

Sorry, no visitors except to collect orders

We are unable to sell plants to calling customers; however, we can usually arrange for you to collect an order from our house. Our nursery is not at this, our home address. So, down to business…
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 , it survived the vicious 08-9 winter on the edge of Dartmoor at the Garden House (what a fine garden, and what plantsmanship!)

Achillea ptarmica 'The Pearl' AGM £4.50

Clean white, buttony double heads, propagated by division from the Wisley plant which, uniquely in the trials, matched the original description. Height 60cm, spreading, but sanely.

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.

Aconitum 'Blue Opal' £5

Large, pale blue flowers, stout purple stems, late August to September. 1m tall. Very fine.

Aconitum japonicum ssp. napiforme BSWJ943 £4.50

Late flowering, and dark blue, often with the good autumn foliage colours. 60cm.

Aconitum sp. KR 7589 £4.50

Rather short and stout, almost fleshy and consequently a bit brittle. Rather big, rather dark flowers. Rather good...

Actaea heracleifolia DJHC970139 £5

A Korean species, with branched bottle-brush inflorescences reaching 1.5m. Substantial toothed, triternate leaves. Rare.

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

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 ardernei hybrid £5

Large, rather airy heads of white flowers; buds flushed lilac. 80cm or so.

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 inapertus pendulus £6

Mid blue, not the fabled indigo form, but still nice. Deciduous.

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 '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 pretty hardy. Beautiful, uncommon, and in great demand.

Ageratina altissima 'Chocolate' AGM £5

Copious brown-purple foliage makes a lovely effect in the sunny border. Harmless white flowers. Hardy, winter dormant. Previously known as Eupatorium rugosum.

Albuca humilis from Lesotho £3.50

Small Drakensberg bulb, large upfacing flowers white, striped green, 15cm. Summer growing.

Albuca sp. G&L 13 £4

To 40cm tall with big large white upward facing flowers, lined green on the back.

Albuca sp. G&L 171 £4

Rather similar, but with narrow glaucous leaves. and a yellowy tinge to the flowers.

X Alcalthaea 'Parkallee' £5

Creamy yellow semidouble perennial hollyhock which doesn't get rust. To 1.5m. A very satisfactory garden plant.

Alchemilla ellenbeckii £4

A far creeping, densely mat forming plant with tiny grey green leaves and red stems. The flowers are insignificant. From the mountains of East Africa, it is not totally hardy everywhere, but has survived outside here for nearly 15 years, retreating in colder winters and zooming back out in the summer. We use it over the corner of a sunny but not dry wall as a positively attractive ground cover.

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 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. Thanks to the Lydford Hatchetts.

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 'Silver Chimes' £3

A small chives - but with flowers a very attractive silvery white.

Allium thunbergii 'Ozawa' £3.50

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.

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.

Anemone

Those with the wood anemone habit are best divided in autumn, so we will send out pieces of recently potted rhizome, best left potted until in growth in spring.

Anemone appenina double flowered £4.50

Rarely seen, this form of a species mid-way in growth form between nemorosa and blanda, has fully double flowers of an indescribable, almost iridescent pale lilac. Few.

Anemone flaccida £3.50

A rhizomatous plant for woodland conditions. The leaves are rather thick, and elegantly marbled. The flowers are creamy white, of a good size, in early spring. 15cm.

Anemone hupehensis 'Bodnant Burgundy' £5

Middling height Japanese anemone with plenty of deep reddish pink sepals. To 1m.

Anemone x lipsiensis £3.25

Essentially a smaller, more delicate version of A. nemorosa, with lovely pale yellow flowers. Well worth finding it the humusy soil it needs.

Anemone nemorosa varieties

The wood anemones need little introduction as tough, gently spreading woodlanders, never failing to charm, whether in leaf or flower.

Anemone nemorosa 'Bill Baker's Pink' £3.50 is a good pink, starting pale and darkening.

Anemone nemorosa ‘Buckland’ £3.25 - a decent blue

Anemone nemorosa 'Royal Blue' £3.25 - another decent blue!

Anemone nemorosa 'Blue Eyes' £3.25 is a shaggy semi-double, white with a blue flush around the centre of the fully double flower.

Anemone nemorosa 'Flore Pleno' £3.25 is a pure white double - increasingly I doubt whether the differences between this and 'Vestal', which people so freely quote, are valid.

Anemone nemorosa 'Lady Doneraile' £3.50 - a muscular plant which has really big white flowers standing head and shoulders above the leaves (it may be the same as Leeds' Variety and Wilks' Giant; nobody knows wood anemones well enough).

Anemone obtusiloba 'Sulphurea' £3.50

Small softly hairy rosettes sending up lemon yellow flowers with a luminous hint of highlighter pen, in spring but often continuing well into summer. 10cm. Humusy soil, light shade.

Anemone ranunculoides ssp. wockeana £3.25

Tiny, floriferous, buttercup yellow wood anemone relative: 5cm.

Anemone sp. nov.? £4

Chinese, and rhizomatous. White, purple backed flowers, young leaves purple. Height 40cm. Moist, sun.

Anemonella thalictroides 'Betty Blake' £6

I'm a bit suspicious of both double and green anemonellas. Too many are too miffy. Betty is both double and green, yet is one of the toughest, fastest bulking varieties we know (but still small and woodsy of course). The flowers are neat full rosettes in pale lime green.

Anemopsis californica £4

A really different plant for the bog garden. Striking white bracts surround a tight inflorescence of little white flowers, making a big false flower. Rosettes of thick smooth leaves. From the American South West, and thriving in very hot conditions - we saw it looking splendid in a Tucson garden - but seems hardy for us. Keep it wet!

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 (again), where a good clump in evening light last summer (photo on our website) 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 ramosum £4

Airy branched spikes of starry white flowers in early summer.

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.

Arisaema

The Cobra Lilies are dormant in winter, going up and flowering quickly once the tubers start growing. Everything about them is lovely, the spooky mottled emerging shoots, bold leaves and exotic aroid flowers. As a rule, plenty of warmth and moisture, a relatively well drained soil away from direct sunlight will suit them (most of these are from warm temperate Northern India and the Himalayas, and serious cold is not to their liking). Our heavy wet soil is not to the liking of every species, so we grow many very successfully as pot subjects. Once they die down, we let the compost dry off, then lift the tubers in early autumn, storing them in brown paper bags in a cool but frost-free room, potting up again from the end of February here. In autumn, we supply recently lifted tubers in autumn. Store as above, planting next spring. All are propagated here in Devon.

Arisaema candidissimum £5

White/pink striped spathes. Trifoliate leaves. One of the best known and best as garden plants, even on clay. 40cm.

Arisaema ciliatum £4

Freely dividing, and very late into growth (June here) - hence late flowering. Flowers when small, 25cm tall, but said to reach over 1m ultimately. A good bet in the open garden.

Arisaema consanguineum AGM £5

Tall, once it gets established, up to 1m.

Arisaema exappendiculatum £5

A few spares of this one, rather new to us.

Arisaema flavum £4

Short and pretty, flowering when young. Small spathes, green and yellow. Known as a good doer in the garden.

Arisaema ringens £5

Very distinctive flowers; the large green/white striped spathe is folded over at the top, almost closing the entrance. An excellent plant. 50cm.

Aristea ecklonii £4

Branched stems of piercing blue flowers make this one of the best of these African irids. Evergreen, and really quite hardy. 60cm.

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.

Arthropodium cirratum 'Matapouri Bay' £5

Big evergrey-green monocot. Tall branched panicles of nodding white flowers in summer. Definitely for the frost free conservatory.

Aruncus 'Johannifest' £4.50

Interesting German hybrid. Fuzzy spikes of white flowers age pinkish; leaves finely divided. 60cm.

Aruncus 'Perlhuhn' £4.50

A little taller than 'Johannifest', with an indefinably different garden presence, and red tints in the foliage. The name means guinea fowl. I can't imagine why.

Asarum caudatum £4.50

Sinister purple flowers among dark green leaves; usefully spreading habit. A toughie for shade.

Asarum splendens £4

Larger leaves, marked silver. Flowers large enough to be noticeable without grovelling, with cream as well as brown in them. Splendid indeed. Moist-but-well-drained, and protect from slugs.

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' £4.50

A big shaggy double lilac-pink michaelmas daisy. Julian's Mum uses it as a very effective cut flower. 1.2m.

Aster 'Kylie' AGM £4.50

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. The name: well, if you find singing soap stars a bit offputting, I'm told that it's also a sort of incontinence pad. So that's all right.

Aster 'Little Carlow' AGM £4.50

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 £4.50

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' £4.50

A new 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 involucrata 'Shaggy' £4.50

Plants in pots never look their best. Once really established in fertile soil with reasonable moisture all year, the green-white bracts are really long, making a spectacular large false flower. These are divisions from Sarah's Mum's excellent plant.

Astrantia major 'Starburst' £4

Small but rather numerous branching red heads.

Astrantia maxima £4

Good pink flowers, three-lobed leaves. 60cm.

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. Undoubtedly weird and unnatural, but holds a peculiar attraction. Very decent sized plants for this price!

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.

Babiana angustifolia £4

Hairy leaved, winter growing corm from the Western Cape, with strong purple flowers on 25cm stems in spring. We're definitely in 'pets in pots' territory here. Mind you, the generic name comes from the Afrikaans babiaantje, so it's the Little Baboon Flower. Some pet.

Beesia calthifolia DJHC 98447 £4.50

Spreading clumps of cordate leaves, bronzy green as they emerge and becoming marbled as they age. Lots of little white flowers on 30cm stems in summer, rather like the related Actaea, but it's the foliage that makes it so special. Effective either in the woodland garden or a pot.

Begonia boliviensis £4.50

Something to grow in a pot by the house or, as we do, in the conservatory. It arches out in all directions, with elegant bright orange flowers in summer. Store the tubers frost free in winter. Quite a novelty, and impossible to miss.

Begonia 'Candy Floss' BWJ 7858 £4.50

Lots of pink flowers over bold hairy leaves. 30cm or so. Strongly deciduous and apparently quite hardy. For humusy soil in shade.

Bellevalia dubia £4

Diminutive muscari-relative. Light blue buds open milk chocolate with a cream edge. Spring.

Bergenia 'Beethoven' £5

Densely packed white flowers with a fetching hint of pink.

Bergenia ciliata £5

Has hairy dinner plates for leaves; wonderful pale pink flowers in February. Pretty hardy, but hard frosts can mash the flowers, so choose a sheltered site.

Bergenia ciliata 'Wilton' £6

It's hairier, much hairier... One of those plants people ask for before they even know we have it.

Bergenia emeiensis £4.50

A little sweetie from Western China, white flowers from pink calyces and small leaves. Compact and under 30cm in height.

Bergenia 'Overture' £4

Intense magenta flowers on red stems. The upwardly inclined leaves are excellent for winter colour - as always, exposure to cold and light intensifies this.

Bergenia pacumbis CC3616 £4

Related to ciliata; very big leaves edged with hairs and pink flowers.

Bergenia 'Pink Dragonfly' £4

A dinky little variety, with pink flowers disproportionately large. Pretty good for winter colour, too.

Bergenia 'Rosi Klose' £4

Very compact and free flowering, bright pink to 30cm.

Bergenia tianquanensis £5

One of the least often seen Chinese species, this plant makes handsome rosettes of rather upstanding obovate leaves. We'll be honest, we've had it growing healthily for 5 years and it's never flowered.

Blechnum chilense £5

A very handsome large fern, evergreen with tough, glossy pinnate fronds. Bold and somewhat spreading, 1m or so in height. Hardy in southern and western areas, pretty good even in the Midlands, it seems, especially if mulched. Acidic or neutral soil.

Blechnum wattsii £6

A smaller (60cm) Australian counterpart of the previous fern, more definitely for shade, and much less grown so its hardiness is not well known - OK here.

Bletilla striata £4

An easy, large flowered, clump forming hardy orchid - what could be nicer? Bright green, pleated leaves and vivid pink flowers, dying back to tubers in winter. Recommended for humus rich partial shade, but can thrive in full sun or heavy soil.

Bletilla striata var. japonica f. gebina £4

And again, this time white flowered with a pink flush inside.

Bletilla Brigantes £4.50

Slightly more slender than its parent striata, this vigorously spreading hybrid has both pink and yellow in the flower.

Bomarea edulis £5

A herbaceous, climbing Alstroemeria.which can reach 2m or more in a season, with tubular dull red flowers, yellow and green inside, in late summer. Dies down to edible tubers tasting cucumberish.

Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' £4

In this fine form the main veins of the leaves are picked out in silver. This effect lasts all year. Blue flowers. Protected by Plant Breeders Rights, unfortunately.

Brunnera macrophylla 'Looking Glass' £4

It's Jack again, but as the leaves expand the silver covers the surface. PBR again.

Brunnera sibirica £5

A hardy rarity. The blue flowers are much like B. macrophylla. Different bold leaves and running habit.

Campanula persicifolia 'Cornish Mist' £4

This recent pale lavender blue variety has a hearty constitution. Flowers early summer. Good species for cutting.

Campanula persicifolia 'La Bonne Amie' £4

Semidouble white, not as tidy a flower as the old ones but it does grow...

Campanula 'Van-Houttei' £4

Very big, dark blue-purple flowers. A fine plant. 75cm or so.

Cardamine

We have small numbers of the following, mostly dormant until spring and best left in pots, watered, until well into growth. Woodlanders unless stated:

Cardamine diphylla 'Eco Cut Leaf' £4

White-veined leaves emerge early spring; ephemeral white flowers. Simply inferior to aff. diphylla below.

Cardamine quinquefolia £4

The Kew/Washfield flowering form of this fast spreader: lilac-pink.

Cardamine raphanifolia £4

Big, bold, pink flowered, a beaut for the bog garden in spring

Cardamine waldsteinii £4

Good sized white flowers, really nice low, thick textured leaves.

Cardamine aff. diphylla £4

Special! A vigorous plant with well marked leaves which comes into growth in the autumn, unlike 'Eco Cut Leaf' and much stronger growing than the latter. Insignificant white flowers in spring. Woodsy conditions. Thanks to Kevin Hughes.

Carex grayi £4.50

The flower spikes look like maces (the weapon not the spice) and look rather spectacular from early May through to the summer. A broad leaved hardy sedge for ordinary conditions. Everyone seems to want it when we take them to early May plant sales (then we run out).

Cenolophium denudatum £5

An excellent umbellifer, with finely divided foliage and white umbels in summer. Best of all, it thrives in dry shade. Variable in height, but can reach 1m.

Centaurea atropurpurea £5

A fine tall plant with excellent silver grey foliage when grown dry and lean. Wine red knobby flower heads. 150cm. Previously listed by us, and everyone else who grew it, as benoistii.

Centaurea bella £4

Silvery pinnate leaved clumper with decent sized lilac-pink flowers on 30cm stems. Sun, reasonable drainage.

Centaurea cheiranthifolia £5

Lovely large palest yellow cornflowers. Grey-green leaves. 40cm.

Centaurea fischeri £5

Rather similar, with pale pink flowers.

Centaurea kotschyana £4

Low growing, with rather shiny green leaves, and purple thimbly flower heads: yellow stamens contrast beautifully.

Centaure montana 'Carnea' £5

Light pinky-lilac variety of the common perennial cornflower. Tough and easy in sun.

florets more blue than violet, the centre purple-pink. Narow grey green leaves, gently running habit. Not quick, but worth the effort. Well drained soil in sun.

Centaurea montana 'Lady Flora Hastings' £5

As above, but nice spidery white flowers with contrasting dark stamens.

Centaurea montana 'Ochroleuca' £5

An interesting pale yellow flowered form, later flowering than most. I could beleive it is a hybrid with cheiranthifolia.

Centaurea montana 'Purpurea' £5

As above, with unambiguously purple flowers.

Centaurea uniflora £4

Solitary purple-pink flowers over glossy green prickly leaves. 40cm.

Centaurea thracica £5

Obscure but interesting perennial from the eastern Balkans. The bold leaves are distinctively lobed - I suppose lyrate is the word. Knobby yellow flower heads, 50cm. Sunny site. Taxonomically isolated, and at one time placed in Serratula.

Centaurea Totnes Fat Lemon' £5.50

Fat knobbly yellow flower heads on a rather stocky plant, about 50cm tall. Greyish green leaves. It's a selection from our controlled cross, atropurpurea x orientalis. While orientalis is a well known plant, we find it small flowered, unhappy in our wet climate, and a bit rangy. This does the same job much better, we feel.

Centaurea simplicicaulis £4

Finely pinnate leaves, clumping up nicely, with attractive purple pink flower heads on thin, wiry 30cm stems. For the rock garden or border front in sun.

Centaurea triumfettii 'Blue Dreams' £4.50

Thanks to Joe Sharman for this pretty plant from a seed collection on a Turkish roadside by him and Alan Leslie. Large flowers with ray Centaurea triumfettii 'Hoar Frost' £4.50

A sister seedling to 'Blue Dreams', more vigorously growing. Good sized white flowers with pink-purple tinted centres in May. Strongly summer-dormant. A great plant for a sunny, well drained place.

Centaurea triumfetii x montana £5

Blue montana-like flowers at the tops of unbranched stems to 75cm, with a more open, running habit than montana, but still tough in the garden. The result of one of Joe Sharman's experiments. Unlike anything else, and very attractive.

Chasmanthe bicolor £5

The hardiest Chasmanthe, but still an outdoor prospect only in very mild coastal gardens, in a place which dries out in summer. Exotic looking swept-back sunbird-pollinated orange flowers in winter on a crocosmia-looking plant. Unlike crocosmias, it grows in winter and goes dormant in summer.

Chloranthus fortunei £4.50

A whorl of four leaves, purple/brown tinted when young, on each 30cm stem, and little white

flowers in May. A hardy clumper for woodland conditions. Very peculiar, very attractive.

Chondropetalum tectorum £5

And now for something completely different, a restio. In Europe we have grasses, sedges and rushes; in southern Africa the family Restionaceae should be added to the list. This example makes a dense clump of whippy green stems to 1.2m, attractively brown scaled, with little brown rushy flower clusters at the top. Hardy in milder gardens on acidic soil, it should not get too dry. Two species have until recently been confused under this name. The larger one, more common in gardens, has now been renamed.

Chrysosplenium macrophyllum £4.50

The golden saxifrage that thinks it's a Bergenia. Round bristly leaves, new rosettes forming at the ends of obscene fat hairy stolons. Flowers quite large but uninteresting compared with the foliage. Mad ground cover for a woodsy bed.

Cirsium 'Mount Etna' £4

An odd little plant, only 60cm tall with narrow flower heads, white with projecting violet stamens.

Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum' £5

The classic crimson-purple flowered species for the border. 1.2m.

Convallaria majalis var. rosea £4

Lily of the Valley is one of those infuriating plants that likes some people/gardens and not others, for no discernible reason. This is the pink form...

Convallaria majalis 'Vic Pawlowski's Gold' £5

...and this has particularly good yellow stripes to the leaves; we've never seen a reversion.

Coptis japonica var. major £4.50

From the backwaters of the Ranunculaceae comes this small Northern genus for cool, humusy positions. Finely divided, but rather stiff, ternate leaves to 25cm, and tiny white flowers in autumn, as the leaves go down, with extraordinary whorls of seed pods with the new leaves in spring. Gently running. Very rarely seen.

Corydalis leucanthema DJHC 752 £4

A fibrous rooted species for shade. Rather substantial leaves, grey and somewhat marbled in silver. Pink-and-white flowers in spring. 15cm.

Corydalis 'Kingfisher' £4

Much more compact and less running than the next two, it is a really lovely sky blue in flower; cashmeriana x flexuosa.

Corydalis 'Spinners' £4

There are many flexuosa/elata hybrids around now. We still consider this and the next to be the finest. 'Spinners' is close to elata in appearance with scented indigo blue flowers, but bulks up more densely and generously, as with flexuosa.

Corydalis 'Tory MP' £4

This one is more obviously intermediate. It's tall (to 75cm), forming a vigorous, dense, spreading clump, with intense blue flowers and red tinted stems. It flowers for an unusually long time in late spring and summer, then may repeat in autumn after a summer recess. It grows well in full sun as well as partial shade. Just don't mention the duck house...

Crinum 'Ellen Bosanquet' £6

An old hybrid, with spreading leaves and little neck to the bulb. Flowers a warm colour at the red end of pink. Once large and deep, the massive bulbs are hardy.

Crinum moorei £6

Palest pink, well formed flowers on 1.5m stems. Perfectly hardy in the mildest gardens, such as Coleton Fishacre where it is one of the glories of late summer. Give it a warm, sheltered site or pot elsewhere.

Crinum x powellii AGM £6

Tough and hardy. Luxuriant foliage, and bright pink flowers to 1.2m in summer.

Crinum x powellii 'Album' AGM £6

Clean white flowers, of slightly better form. Divisions of our own stock which really does have white flowers, unlike some you find in the bulb trade.

Crocosmia It's hard to imagine British gardens without these summer stalwarts, yet they are essentially a garden phenomenon of the 20th Century. The 1898 edition of Robinson's cutting-edge 'The English Flower Garden' mentions only aurea, under a synonym.

Crocosmia 'Baby Barnaby' £5

Branched stems with orange flowers, blotched maroon. 60cm. Sarah says I must emphasize how very nice it is.

Crocosmia 'Debutante' £5

Peculiar, but attractive pinky orange. Quite early, but with staying power.

Crocosmia 'Dusky Maiden' £5

Browny orange, bronzed leaves, 50cm.

Crocosmia 'Fire Jumper' £5

Dan Hinkley's red/orange bicolor. Excellent, still rarely seen. Unusually many flowers per stem.

Crocosmia 'Gerbe d'Or' £5

Warm yellow with bronzed leaves.

Crocosmia 'Hellfire' £5

Rather large flowers are an impressive angry dark red, although there aren't many in each inflorescence.

Crocosmia 'Honey Angels' £5

Lots of small flowers, yellow with a slight tang of orange. 60cm. Silly name, sorry.

Crocosmia 'Mrs Geoffrey Howard' £5

Large tomato red flowers, quite tall.

Crocosmia masoniorum orange form £5

Open, orange, upward facing flowers with strongly protruding stamens, quite early. 60cm.

Crocosmia masoniorum 'Rowallane Yellow' £5

Rich yellow, upward facing flowers on arching stems; very fine. 60cm.

Crocosmia 'Okavango' £5

Large, brash peachy flowers over a long season. 75cm. PBR.

Crocosmia 'Paul's Best Yellow' £5

Very large, rich golden yellow flowers face outwards. Impressive.

Crocosmia Rayon d'Or' £5

Early season, bright orange-yellow, marked red at base, outward facing flower.

Crocosmia 'Saracen' £5

Over-ripe tomato red, with dark tinted leaves. Short - 50cm or so.

Crocosmia 'Sir Matthew Wilson' £5

Vigorous, with big red flowers.

Crocosmia 'Star of the East' £5

Huge, open, slightly inclined orange flowers.

Crocosmia 'Sultan' £5

Hot, rather burnt, red tones, bronzed leaves.

Crocosmia 'Ellenbank Firecrest' £5

Small-but-many flowered orange and red bicolor. Eyecatching. 60cm.

Crocosmia 'Zambesi' £5

Best of the African Rivers hybrids. Very tall and long flowering. Many large outfacing orange flowers. PBR

Cyclamen hederifolium seedlings from Ruby Strain £4

A good proportion are flowering deep red-pink. Autumn flowering.

Cymophyllus fraserianus £4.50

Small North American sedge whose flowers are an improbable pure white, against the dark foliage. 15cm. Probably needs acid soil. Slow.

Deinanthe bifida £4.50

Strange and lovely herbaceous Hydrangea relative. White, waxy, weirdly shaped flowers . The rough, pale green leaves have a characteristic broad notch at the apex. 50cm tall, humus rich soil in shade.

Dicentra macrantha £4.

The usual 'bleeding heart' flowers are fewer and larger than in any other species we know, and amber in colour. Very delicate foliage, bronzed and finely divided. A hardy, winter dormant plant for shade, but it needs protection from cold winds once in growth.

Dierama 'Coral Bells' £4 FROM SPRING 2010

Warm pink flowers in summer, from silvery bracts. 1m. Like all these, for a sunny place which doesn't dry out in the summer.

Dierama Blackbird seedlings £4.50

'Blackbird' was an old seed strain from the defunct Slieve Donard nursery in Northern Ireland, characterized by broad, tubby, dark purple flowers. Most of what's around nowadays is 'seedlings ex...', whether they tell you that or not. We do, and know that while most have these qualities, a few vary in the direction of the more usual pink garden hybrids. Typically lm+ in flower.

Dierama 'Guinevere' £4

A vigorous, pure white flowered garden hybrid with typical arching habit. Divisions of established plants.

Dierema 'Knee-high Lavender' £4.50 FROM SPRING 2010

Interesting, free-flowering hybrid, flowers as described and upward facing. 50cm or so.

Dierama 'Puck' £4 FROM SPRING 2010

A nice hybrid of the dracomontanum persuasion, but a little taller and more vigorous, and rather pinker in flower. 50cm.

Dierama robustum hybrids £4.50

Derived from a Hannays collection about 20 years ago, this little colony in our garden regularly overtops Julian (1.82m) in flower. Arching stems, many tubby pink flowers (mostly a vivid pink) with silvery bracts. VERY FEW UNTIL SPRING 2010

Dierama 'Tiny Bells' £4 FROM SPRING 2010

Floriferous, dwarf (40cm), pink. From Michael Wickenden.

Dietes African relatives of Iris and Moraea, rhizomatous evergreens tolerating only a little frost, so for the mildest gardens or pots given winter protection. In the wild, many come from shady habitats.

Dietes iridioides £4

The flowers, on long lasting stiff branching stems to 60cm, have the classic iris profile, white, with a yellow blotch on the outer perianth segments and pink tinged style crests. Few.

Dietes buthcheriana £4

Much like iridioides, but a bit taller, capable of growing in deep shade in the wild, but doesn't necessarliy flower under those conditions.

Digitalis 'Glory of Roundway' £5

A beautiful perennial hybrid, reaching 1m or more in height, with lots of smallish creamy pink flowers. Forms a meaty clump given rich, fertile soil. Never as widely grown as it deserves, being quite slow to propagate - you really have to cut the clumps up with a sharp knife.

Digitalis parviflora £4

Tiny, rich brown foxgloves packed into a tight cone in summer. Well perennial. No rarity, but so good.

Diphylleia cymosa red marked form £5

Beautiful Podophyllum relative with red-stained leaves in spring. White flowers. Height to 50cm. Woodsy position.

Disa tripetaloides £6 FEW, FROM SPRING 2010.

Diminutive terrestrial orchid from South Africa, raised ourselves from seed to flowering size (as Disa novices we take inordinate pride in this fact). This almost certainly means it's an exceptionally easy species. Our recipe for beginners' luck is: pot culture, grow in peat opened up with perlite, occasional very dilute liquid feed, stand in a shallow tray of rain water (never, never tap water) in shade with air movement (i.e. outside our north-facing back door) and let them be. They survive being frozen solid in winter, unscathed, although I'm not sure this is to be recommended. Some other evergreen species seem to able to be kept this way, but none have proved so easy from seed. Pretty little white flowers flushed lilac-pink on wiry 15cm stems.

Disporum A genus of luscious Solomon's Seal relatives, for moist humusy shade.

Disporum aff. bodinieri £4

Branching stems to 2m, with lots of biscuity flowers, and rather olive green leaves. Came to us as D. megalanthum, which it ain’t, but very nice anyway.

Disporum cantoniense

Clumps of strong, upright, olive green stems with little clusters of long, bell shaped flowers in late spring. We offer several forms of this variable species, all lovely:

Disporum cantoniense B&L 12512 (£5) Flowers the same sombre purple all over; a shade lower growing.

Disporum cantoniense DJHC 98485 (£5) A taller form, said to approach 2m when well established, with a bambooish air. Distinct in foliage. Few.

Disporum cantoniense 'Green Giant' (£5.50) A Dan Hinckley selection. Tall, again, with an olive cast to the foliage.

Disporum cantoniense 'Aureovariegata' (£4) Not a jazzy variegation, but a subtle two-tone green which when viewed from any distance gives the plant a different shade again.

Disporum cantoniense 'Night Heron' (£5.50) Purple leaved selection from Heronswood.

Doodia media £4

There's a whiff of Blechnum about this evergreen Australasian fern whose narrow, rough, dark green fronds are splendidly red tinted at first. Hardy in a reasonably sheltered spot. 25cm. Commemorates the wonderfully named Samuel Doody, who was Keeper of the Chelsea Physic Garden a very long time ago (there's precise for you.)

Dryopteris filix-mas 'Linearis Polydactyla' £4

The form of the male fern frond is transformed by the pinnae becoming extremely narrow, giving it a skeletal look. It is however very stiff, so the shape is weatherproof and has an interesting raspy feel.

Dryopteris tokyoensis £5

Japanese fern whose upright fronds have distinctive large pale green lobes. Deciduous. 90cm. Shade.

Echeveria 'Black Prince' £4

Dark rosettes 20cm across. Orange-red flowers in autumn. Needs some winter protection.

Echeveria secunda var. glauca £4

Good sized, really glaucous rosettes with nicely contrasting orange and yellow flowers. Protection again.

Echinacea pallida £4

A special thing we've had for years, but have only just worked out how to propagate. At least in this form it's a short (45cm) taprooted species, with very narrow pale lilac-pink rays which hang down rather than stick out daisy-fashion. It needs good drainage and a warm, sunny position.

Echinacea hybrids and selections

Not all these plants are easy to overwinter. Full sun, excellent drainage and a reasonable level of fertility are to be recommended. Graham Rice's level-headed article in the RHS Garden magazine (August 08) is a useful introduction to modern developments in the genus.

Echinacea Pixie Meadow Brite £4

Bright pink daisies on a short (50cm) bushy plant. Floriferous, not brittle, and seems to want to live. An outlandish 3 way hybrid. But the name! Only in America...

Echinacea purpurea 'Rubinglow' £4

Rather a deep purplish red, of great depth. Substantial. Despite the confidence of some, we still don't find this perennial in less well drained situations.

Ellisiophyllum pinnatum BSWJ 197 £5

A pretty little woodlander ground cover plant, with pinnately lobed leaves and plenty of small white flowers in summer.

Eomecon chionantha £4.50

Poppy of the Dawn. Translucent white flowers of great, if fleeting beauty; grey foliage. It runs wild and free in a shady bed, even on heavy ground, popping up at intervals. Great if you value serendipity, not if you prefer regimented formality.

Epimedium

Better access to western China for Japanese, European and American collectors in the 80s and 90s has led to a flood of exciting new species in cultivation. As a rule, these spring flowering species need the classic moist-but-well-drained (i.e. humus rich) soil in at least partial shade. All are irresistible; we grow far more than are listed here and never tire of them. We will send out well rooted plants, almost all in 1 litre pots this autumn. Not a bad idea to keep them in pots in a frame or cool glasshouse until spring.

Epimedium acuminatum £4

Large mauve and white flowers, dark green evergreen leaves, bulks up well. Larger plants.

Epimedium acuminatum 'Galaxy' £5

Roy Lancaster's floriferous creamy white introduction. A favourite.

Epimedium 'Amanagowa' £4.50

More or less evergreen hybrid (acuminatum x dolichostemon), lots of large flowers with white bracts and amber petals. Red mottling on young leaves. Seems a good do-er.

Epimedium brachyrrhizum £5

Big, soft violet flowers; new foliage bronzed. Close to leptorrhizum, and shares its matt green leaves.

Epimedium ‘Buckland Spider’ £4

Big, dusky pink, spidery flowers. Deciduous.

Epimedium chlorandrum £5

Splendid mottling on the new foliage. Large, spidery, palest greenish yellow flowers.

Epimedium chlorandrum hybrid £4.50

The young foliage is much more heavily marked, more mark than not, and the stems are dark reddish. Flowers a pallid creamy yellow, streaked with maroon. Uniquely sinister. Our own, but a chance find, we suspect wushanense is the other parent.

Epimedium davidii £4

Butter yellow flowers, quite finely divided evergreen foliage, vigorous and floriferous.

Epimedium diphyllum £4

Rather like a spurless white grandiflorum. Delicate looking but easy in acidic soil. Deciduous.

Epimedium ecalcaratum £4.50

Another of the spurless ones, with bright yellow flowers. Evergreen.

Epimedium 'Phoenix' (='Emperor') £4.50

No sooner did Wendy Perry's chance hybrid get a name, than it got a new one. Raiser's prerogative, I guess. Plentiful large flowers: sepals lilac-purple, petals deep rich purple fading out almost to white at the tips of the spurs; young leaved very well blotched red. An extremely good and distinctive evergreen.

Epimedium epsteinii £4

Broad perianth segments, outer pale, inner purplish, give the flower a really substantial, chunky look (Sarah goes as far as saying they look 'square'). Recently introduced, and scarce.

Epimedium fargesii £4.50

Lots of delicate, backswept white and purple flowers with a protruding spike of stamens; evergreen.

Epimedium fargesii 'Pink Constellation' £5

A pretty lilac-pink counterpart. Strangely the pollen colour is different, a fact of botanical if not horticultural significance.

Epimedium flavum £4

Evergreen, with pale yellow flowers over a very long season, sometimes into the autumn. Leaves tinged purple in winter. Horticulturally, a pale counterpart to davidii.

Epimedium franchetii 'Brimstone Butterfly' £4.50

Stunning in spring: the large, soft yellow flowers contrast with the red of the new foliage, just as the brimstones emerge from hibernation.

Epimedium 'Golden Eagle' £4

Good sized light yellow long spurred petals, paler bracts. Spidery and long-flowering. Evergreen. Looks like a form of membranaceum to me.

Epimedium grandiflorum varieties: This is the classic deciduous species from the Far East, preferring acidic soil.

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Akebono' £4

Pale lilac-pink, low-growing.

Epimedium grandiflorum £4

Red with some lilac.

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Crimson Queen' £4.50 Deep pink flowers and bronzed young foliage. Beautifully fragrant! Maybe the same as 'Crimson Beauty' and 'Rose Queen'.

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Freya' £5

Small, deep purple with pale spur. A Washfield special, also known as 'Nanum Freya'. Rarely seen

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Nanum' AGM £4

A very dwarf form of the species, to no more than 15cm. Pure white flowers over dainty foliage, with red-brown margins when young.

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Purple Prince' £4.50

Rich red-purple sepals and petals. Impressive and not often seen.

Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Saturn’ £4

Similar to ‘Nanum’ but looser growing.

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Queen Esta' £4.50

Very striking recent selection, with big flowers in two-tone pink.

Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Yellow Princess’ £4

Short, with soft yellow flowers. I think that’s enough grandiflorums to be getting along with.

Epimedium ilicifolium £4.50

Lovely prickly, rather holly-like leaflets. Good sized pale yellow flowers much like those of flavum. Late flowering. Rare and slow to propagate, but not hard to grow.

Epimedium 'Jean O'Neill' £4

An interesting new plant, a gift from Peter Chappell of Spinners Garden in the New Forest. He and Kevin Hughes raised a batch of hybrid seedlings from davidii, from which this was selected after a few years in the open garden. It grows and flowers well, with glossy, rather prickly evergreen leaves and profuse flowers which look creamy lilac from a distance, although on close examination are flushed with both pale yellow and violet. Intermediate in flower and leaf between davidii and acuminatum.

Epimedium latisepalum £4.50

Huge flowers of glistening white and cream. Evergreen. Highly desirable.

Epimedium leptorrhizum £4

Large pink-purple flowers, attractive toothed, acuminate leaves.

Epimedium leptorrhizum 'Mariko' £5

Long light magenta sepals contrast with white petals and yellow pollen. Very choice.

Epimedium lishihchenii £4

A rarity. Light yellow spurred flowers. Evergreen.

Epimedium myrianthum £4.50

I stoutly defend the subtle beauty of this minute-flowered species from Hunan. The flowers are so small that I won’t give a precise description - what you see is the yellow of the protruding stamens and the white of the inner sepals. They are very numerous - up to 200 per inflorescence. The leaves are heavily and coarsely red blotched when young, a very striking feature. You need to show it to your visitors but they will thank you. Good reports as a garden plant but remains rare in cultivation.

Epimedium ogisui £4

A beautiful plant, with good sized white flowers on horizontal stems, and a spreading habit. Native to limestone rocks near waterfalls, but seems perfectly amenable and very vigorous when treated like the other Chinese species.

Epimedium x omeiense 'Akame' (= 'Emei Shan') £4.50

Eyecatching flowers in a sweetshoppy reddish-pink-and-yellow colour scheme.

Epimedium x omeiense 'Stormcloud' £4.50

Another form of this variable Chinese natural hybrid (fangii x acuminatum), this time with flowers of a sinister metallic hue. Someone with the right sort of imagination could use this pair in a Ying/Yang or Jekyll/Hyde planting.

Epimedium x omeiense 'Pale Fire Sibling' £5

Pale creamy flowers and well spotted young leaves in this very fine, uncommon clone. I suspect it's not straight omeiense, but some more complex hybrid.

Epimedium x perralchicum 'Lichtenberg' £4

German clone of the superb tough and easy bright yellow flowered old-timer. On close inspection, you see the small red-spurred petals against the big rounded yellow sepals.

Epimedium pinnatum ssp. colchicum L321 AGM £4 One of the former's parents, in Roy Lancaster's distinctive collection. Pure yellow, and tough.

Epimedium x rubrum AGM £4

Another tough but beautiful primary hybrid. Carmine sepals, white petals. Old leaves often red in winter.

Epimedium sempervirens 'Okuda's White' £4

This species is the evergreen counterpart to grandiflorum, coming from the snowier western side of southern Honshu. It's an acid lover and still loses its leaves in some winters with us. Some forms are a nightmare to grow, but this white variety is a doer, and at the height of flowering can be stunning. From Japanese cultivation via Heronswood.

Epimedium stellulatum 'Wudang Star' £4.50

A vigorous evergreen, taking on red tints in winter. Arching flower stems carry many starry white flowers, giving a lovely hazy effect.

Epimedium 'Tama-no-genpei' £5

A very pretty deciduous hybrid, of the grandiflorum persuasion. Bright pink inner sepals contrast with pale lilac-pink petals fading into long white spurs. Sometimes reflowers in autumn. Extremely pretty. From Japan, by way of Seattle.

Epimedium wushanense 'Caramel' £4.50

Elegant evergreen leaves, sometimes mottled red, with very large spidery flowers on tall stems to 1m. The name describes the flower colour. Amazing.

Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum' £4

One of the old indestructibles, with soft yellow flowers over the bronze stained new leaves.

Epimedium x versicolor 'Neosulphureum' £4

Looks almost identical to the previous. Big deal. But for us it flowers about a fortnight later. Now that could be useful.

Epimedium x versicolor 'Versicolor' £4

Just as tough but less often seen. Sepals from coppery red to rose pink contrast with soft yellow petals. Winter foliage shiny dark red, young foliage nicely bronzed. Utterly lovely. I'm starting to think that nobody knows the difference between 'Versicolor' and 'Cupreum', and that they may well be the same plant.

Epimedium x warleyense £4

Classic tough hybrid with unique burnt orange flowers.

Epimedium x youngianum 'Tamabotan' £4

Various varieties of youngianum are well proven as easy garden plants. This newish hybrid has striking broad pink sepals to the flowers, giving them an unusually chunky look. Deciduous.

Epimedium sp. nov. from Yunnan £5

Broad white bracts contrast with pale yellow spurred petals. Late flowering. Pale green leaves, evergreen. Very impressive in a pale way.

Epipactis 'Frankfurt' £8

A selected clone of the Sabine grex, E. gigantea x E. veratrifolia. A freely running hybrid, with spikes to 40cm of reddish pink flowers with yellow on the lip. Humusy, reasonably moist soil. Very rarely offered.

Equisetum camtschatcense £5

A densely clumping horsetail, with medium thickness, leafless stems to 1m. Wet ground, hardy here. Probably a form of hyemale.

Eragrostis curvula SH10 £4.50

A particularly nice form of a variable South African grass with light, airy 1.5m flower heads. Not hardy in the coldest areas.

Eragrostis curvula 'Totnes Burgundy' £4

Our own introduction, now getting lots of good press in Britain and the US. Long, arching stems of steely grey flowers in summer, as in the type. The mature leaves are dark wine red from midway. Best in a sunny, well-drained site or large pot. It always looks best against gravel, wood, stone or silver foliage, not against green or earth. Surprisingly hardy if well drained.

Ericas from South Africa

South Africa, and the fynbos crescent of the Western Cape in particular, is the world's undisputed Erica centre. We have less than 20 species in the whole of Europe; South Africa has over 650 at last count. One has to set aside preconceptions of low bushy small leaved plants with tiny purple, pink or white bellish flowers living on heaths. There are tiny wispy trailers and great lanky shrubs over 2m tall; there are leaves from tiny scales to those several centimetres long; plants from hot exposed places and cool shady crevices, flowers in just about every colour imaginable - except, perhaps true blue - and an extraordinary diversity of flower size and form. Most people in Britain seem to believe that they are completely tender, egged on by ignorant 'received wisdom' in the gardening literature. This is demonstrably untrue.

It is much easier to grow them in pots than in the ground. Try a free draining, acidic compost, something on the lines of a typical ericaceous mix with added grit. Never let them dry out, even in summer, the Western Cape dry season. If you're feeling cautious, overwinter them in the unheated greenhouse or alpine house. We have them in a cold frame but only put a light over them, propped up to ensure good ventilation, in the hardest weather. I spoke to a Midlands enthusiast who gives them no protection at all. Rpotting is tricky - minimize root damage; even then, we lose some in the following weeks. Once you know when flowering is initiated, experiment with light pruning. In some species frost does the job for you, nipping out only the softest tips.

In the ground is trickier. Acid soil in mild, high rainfall areas is a must. There have been promising reports from coastal and inland Cornwall, north Dartmoor and Torbay, but winter 08-9 was devastating in a way that it wasn't for potted plants.

For a modern, fabulously illustrated treatment of most African species in the wild, we recommend Schumann & Kirsten's 'Ericas of South Africa' (1992) which you can get easily from Keith's Plant Books - www.keithsplantbooks.co.uk

Erica abietina ssp. aurantiaca £4.50

Previously known as E. grandiflora. Quite long, needly dark green leaves for the fir tree effect. Long, bright red flowers in late summer to autumn. Not the hardiest - some, not all, succumbed to the -9Celsius of last winter.

Erica glauca var. elegans £4.50

Green-white corolla, conspicuous white (sometimes pink) sepals and bracts, spring. Surprising glaucous leaves. To 1m.

Erica holosericea £4.50

The pink corolla is surrounded by a ball of clear pink, persistent bracts, looking like it's in flower from late winter to late spring. The large, spaced flowers are conspicuous and excite huge admiration (also a 1st on the AGS showbench for one of our customers). Cooler positions, sometimes below rocks, rather twisty in habit.

Erica aff. perspicua £4.50

Purple, white-tipped long tubular flowers. Bushy but potentially tall. Spring in the wild, autumn here in '08. I think this tends to grow in open, moister habitats. There's been a nameing saga here - we've now established that it's not latituba - let's just say it's somewhere in the orbit of the poorly understood E. perspicua and leave it at that.

Erica plukenetii £4.50

Densely packed spikes of long, hanging, dull red flowers with long-protruding stamens and styles, on leafy stems, 60cm+.

Erica sphaerocephala £4.50

A soft. densely branching plant to 60cm, with round heads of pink flowers at the tips, spring to autumn in the wild, autumn here. Moister soils in the wild. FEW

Erica taxifolia £4.50

Clusters of rather strong rounded pink flowers at the tips of long branches - both calyx and corolla are coloured. Well named for its yew-like foliage. An arresting sight in flower, and tolerant of a lot cold (unprotected in Derby over winter 08/9 - impressive, eh?). Summer - autumn.

Erica vestita £4.50

Bushy stems of soft shiny narrow leaves, clusters of long, tubular, open-mouthed flowers in late summer. The colour in the wild is very variable, usually pink to white. These plants raised from South African seed have very pale greeny yellow flowers, but in all respects seem to fit the species.

Erigeron pumilis £4

I'm not an Erigeron fan, but this one is irresistible. Nodding buds open upright to loads of wild daisy sized pale pink, yellow centred heads on 60cm stems in early summer. Bulks up freely and seems perennial with us.

Erodium ‘Whitwell Superb’ £3.50 FROM SPRING 2010

Flowers over a very, very long season, clear pink, unblotched. The leaves are very finely divided and a bit silvery.

Eryngium bourgatii Graham Stuart Thomas's selection £4

Spiny, curly, grey leaves veined white. Blue flowers on wiry stems to 50cm. Lovely in leaf and flower. For a well drained sunny spot.

Eryngium venustum £4

Elongated, deeply and 3-dimensionally lobed leaves are unique among the species which are at all widely cultivated. The rosettes are its great features; flowers ordinary green-white thimbly jobs. Sun, good drainage.

Eryngium tripartitum 'Jade Frost' £4.50

Very pretty variegation, a broad cream edge to each leaf of the generous rosette, neat and regular. It wil bulk up to form a multi-rosette clump, but slowly. Pale blue flower heads on 40cm stems. It has plant breeders rights, and these are bought in from tissue culture, since it's spectacularly slow and troublesome to propagate by any other means. I have to say that a plant looking very like this has been in cultivation for many years, but has always been extremely rare.

Eucomis: the Pineapple Lilies are summer growing bulbs, suited to sun or dappled shade in borders which don't become excessively cold, and to pots. When pot grown, repot in February, before the roots grow. For a superb gallery of Eucomis pics, go to www.theafricangarden.com.

Eucomis autumnalis £4

Ultimately a stout, broad leaved plant with clean white flowers of real substance, but well shorter than pole-evansii. Hannah, the budding plantswoman among our kids, when asked which of our many Eucomis was her favourite, immediately selected this.

Eucomis comosa 'First Red' £4

No implication of earliness here, it's first as in foremost, although it isn't. Lost? Not as deep a colour as 'S.B.' but the leaves are a pretty light carmine, paler near the midrib.

Eucomis comosa selected for spottiness £4

The whole plant, leaves, stem, flowers and large tuft is a pretty reddish pink. Red spotting is clearly visible through this on the leaf bases, hence our tag, but it's the colour that wins.

Eucomis comosa var. striata £4

The red spots on the undersides of the leaves, and leaf sheaths join up to make pin stripes. Attractive all the time it's in growth

Eucomis 'Frank Lawley' £4

Short, white flowered, with crinkly edged pale green leaves. Not flashy, but highly satisfactory.

Eucomis pallidiflora £4

A smaller species, with spikes of greeny white flowers with pink-tinged ovaries and a small tuft. Finely spotted stems and leaf backs.

Eucomis pole-evansii £4

Pale green leaves with crinkled edges, hefty inflorescences with pineappley tuft of leaves on top, which can exceed 1m. Like the others, for a reasonably large pot (repot each February, before the roots get going) or a warm sunny border.

Eucomis vandermerwei £4.50

One of the smallest pineapple lilies, but rather exciting. Flat rosettes of pointed, crinkly edged leaves heavily speckled with maroon on the upper surfaces. 20cm spikes of dark red flowers, even on quite small bulbs. Perhaps less hardy, and best in a pot.

Eupatorium arnottianum RCB/Arg - L2 £4.50 FROM SPRING 2010

A wiry stemmed Argentinian, distinctive for its amazing Ageratum-like powdery lavender-blue flower heads. 1m tall. New in cultivation, perhaps not very hardy.

Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Craigieburn' £5

An even darker version of the classic 'Purpurea', apparently less prone to mildew. The contrast between the yellow-green of the flowers and the rich purple of the bracts is a delight when caught by spring sunshine.

Euphorbia 'Blue Haze' £5

A short (to 40cm), very blue leaved hybrid (seguieriana niciciana x nicaeensis - the two classic glaucous spp) selected by Robin & Sue 'Blackthorn' White. 'Prune hard in August for compact blue foliage all winter' - I'd do what Robin tells you if I were you.

Euphorbia rigida £4.50

The spirals of short, broad, pointed leaves around thick stems recall the well-known E. myrsinites, but instead of flopping around they stand upright in a branching 50cm bush. Yellow green flowers at the stem tips early in the year (from late January here). The leaves near the tips turn a lovely red brown towards summer. A great favourite of ours for a sunny well drained spot, perhaps on the edge of a low wall.

Filipendula ulmaria 'Rosea' £4

The scarce pink flowered form of our native meadowsweet. Most reds/pinks belong to other, taller species.

Francoa appendiculata red form £4

Tall spikes of long-lasting red-pink flowers from late summer.

Freesia lactea (=alba) £4

Winter growing corm with plenty of white flowers marked yellow and purple. What a powerful fragrance! It's the right fragrance too, the sweet delicious one, not the peppery scent of some cut freesias you buy. Dry summer dormancy; sun, shelter - perfect for a pot.

Freesia (Anomatheca) laxa / grandiflora hybrids, pink £4

Larger flowered than the familiar laxa, taller too, in a deep pink. Best in a pot almost frost free. At its best, a real attention grabber.

Freesia (Anomatheca) viridis £3.50

The green flowers, like little skeletal hands grasping at you, would suit a horror film. Winter growing, tenderish small corm for a pot.

Galanthus

We offer a few spares from our collection, potted for convenience so you can order them along with other plants, not in an 'in-the-green' spring frenzy. Numbers very limited. If you wait until you're in the snowdrop mood, you may be too late.

Galanthus 'Curly' £8

Small hybrid with relatively big flowers - green X on inner segments, some green veining on outers. Fragrant.

Galanthus elwesii 'Mrs McNamara' £9

Is another that's hard to describe, but the experts agree on its superlative quality. Early season, carrying well proportioned and substantial flowers well above the leaves and spathes, with bluish leaves. And there's something oddly alluring about a plant named for Dylan Thomas' mother-in-law.

Galanthus elwesii 'Sickle' £8

A beautiful, scarce, tall variety of the classic large snowdrop species. Very long outer segments and a large, strangely shaped green mark on the inner.

Galanthus 'Ginns' £4

Very like the classic 'S. Arnott', but with a distinctive bitter almond scent.

Galanthus 'Hill Poë' £5

A dense, neat double, usually with five outer segments.

Galanthus 'Jacquenetta' £3.50

One of the nicest Greatorex doubles, tight and neat, and nothing like the common, loose nivalis 'Flore Pleno'.

Galanthus 'Kildare' £9

You're lost in rural Ireland. It's a winter afternoon, with the light failing. You see a ruined building and the wreck of a garden. Do you A) speed away in case of ghosties, B) make a cup of tea while you study the map, C) ask an old chap who tells you 'sure I wouldn't be starting from here' or D) poke around in the garden until you find a splendid, rather large virescent snowdrop, the outers well green-veined, the inner segments dark green in the apical third and olive green over the rest. Only one of these answers diagnoses the true galanthophile, in this case Ruby and David Baker.

Galanthus 'Mighty Atom' £6

Large, beautifully formed flowers look even larger on such a short plant. The green inverted U on the inner segment is dark and striking. A very good do-er in our heavy moist ground.

Galanthus 'Bill Bishop' £9

Rather similar to 'Mighty Atom', earlier in flower and with splendid long outer segments.

Galanthus 'Mrs Thompson' £8

An erratic eccentric. Sometimes, and I repeat sometimes, there are two flowers on one scape. Sometimes there are siamese twin flowers, fused at the base. Sometimes there are some extra inner segments, and the top of the ovary looks like it might have thought about splitting. Sometimes it is a normal snowdrop flower. This changes from year to year.

Galanthus nivalis 'Greenish' £5

A small plant; delicately, not solidly greened over both the outer and inner segments.

Galanthus nivalis 'Lady Elphinstone' £7

The yellow marked form of the ordinary double snowdrop which, inexplicably, is green some years but then comes good the next (this sounds like nurseryman's tosh, but I swear it's true).

Galanthus nivalis Sandersii group £7

The Northumberland Yellow, an ordinary snowdrop in which the ovary and marks on the inner segments are yellow, not green. It has a reputation for being miffy, but this clone, which has been passed around in AGS circles in the Midlands for years, is a good grower. Very few to spare.

Galanthus 'Orion' £10

Dot Underhill's find, simply a very large, early season, perfectly proportioned, fast bulking plant. A beauty.

Galanthus plicatus 'Augustus' £4

Plump, rounded flowers with a seersucker texture to the outer perianth segments.

Galanthus plicatus 'Wendy's Gold' £12

Needs little introduction as one of the classic larger yellow snowdrops. Both the ovary and apical mark on the inner segments are yellow.

Galanthus 'Robin Hood' £5

Beautifully shaped, good size flowers with a green crossed-swords mark on the inner segments. Shame it's not arrows.

Galanthus 'Saint Anne's' £10

A choice hybrid with slender flowers which show the two green marks to advantage; glaucous leaves.

Galanthus 'Sutton Courtenay' £8

Robust and early gracilis hybrid, with distinctive olive green ovary.

Galanthus 'Tubby Merlin' £7

Glaucous, almost prostrate leaves; plump flowers, often two per bulb, with a solid bottle green inner segment. The first 'special' snowdrop we ever grew, and still one of the smartest.

Galanthus 'Warwickshire Gemini' £7

A robust snowdrop, with a good reputation for making two flowers per bulb once established. One of our customers ordered 'Warwickshire Gremlin', and so it will always be to me.

Galanthus large plicate hybrid £7

Un-named, bought on sight of its lusty growth, height and well-proportioned flowers. It's never disappointed. From Elaine 'Tinpenny' Horton, who thinks it came in turn from one of the other Gloster G'lanthophiles, perhaps Phil Cornish.

Galanthus elwesii Hiemalis Group £6

Finally we have an early snowdrop which came to us with no name. It flowers in late autumn or early winter, about the beginning of December in Sarah's Mum's garden where she has it in a sunny, fairly well drained place. The leaves are glaucous and fairly, though not very short at flowering. Given a very warm spot it will flower quite a bit earlier. We foolishly thought it was some sort of reginae-olgae hybrid, but Chris Brierley, who grows lots of autumn varieties, has put us right.

Galega 'His Majesty' £5

Spreads to make a splendid mound of glaucous pea foliage, topped by long spikes of strongly bicoloured violet flowers in early summer. Height to 1m at end of flowering. Extremely satisfactory.

Galega orientalis £4

Very distinct from the usual officinalis/hartlandii varieties in its upright spikes of indigo blue pea flowers. Pale green foliage, loosely spreading habit. Height to 1.2m. Sunny site.

Galtonia princeps £4

Creamy-green bells in summer on a 60cm plant. Winter dormant.

Geranium aristatum £4

A subtly beautiful Balkan relative of G. phaeum, with the same back-swept petals, but this time in pale lilac heavily marked much darker. Greyish foliage, dying away in winter. 60cm.

Geranium ‘Blue Cloud’ £4.50

Blue geraniums are too many and too similar. This is quite distinctive with pale blue flowers, veined crimson over a long season; height 50cm.

Geranium 'Blue Sunrise' £4

Young leaves in spring are bright yellow, and continue yellow tinged into early summer. Mid-size blue flowers.

Geranium 'Buckland Beauty' £4

Low growing, but not small, with bronzed leaves and aggressive deep magenta flowers of endressii type. It is a beauty, not another of those mingy, murky-leaved things.

Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Berggarten' £4

Unusually in this ground covering hybrid, the flowers are a solid pink, not a pale or veiny colour.

Geranium ‘Coombland White’ £4

Compact mound of grey foliage, with white, upward facing flowers in summer. lambertii x traversii, I believe: a white counterpart to ‘Joy’.

Geranium 'Dusky Crûg' £4

Has more go to it than the usual brown leaved ones, having oxonianum as a parent. Low, with good sized soft pink flowers. Sun, drainage.

Geranium 'Elworthy Eyecatcher' £5

Good sized shiny light magenta flowers over a very long season. 60cm ish. A good plant, still uncommon. Thanks to Jenny and Mike 'Elworthy Cottage' Spiller.

Geranium himalayense 'Derrick Cook' £4.50

A very good form of this low clumper. Large flowers are ice blue, white from any distance.

Geranium 'Kanahitobanawa' £4

Presumably G. x oxonianum 'Thurstonianum' x G. psilostemon. It has large, vivid magenta-purple flowers over a very long season (it's sterile) with narrow petals giving a starry effect and clearly showing the green sepals between them. The petals are dark veined with slightly toothed ends (less extremely so than in 'Thurstonianum') and the anthers are sometimes a little petaloid. In habit it's a big dome former for the border, intermediate between the parents, neither sprawly as oxonianum, nor stiff and gaunt as psilostemon. Our plant, our daft name. We're allowed to say that. You just have to try to pronounce it.

Geranium koraiense £4

Low growing and pink.

Geranium libani x ibericum £4

In effect, an ibericum with dark, inky violet flowers. Leaves often age red.

Geranium 'Solitaire' £4

Like its parents, a summer dormant plant with attractive leaves low to the ground in winter, and large clear blue flowers on 40cm stems in spring, but more vigorous and quicker growing than either. Goes on flowering for longer, too. Previously (and correctly) listed as libani x peloponnesiacum, but Alan Bremner who raised it has now named it. Why 'Solitaire'? 'First thing that came into my head' he claims.

Geranium macrorrhizum 'Lohfelden' £4

Pink on white striped petals in this form of the classic aromatic perennial for drier shade.

Geranium maculatum 'Elizabeth Ann' £4

Brown tinted foliage and pale pink flowers in spring. Height 30cm or so.

Geranium maculatum 'Silver Buttons' £4.50

Essentially a white maculatum with fringed petals. Rare, and we can't trace its origin. Thanks to John Newbold.

Geranium nodosum 'Julie's Velvet' £4

A great species, quickly forming low (to 30cm) clumps with rather shiny green leaves and nice purple flowers in summer, tolerating rather dry shade. If you don't grow 'Whiteleaf', 'Svelte Lilac' or 'Swish Purple', this is probably the cultivar you want, richer in colour than any of those, but still with a paler margin to the petal. If you do, well, it's not that different...

Geranium 'Orion' AGM £4

Grown on the recommendation of the Wynn-Joneses of Crûg Farm, this is now our favourite of the many blue pratense-type plants. Big flowers of a clear deepish blue. 50cm or so.

Geranium phaeum ‘Blue Shadow’ £4.50

About as blue as phaeum gets.

Geranium phaeum ‘Margaret Wilson’ £4.50

Very distinctive fine, creamy white net-variegation across the leaf surface, violet flowers. It’s the leaves you want, so cut the flower stems back right after flowering, or even before. Rumour had it that the variegation comes through in seedlings, but missed out the word 'sometimes'.

Geranium phaeum 'Our Pat' AGM £4.50

This large flowered, 60cm tall clone of the classic purple-black flowered geranium, selected by Robin Moss, has that indefineable something which makes a good plant superb. I hear rumours that the RHS committee judging the trials voted unanimously for the AGM.

Geranium phaeum 'Séricourt' £4.50

A French variety with leaves clear yellow in spring. The flowers are red-brown.

Geranium pratense 'Plenum Album' £4.50

The third, and by far the rarest, of the double forms of pratense, with many, new 10p sized double white flowers. More picky than the other forms of this species, thriving in a moist and fertile but well-drained soil, in sun or partial shade. Very, very slow to propagate, so seldom offered by nurseries. Just a few divisions again.

Geranium pratense 'Purple Heron' £3.50

Dark, dark purple foliage; deep violet flowers in summer on a compact plant to 45cm. A clone of the highly prized 'Midnight Reiter' which is variable from seed and painfully slow to propagate by division - but we divide it anyway. Small, and slow growing.

Geranium ‘Prelude’ £4

It looks like a short sylvaticum with unusually small but plentiful lilac flowers. Different.

Geranium pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis' £3.50

Loveable self seeding sprawly job which drapes itself pleasantly through other vegetation. The deeper purply blue form with red stems.

Geranium x riversleanum 'Jean Armour' £4

You might not want to replace dear old 'Mavis Simpson', but if you don't have Mavis, I'd go for Jean instead.

Geranium 'Stephanie' £4

A recent hybrid, pelopponesiacum x renardii. Summer dormant-ish, with flowers like the former parent and leaves midway between the two. Very floriferous and desirable.

Geranium soboliferum Cally strain £4

Flowers a solid, rich pink from later in summer than most, through to September. 30cm tall with narrowly lobed leaves. From Michael 'Cally' Wickenden's Russian collection.

Geranium sylvaticum 'Amy Doncaster' £4

Every gardener of taste eventually discovers and comes to love it - the best sylvaticum of all, and one of the finest of all geraniums (three extravagant claims in one sentence, but sincerely made). True blue, white-eyed flowers.

Geranium 'Tiny Monster' £4

Hot hybrid, with large rich red-purple flowers and the dark green leaves of G. sanguineum on a plant which, while almost mat forming in its first year or two, rears its fearsome head once a solid clump has built up. Long flowering season. There's not much tiny about it...

Geum coccineum 'Eos' £4

Kevin Marsh's eyeboggling selection of the true violently orange flowered coccineum. This one has bright yellow leaves. Has to be seen to be believed, but not nearly as tasteless as you might imagine. A real hot dog.

Geum hybrids: classic border plants for any normal soil in sun or part shade. All these are summer flowering, and 30-40cm tall in flower.

Geum 'Abendsonne' £4

Soft orange flashed burnt orange. Effective.

Geum 'Bell Bank' £4

Very pretty semi-double pink.

Geum 'Diane' £4

Big upward facing bright yellow flowers on a very short plant. Excellent.

Geum 'Farmer John Cross' £4

Lovely nodding lemon yellow flowers on red stems.

Geum 'Herterton Primrose' £4

Nice nodding flowers with yellow petals (brighter than 'Lemon Drops') contrasting very well with the red sepals and flower stems.

Geum 'Mandarin' £4

Tall (50cm) with very big coppery orange flowers late in the season. Excellent but slow to propagate. A Cally special.

Geum 'Mrs W. Moore' £4

Nodding flowers in pastel red.

Geum 'Sigiswang' £4

Small but plentiful, somewhat nodding, flowers the colour of ripe oranges.

Geum Unnamed Hybrid £4

A seedling from capense: single, very pale yellow flowers fringed pink, giving a peachy effect. Thanks to Kevin Marsh, again.

Gladiolus

We delight in the huge diversity of the wild species and more natural-looking hybrids. The winter growers need protection from severe frost, although they will survive very low night temperatures briefly. We recommend Goldblatt & Manning's authoritative and beautiful 'Gladiolus in Southern Africa' for anyone wanting to get their head around the bewildering diversity of this genus. Mostly in small numbers, we'll probably have to limit several to 1 per customer, but if you don't ask you won't get.

Gladiolus angustus £3.50 WINTER GROWER

A rather chunky winter grower whose large creamy flowers have an extremely long tube which, once you get your head around pollination in African Iridaceae, screams 'long tongued flies' at you. We find it easy in pots with unheated winter protection. They flowered fine after the cold 08-9 winter, but we have to say 'subject to crop' at time of writing, since they're still safely buried in pots of dried-out compost.

Gladiolus cardinalis £4

Large, vivid scarlet flowers with three white flashes. The flower stems tend towards the horizontal and cry out for a rock across which to flop out. In growth most of the year, usually going more or less dormant briefly in summer with us.

Gladiolus carinatus £3.50 WINTER GROWER

Delicate blue-lilac flowers, with yellow too on the lower tepals; deliciously fragrant. Slender, around 40cm tall. We've grown it in pots so far, but it's said to make a good garden plant in winter-rainfall parts of South Africa - sun and good drainage here. A traditional cut flower in the Western Cape.

Gladiolus dalenii A relatively stout plant, and a good doer in the open garden here. Flowers on 40cm stems in late summer. It is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, with much variation in flower colour. Two colours this year:

Gladiolus dalenii Yellow - a soft primrose £4 SUMMER GROWER

Gladiolus dalenii Orange-red £4 SUMMER GROWER

Gladiolus flanaganii £4 SUMMER GROWER

Scarlet, up-facing flowers in early summer on out-arching stems. Impressive and not hard to grow.

Gladiolus garnieri £4 SUMMER GROWER

Slightly pinkish red flowers with pale yellow throat. Tall spikes of big flowers only just stay within the bounds of good taste. I'm told it's native to Madagascar, but it's hardy and does well at chilly Rosemoor.

Gladiolus aff. huttonii £4 WINTER GROWER

Scarlet with a yellow throat and edging, this showy self supporting plant gives a blast of summer colour in spring. As easy and self-supporting as G. tristis, and shares its growth cycle despite coming from the Eastern Cape coast. I suspect some hybridity with tristis.

Gladiolus huttonii x tristis £4 WINTER GROWER

More definite hybrids, yellow streaked and peppered with red.

Gladiolus miniatus £3.50 WINTER GROWER

Coastal limestone endemic from the Western Cape. Low, but rather broad leaved plants, good sized salmon pink flowers on out-turned spikes in spring. Very scarce in the wild and in cultivation.

Gladiolus palustris £3.50 SUMMER GROWER

Turkish, and just like a very dwarf, slender form of communis.

Gladiolus papilio £4.50 SUMMER GROWER

Slaty purple flowers on 1.2m stems. Vigorous and hardy. Grows a treat in our wet clay.

Gladiolus 'Ruby' £4 SUMMER GROWER

An easy hybrid of G. papilio, of which even the PlantFinder rashly suggests that it's a form. The flowers are much larger and broader than in papilio, of a luscious purple-red. A plant that's become quite well known in the south west, but is more rarely seen up country.

Gladiolus splendens £4 WINTER GROWER

An extraordinary and exciting species from the western Karoo, with bright scarlet flowers in two ranks, adapted for sunbird pollination. Rather than bore you with a botanical description, let's just say they don't look much like a Gladiolus. A slender plant, 50cm or taller, which we normally grow in pots in order that they don't get waterlogged in winter, and can be kept dry during the summer dormancy. We know of it thriving in a lean raised bed in the Severn Valley, and in ordinary soil in a well drained coastal garden near Padstow.

Gladiolus tristis £4 WINTER GROWER

Easy, with fragrant cream flowers on 75cm stems which don't flop, in early spring. Potsfull.

Gladiolus undulatus £4 WINTER GROWER

Fairly tall and stout, with extremely long-tubed flowers, cream, marked red on the lower tepals. From moist stony ground.

Haberlea rhodopensis AGM £3.50

Rosette forming gesneriad for a cool, well drained spot, perhaps a shady crevice in the rock garden, or a sink behind a North facing wall. The dark, hairy leaves are always attractive; lavender flowers in drooping heads.

Hacquetia epipactis 'Thor' £4

The variegated Hacquetia. Like a tiny Astrantia, the petal-like bracts around a tight umbel make, in effect, a single flower. These flowers emerge at soil level in earliest spring. Lovely in its normal form, the white variegation extends to the bracts to excellent effect in this desirable cultivar. For a woodlandy position. FROM SPRING 2010.

Hedychium

The Ginger Lilies are among the most exotic looking herbaceous plants you can hope to grow in a British garden. Great thick, creeping, ginger smelling rhizomes send up 'canes' with bold, alternate leaves in two ranks, around the beginning of April here.

No Hedychium is a straightforward hardy perennial right across the UK. On the other hand, none of these is an out-and-out heated glasshouse subject. All need a fertile soil with plenty of water in the growing season. Some species are evergreen in the wild, but this is only possible under warm glass in Britain, even in Cornwall. We allow all ours to become fully dormant in winter, which has the advantage of preventing pests overwintering: others find that a tortrix moth caterpillar, which munches holes through the rolled young leaves, can get the upper hand if the plants are overwintered in growth. Once the stems have been frosted, we cut them off at the base and protect the rhizomes. For pot-grown stock, this entails keeping them faitly dry, and avoiding extremes of frost. Plants grown in the open garden may need a protective mulch. What can you get away with in the open ground? The hardier ones are viable in the south of England and beyond, but microclimate and mulching are everything. Gardeners in central London or right on the South Coast can get away with a great deal. Some flower rather late, and early frosts can lose you the flowers, even if the plant survives. This is where a cool conservatory really helps, as well as providing a place to overwinter the dormant plants. Plants supplied have been growing in 2 litre pots since division in spring.

Starting with the hardiest ones:

Hedychium densiflorum £5

A toughie, but atypical. The flowers are many and small, packed into narrow 15cm spikes. They are a lovely intense burnt orange colour, but don't have any real fragrance. Free flowering, and one of the first to flower. Came to us as 'Assam Orange', but that has rather looser inflorescences and flowers a more watery shade.

Hedychium 'Stephen' £6

Collected by Tony Schilling in Nepal, it is often considered (notably by Schilling himself) a form of densiflorum. Flowers larger than typical densiflorum, cream with orange, and lightly fragrant. Very nice, quite hardy, but slow to propagate.

Hedychium coccineum 'Tara' AGM £6

Pretty hardy, and early too. It has more typical spidery flowers in orange red. It's showy and popular. Schilling's again.

Hedychium coccineum var. angustifolium £5)

Prolific, with lovely salmony-orange flowers and valuably different narrow pointed leaves, but at least in this form is best started off under glass before puting it out.

Hedychium spicatum £5

Fragrant flowers with white and orange bits (I know, I know); another of the hardier ones.

Hedychium spicatum 'Singalila' BSWJ 2303 £6

A form with nicely bronze tinted leaves, broader, and up to 2m tall, from N. India.

Hedychium spicatum P. Bon 57188 £6

Another superb wild collection: stouter and with more flowers than other forms of the species, it was at first confused with H. maximum.

Hedychium yunnanense £5

Notable for being just as chunky as the others, but much shorter: palest yellow flower with red stamen. The first to flower here.

Hedychium sp. coll. Keith Rushforth £5

Broad leaved, quite tall and looks midway between spicatum and yunnanense; very hardy.

Hedychium forrestii £5

Tall, floriferous, white flowered plant which we've seen growing and flowering in the open garden in Hampshire.

Now for some which are a bit less hardy:

Hedychium gardnerianum AGM £5.50

A classic for the conservatory or mild garden. Thick stems, imposing foliage, and wonderfully fragrant flowers towards the end of the school summer hols. Pale yellow flowers, with brilliant red stamens. This form rarely exceeds 1m here. Scent strongest after dusk, when it fills our polytunnel. Seeing it flowering outdoors near Kendal in August, presumably plunged after overwintering inside, gave us food for thought.

Hedychium coronarium £5

Also deliciously fragrant, with pretty, pale flowers, needing the mildest garden or winter protection to flower before the frosts.

Hedychium pink hybrid £5

Around the same hardiness level, with rather small flowers with a 'tropical' scent in an unusual flesh pink.

Finally, two of Tom Wood's many interesting hybrids from Florida. We find that they survive the winter well, but tend to be very late flowering and so benefit from conservatory conditions:

Hedychium 'Goldflame' £5

Around 1.5m tall: fragrant white flowers with a bold yellow splash.

Hedychium 'Elizabeth' £5

Lovely raspberry pink flowers, marked orange, but it really needs to be inside, warm, to get worthwhile flowering.

Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer' AGM £5

The great thing about this 1m tall cultivar is the extraordinarily rich and changing colours of the flowers. The rays open a light orangey yellow. As they expand they become increasingly streaked with bright red, ending up a rich burnt orange. Flowers at all stages mixed over the plant are unfailingly interesting. The more I see others, the more I like this.

Helianthella quinquenervis £5

A 2m, clump former for the back of the border, studded with perfectly sized pale moonlit yellow daisies in late summer and autumn. Elegance is a scarce commodity in the sunflower world, but this and the next have it in spades.

Helianthus salicifolius £5

Exceeding 2m, this fine leaved spreading plant makes a lovely lacy, constantly moving backdrop to other perennials. The bright yellow, rather small daisies are pleasant while they last, but it's the foliage you grow it for. William Robinson long ago recommended it for the 'picturesque garden'.

Helleborus atrorubens £4

Slow growing smaller flowered species with red-green flowers. Carefully hand pollinated seedlings from bagged parents derived from Elizabeth Strangman's wild collections. Several years old now, and wanting to get out in the garden to build for a while longer.

Helleborus x ericsmithii £4.50

A very fine hybrid caulescent hellebore (niger x (argutifolius x lividus)). The leaves have a metallic grey tint, with 40cm stems of pink tinged white flowers from late winter. Sun, reasonable drainage.

Helleborus niger 'Potter's Wheel' £4

Divisions of a fine old form of the Christmas Rose: large, outward facing white flowers.

Helleborus x nigercors £4.50

Another caulescent hybrid (niger x argutifolius). Abundant greeny-creamy-white flowers over dark foliage: to 40cm.

Heloniopsis kawanoi £3.75

An uncommon dwarf species: umbels of white flowers over clean green rosettes.

Heloniopsis orientalis Korean form £4

We steered clear of this robust species for years, since it seemed to look as if it was dying most of the time. This collection, however, is a healthy green all year round, clumps up beautifully, and has flowers of a very attractive soft lavender blue. Thanks to Mark Fillan.

Heloniopsis umbellata £3.75

Rosettes of narrow leaves with inflorescences of white, pink tinged flowers. 15cm. Woodsy conditions.

Herbertia lahue £3.50

A cheery little iridaceous corm from Argentina, with bright violet flowers. Grown in pots with minimal protection, so far. Bulks up well.

Heuchera americana 'Harry Hay' £5

A gigantic plant, forming a dome of purple foliage more than 50cm high and topping 1m in flower. Impressive. Selected by the man himself.

Hippeastrum 'Toughie' £4

We have Bob Brown to thank for introducing this exciting plant from cultivation in New Zealand. It is hardy out of doors in Totnes, and reputedly much farther afield as well. A summer grower, with strongly purple tinted foliage. The flower spikes are on the scale of the familiar tender hippeastrums, although not as large as the grossest modern cultivars. The flowers are a deep rather smoky red, on purple tinged scapes. For a sunny, well drained, reasonably sheltered spot. Protect from slugs.

Hosta plantaginea var japonica £4.50

Big, pale green leaves and very large fragrant flowers in autumn.

Hosta venusta AGM £3.50

A tiny species, with clumps of bright green leaves just a few cm tall; lovely spikes of light violet flowers on 10-15cm stems. For partial shade, not dry. Needs a choice corner or pot to appreciate it properly. Arnold Schwarzenegger's favourite plant? Hosta venusta, baby.

Hosta sp. AGSJ302 £4.50

Really tall (to 1.4m) stems of many (30-40 per stem) good sized flowers in a shade of violet which, by Hosta standards, is really deep. Planted in a moist fertile bed, in flower with candelabra primulas and Anemone rivularis, a well established clump is a real treat for us. Undistinguished yellowy green foliage, but who cares - something this tall needs planting well back in the bed.

summer. Not hardy but easy in a pot with dryish winter dormancy. Be good and keep the slugs off it, won't you.

Impatiens arguta £4

A 30cm tall species with good-sized lilac-blue flowers over a long season. No evidence of dangerous seeding tendencies. Mild position, or replaced annually from summer cuttings (easy).

Impatiens namchabarwensis £3.50

Lovely blue flowers on a branching, soft green 30cm plant. A recent introduction from Tibet, which tends to die in colder gardens but reappears from late spring germinating seeds.

Impatiens omeiana clone 2 £5

Hardy, densely clumping by rhizomes, pale uniformly silvered leaves and yellow flowers.

Impatiens sp. DJHC 98415 £4

A little smaller, rhizomatous, with pretty pink flowers at the end of summer.

Impatiens puberula HWJK 2063 £4

A Hinkley / Wynn-Jones collection from E. Nepal whose good sized purple flowers have white spurs. Spreading. 20cm.

Impatiens uniflora £4.50

Pink flowers in late summer on a branching 20cm plant.

Inula oculus-christi £4.50

Big, beautiful, very very fine rayed deep yellow daisies in summer. Height only 50cm. My favourite species in this sometimes dull genus.

Ipheion 'Alberto Castillo' £4

Very large, pure white flowered form of this well known clumping bulb for a sunny site. Found in an old garden in Buenos Aires by its namesake. The species of lpheion and Tristagma (which arguably should be a single genus) are poorly known and deserve more attention from gardeners and botanists.

Ipheion 'Jessie' £4

As prolific and hardy as uniflorum, but with almost as good a blue flower as Rolf.

Ipheion 'Rolf Fiedler' £3.50

An intense blue with rather rounded flowers. Less hardy, lower growing and perhaps an unknown species.

Ipheion sellowianum £3.50

Yellow with a brown streak on the backs, in spring. Much shorter than the unidentified species. Protect from slugs, and all will be well.

Ipheion uniflorum 'Charlotte Bishop' £4

Pink, quite large flowers.

Ipheion uniflorum ssp. tandiliense £4

Basically white, with a lilac tinge and vein, it's hard to say why this form is so very good. It has poise, something about the way it holds the flowers well above the tidy leaves - we'll put a picture on the website so you can see for yourself. Thanks to Ian Hunt, National Collection holder.

Ipheion sp. £4

An exciting winter grower which increases very slowly. Solitary goblet shaped buttercup yellow flowers on 10-15cm stems in winter, narrow green leaves from almost spherical small bulbs. We grow it in pots with a little winter protection.

Iris chrysographes black form £4

Beautifully shaped flowers on delicate 50cm stems over dense tufts of leaves in early summer; sun lovers. So dark a purple it looks black.

Iris confusa 'Martyn Rix' £5

Unlike anything else, unless you've seen the tender I. wattii which is even more extreme. Bamboo like stems to 1m topped by fans of pale green leaves, with branched inflorescences of many flat faced clear blue flowers. Grow it in a shady spot in moist soil; cut out the flowered stems after the flowers finish in early summer. Forms a biggish clump, so give it space somewhere it will blend into the scenery until flowering time.

Iris confusa hybrids £5

Stoutly clump forming cane formers around 70cm tall, with frilly yellow marked flowers of palest blue, we have two similar plants which came to us labelled with rather dubious parentages which we won't repeat here. In colder gardens, the flowers get frosted. You get nice big potsful.

Iris ensata 'Iso-no-nami' £4.50

Unlike some of the Japanese water irises, the light purple, neatly yellow-marked flowers, have exquisite form. The falls hang just so, and are not crumpled at all. Easy and floriferous in moister or wet soil, in sun. 1m.

Iris fulva £4.50

Flower colour a highly unusual terracotta. One of the easiest Louisiana Irises, needing a rich moist soil, in a warm sunny spot. They have fat creeping rhizomes just at ground level, much like the bearded irises but further spreading and vigorously clumping when suited. Best avoided in very cold areas. Height 50cm in flower.

Iris blue Louisiana hybrid £5

Scandalously out of order, to keep it with its relatives. Large flowers of a marvellous intense blue - some people might call it violet-blue but I definitely don't. Flowers freely every year for us. Thanks to Prof. Dick, who obtained it years ago in Iris Society circles.

Iris histriodes 'Major' £3.50

One of the early spring (winter, really) flowering bulbous sorts, with flowers of a very deep blue, marked white. A lovely thing which cheers us up when we come upon it on a miserable winter day.

Iris japonica 'Ledger' £4.50

Fans of evergreen leaves, with many smallish frilly white flowers in early spring. Height 45cm. For milder gardens or a pot with winter protection.

Iris japonica 'Variegata' AGM £4

A green and white, neatly variegated counterpart.

Iris x robusta 'Gerald Darby' £5

A stout clumper with striking purple bases to the leaves and nicely formed violet flowers on 1m+ stems. For moister (or downright wet) soils, in sun.

Iris versicolor 'Mysterious Monique' £4

Useful species this, making lusty evergreen clumps in moister places. But so many names, so many feeble watery coloured forms. You have to choose carefully and learn from other peoples mistakes!. This one is great, with purple standards and style crests; falls darkest purple, yellow and white at base with heavy purple veining. Thanks to both Grace Officer and John Carter for independent recommendations.

Isopyrum nipponicum £3.50

We have a soft spot for Ranunculaceous freaks. This is a soft leaved woodlander, pale yellowy leaves purple tinted when young, whose little flowers have a strange fleshy yellow corolla inside the purple calyx - for a parallel, think the reduced 'nectary' petals of hellebores. Very unlike I. thalictroides, but if you said it was I. ohwianum I wouldn't argue the toss. Seeds around amiably.

Ixia viridiflora £4

This is the Ixia you want... Good sized turquoise flowers with a maroon basal blotch in May, on upright (not top-heavy) spikes. Plenty of them too, not 2 or 3 on top of a long wispy stem. Winter growing, ideal for a pot in the unheated or greenhouse or alpine house, needing a dry summer dormancy. An absolute classic, but too rarely seen.

Jaborosa integrifolia £4

A solanaceous runner which throws up big white soapily fragrant flowers at ground level among leathery dark leaves. South-of-England-hardy.

Jeffersonia diphylla £3.50

American woodlander with white flowers in spring and distinctive lobed foliage. Forms striking 40cm high clumps in Lady Ann's Garden at Rosemoor.

Kalimeris mongolica £5

A real beauty in a weedy, often thuggish genus, this has big neat astery heads in a clear lilac, facing the sky on top of erect, self supporting stems to 1.2 m or so. Makes a decent clump of interesting, pinnately lobed leaves in a sunny spot, flowering in late summer.

Kniphofia

The Pokers, red hot or otherwise, suit a sunny position in soil which stays moist in summer (although excessive winter wet can be a problem for some).

Species:

Kniphofia buchananii £4

Slender, short spikes of little cream flowers on 75cm stems, grassy leaves. For interest, not garden clout. Rare.

Kniphofia ichopensis £4.50

Divisions of a selected seedling with red-brown flowers. One of the species with a delicate

inflorescence of well spaced, long, narrow, rather pendulous flowers. Worthy of, and requiring, a bit of care; a sunny, mild site, neither too dry nor too wet.

Kniphofia typhoides £4.50

Unlike anything else here with narrow reedmace-like spikes of hundreds of tiny brown flowers in October-November. Smart upright, rather twisted glaucous foliage. 1.5m. I really look forward to it flowering each autumn.

Cultivars: assume these are around 1m in height, unless we say otherwise.

Kniphofia 'Alcazar' £5

Glowing orange-red. 60cm.

Kniphofia 'Bees' Sunset' AGM £5

Hard to describe the colour, more buff than orange. Vigorous and nice. 75cm.

Kniphofia 'Candlelight' £4

Delicate little pokers, with good sized individual flowers, yellow from bright green buds. Floriferous and will repaet. Narrow leaves. 60cm.

Kniphofia 'Lord Roberts' £5

Slender red flowers in elegant, long dense heads. A large plant we coveted for years after we saw Bob Brown's plant in his stock bed years ago. Makes a large tall plant and sulks if too dry.

Kniphofia 'Star of Baden Baden' £5

A fine old greeny yellow bogbrush, but not the hardiest.

Kniphofia 'Sunningdale Yellow' AGM £5

Slender, pale yellow pokers; much admired. One of the most reliable repeat flowerers; and one of the earliest on the first flush.

Kniphofia 'Toffee Nosed' £5

Tan buds open cream. 1m. A good flowerer.

Lamium orvala 'Silva' £4

Classic early spring deadnettle which bursts out of the ground in bud, flowering as it expands to form its leafy late spring clump. This form is red-pink flowered, with a light silver stripe to the leaf.

Lamium orvala 'Album' £4

This time in white, very faintly tinged pink

Lachenalia aloides var. quadricolor £4

Winter grower, with spikes of long, tubular flowers, each with bands of orange, yellow, green and red to dazzling effect, in winter. It's water, not cold, that is the enemy of these dry-climate western Cape bulbs. They are easy in a cool green house or airy conservatory, given full light and a very gritty compost, watered modestly in winter and given a very dry summer bake. We grow loads of species, just for enjoyment, and bring them into the house at the peak of flowering for winter interest.

Lachenalia orthopetala £4

White, and one of the last to flower, in April. Narrow leaves and tough as they come - we left the pots outdoors all winter one year and they did just fine.

Lachenalia rubida £4

Dusky red flowers and rather spotty broad leaves - always the first to flower here in October -November.

Lathyrus aureus £4

Heads of golden toffee-brown pea flowers on the tips of 40cm stems. Pale green leaves. Like all the following, a tightly clump forming, hardy herbaceous perennial.

Lathyrus cirrhosus £5

Narrow, blue grey foliage forms a dense, bushy mound to 50cm or more, sort of half climbing by tendrils if given the chance. Pink flowers over a long season. Easy in sun, given reasonable drainage.

Lathyrus davidii £4

A much taller plant than aureus, with groups of light yellowy brown flowers.

Lathyrus laxiflorus £5

A pretty mat-former, rooted at the centre, with violet-blue flowers in summer. Can be trimmed back to tidy up and encourage repeat flowering. Sun. Evergreenish. Thanks to Miss Sylvia Norton, National Collection holder.

Lathyrus vernus pink £4.50

Compact plant, pink flowers (not bicolor).

Ledebouria cooperi £3.50

This tiny Scilla-like bulb has arresting purple and green pinstripe leaves and heads of deep purple flowers like tiny bunches of grapes in summer. Spreads to fill a pan or make a bold patch in the rock garden. Perfectly hardy here, maybe not in the Midlands. It's winter dormant and not succulent, quite unlike L. socialis and its kin.

Leucanthemum x superbum 'Eisstern' £4.50

An interesting double Shasta daisy, with a single ring of full length icy white rays, then a big step down in length to the neat 'anemone' centre. Can reach 1m, usually less. Thanks to Brian 'Avondale' Ellis.

Leucojum autumnale AGM £4

Another 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.

Libertia 'Amazing Grace' £5

A hybrid with much of the refined character of L. elegans. Arching stems with many small cream flowers in summer. 75cm. Sun and drainage.

Libertia 'Ballyrogan Blue' £4.50

A hybrid of caerulescens with more branched and substantial inflorescence. Hardy here.

Libertia breunioides £4

A dubious name for an interesting and different plant. Short (30cm) with large upward facing white flowers and fat orangey fruits. Rather broad green leaves tend to age orange. Thanks again to Janice Greening.

Libertia procera £5

Yet another dodgy name. Essentially, this is the biggest, butchest formosa you'll see, reaching 1.5m. Good white flowers.

Libertia tricocca HCM98.089 £4.50

Distinctive, with rather glaucous leaves in dense clumps, and little heads of cream flowers to 75cm. Chilean.

Lilium 'Ariadne' £4

Everyone wants North Lilies these days, bred in Scotland by the late Dr. North. I don't blame them. This is one of his earlier ones, reaching 1m with fragrant dusky pink Turk's Caps. Woodsy conditions.

Lilium canadense £5.50 FROM SPRING 2010

Nodding red flowers, yellowish and spotted inside; not a Turk's Cap type, but with flared tepals, like some sort of a lamp shade. Tall and lovely, needing moister soil than some. I'm no expert on this variable species, and one so seldom sees it in this country, but from its appearance and origin it seems to be the Appalachian var. editorum. Proper rare, this.

Lilium duchartrei £5

Pendulous fragrant white turk's cap flowers spotted with purple. 60cm.

Lilium philippinense £4 FROM SPRING 2010

Large fragrant white flowers at the tops of 50cm stems. Best given frost protection when dormant.

Lilium 'Rosemary North' £5

Dark purple spots on a peachy ground. One of Dr North's later selections.

Lilium xanthellum var. luteum £5 FROM SPRING 2010

From China: yellow, spotted flowers with recurved tepals on a stout plant. Rather recently described, and rare.

Liriope muscari gold variegated £5

Unusually, the variegation becomes more striking as the leaves age in summer. Spikes of purple flowers provide a nice contrast in late summer. 30cm. For sun (yes, it really does look best in full sun!)

Liriope muscari white variegated £4

Slightly narrower in the leaf, and shorter, with creamy white inflorescences.

Lupinus 'Thundercloud' £4.50

A clean old (pre-Russell) hybrid in a rather threatening purple. Scarce and in demand. Few.

Lychnis coronaria Gardeners' World £5

The double flowered prick-nose, (which doesn't, being sterile) has flowers of a rather deep, purplish pink. Good for it's different colour. The sterility is good if you want it to stay put, bad if you like rampant self-seeding (increase by spring division, incidentally).

Lychnis 'Hill Grounds' £5

A chance find in a Midland garden, this appears to be a hybrid between the two flannel leaved species coronaria and flos-jovis. The deep, loud magenta flowers continue for a very long season (it's sterile, also meaning that it doesn't seed around), and the plants have a good branching mutistemmed habit. A sound perennial which may well become one of the classics.

Lysimachia nemorum 'Pale Star' £4

Pale moonlit yellow to the usual sunshine of our native yellow pimpernel, a delicately textured but vigorously growing low woodland groundcover.

Lysimachia paridiformis ssp. stenophylla DJHC 704 £4

Short stems with crowded, juicy looking olive green leaves and bright yellow flowers. For shade.

Lysimachia yunnanensis £4

Rosettes of white-veined, grey-green leaves are very effective. Spikes of white flowers. Short-lived, but self-seeding benignly.

Lysionotus pauciflorus £4.50

This is a woody based, bushy, somewhat suckering evergreen perennial gesneriad for a sunny, well drained spot, covered in beautiful lavender flowers in autumn. It is hardy with us in Devon, and very slow-growing. Epiphytic in nature, it's fine in soil, but someone bought one to try in a tree fern trunk.

Maianthemum bicolor £4

A rather hairy North Korean, about 40cm, with greeny-cream flowers. Rare in gardens.

Maianthemum bifolium £4

A favourite woodland groundcover, related to lily-of the-valley. A forest of little bright green leaves spiking up from the dense rhizomes early in the year epitomizes spring. Small white flowers on 10cm stems in May. Ideal on heavy ground.

Maianthemum racemsoum 'Emily Moody' £5

Fluffy heads (bigger in this cultivar) of tiny, sweetly scented white flowers on slightly arching stems to 1m in early summer. Makes lovely solid clumps in moister soils.

Marshallia grandiflora £4.50

Having grown this little-known North American composite for a couple of years, we're quite

impressed by its purple-pink, rather scabious-like heads, over apple green leaves. Mound to 40cm; sun.

Matteucia orientalis £6

A very substantial deciduous fern with a creeping rhizome. When well established, the fronds approach 1m long, broad and arching. The fertile fronds are reduced, and stick up stiff and twisted, rather Blechnum-style, from late summer. The reputation for being a bit tender refers, I feel, to young fronds being susceptible to late frosts. The smallest we sell are in 2 litre pots.

Matteuccia struthiopteris AGM £4.50

The Ostrich Plume fern is unmistakeble as the unfurling fronds make narrow, vertical plumes. Clumps up freely in moister soil.

Matthiola fruticulosa 'Alba' £4

White stock flowers with a heavenly scent, and rosettes of grey leaves. Perennial, given full sun and very good drainage.

Meehania cordata £4

The North American representative of this small genus of creeping woodland labiates has clusters of little lavender flowers in spring, and is perhaps even tastier for slugs than it is attractive to us.

Melianthus major AGM £5

Classic bold, glaucous foliage plant. In its native South Africa it is quite a large shrub, but in all but the mildest gardens it's cut to the base by frosts late in the winter. Fresh shoots come up from below ground soon after. Under this regime it reaches 1m or a little more, and always looks its best, but doesn't produce its strange brown flowers which would spoil the effect anyway. Leaves and roots smell of peanut butter...

Mellitis melissophyllum 'Apple Blossom' NEW CULTIVAR NAME £4.50

Our native Bastard Balm is a deciduous, tightly clumping hardy perennial, with fuzzy balm-like foliage. The flowers are sage-like, with a big lip and have a lovely lemony fragrance. This exceptional form, propagated vegetatively, is white flushed a beautiful clear pink, especially at the edges. Sold for a couple of years as 'pink form' until we realized that other pink forms around are seed raised, different and simply not as pretty. Thanks to Roy Lancaster for suggesting the apt name.

Miscanthus sinensis varieties (all £4.50)

Great plants, but since nobody orders them, we'll shrink down to a list of names this year. 'China', 'Flamingo', 'Giraffe', 'Malepartus', 'Nippon'. Prettiest of all, the soft brown plumes of nepalensis, a different species.

Moraea aristata £3.50

Unlike the more familiar spathulata and huttonii from the summer rainfall area, this is a winter growing corm from the Cape Town area. The spring flowers are large and white with very conspicuous blue eyes.

Mukdenia acanthifolia £4

Does the same thing as the familiar rossii, but with different leaves. To me, it's the best.

Mukdenia rossii dwarf £4

Significantly smaller. (As you might have expected.)

Narcissus 'Cedric Morris' £4.50

Imagine a bog-standard yellow daffodil. Now shrink the whole plant to about 1/3 its previous size, and bring it into flower really early - sometimes well before Christmas. Rather charming.

Narcissus cyclamineus AGM £3.50

A lovely little species. The corolla segments ('petals') are swept right back 'like the laid back ears of a kicking horse' as Mr. Bowles put it. Narcissus romieuxii AGM £3.50

North African hoop-petticoat type, very short with big upfacing creamy white flowers, strongly fragrant, early in the New Year. Hardy, but best in a pot where you can keep it looking pristine and sniff it several times a day. The flower that makes January worthwhile.

Neomarica caerulea £4 FROM SPRING 2010

A fabuluous Brazilian irid with large, intense blue, (some would say intense violet) beautifully marked flowers on 1.5m stems in summer. Fans of broad blue-green leaves. Needs to be more or less frost-free during the winter, but certainly not a tropical subject. It can be flowered unprotected in coastal gardens round here.

Nerine bowdenii 'Mark Fenwick' £4

An intense magenta-pink, deciduous variety. Just like the familiar Nerines of the trade, but with the volume turned up high.

Nerine bowdenii 'Pink Surprise' £5

Large flowers, very pale pink with a darker median stripe. A very good plant, and as hardy as any other bowdenii. Clean looking and distinctive - they're sold within minutes of opening time at any autumn plant fair. Previously listed as 'pale pink striped darker'.

Nerina flexuosa alba £4

Large frilly white flowers in autumn; dark green leaves. A winter grower: except in the hottest sites it is best given winter protection.

Nerine 'Fucine' £5

A strong, deep pink evergreen variety, hardy here in South Devon. A bowdenii / sarniensis hybrid. It clamours for attention, quite irresistible.

Nerine 'Kashmir' £5

Another borderline hardy hybrid, this time pale pink. Thanks to Marion Wood.

Nerine 'Kinn McIntosh' £4.50

Hardy, and flowering around Christmas, this pink flowered plant is rather out of the ordinary. An outlandish hybrid, we suppose.

Nerine 'Lawlord' £5

A scarlet sarniensis type with dark green leaves.

Nerine 'Zeal Grilse' £5

One of the late Terry Jones' backcrosses of bowdenii x sarniensis back to bowdenii. The strategy was to combine the hardiness of bowdenii with the colour range of sarniensis. This one is salmon pink, and is proving a rather satisfactory plant all round.

Oenothera organensis £4

Large, butter yellow flowers over a long summer season. A compact bushy plant, to 75cm but often much less. Day flowering, and quite out of the ordinary.

Omphalodes cappadocica 'Parisian Skies' £4

Hearty, floriferous clumper, with sky blue flowers in this form.

Omphalodes cappadocica 'Starry Eyes' £4

,A white edge to the blue flower makes it stand out well in a shady place.

Ompahalodes verna and Omphalodes verna alba £4

Blue and white flowered forms of the classic woodland groundcover. Do specify which you want!

Ophiopogon

There's more to this genus than black leaves! Here are two very different variegated varieties.

Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Little Tabby' £4

Has the broad leaves of the black thing, but heavily striped lengthwise in dark green and cream. Easy, and much in demand.

Ophiopogon japonicus 'Nanus Variegatus' £4

Dwarfer, with very narrow leaves heavily striped white, with short spikes of lilac flowers. Very unusual, for well drained soil in the rock garden, sink or pots.

Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' £4

If you did want the black thing, I'm sure we could find you a nice one.

Orthrosanthus multiflorus £4.50

Southern irid with a succession of sky blue flowers on stems to 50cm in summer, needing a well-drained, sunny position outside in favoured spots, or the cool conservatory.

Oxalis oregana £4

No dangerous pinging seeds or ineradicable bulbils here. It's a quietly spreading American woodlander with softly hairy leaves and (in this form) dusky pink flowers. Useful for moister shade even on heavy soils.

Paeonia mlokosewitschii AGM £5 FROM SPRING 2010.

Divisions of the classic pale yellow herbaceous paeony.

Paesia scaberula £4.50

Creepy little fern with finely divided leaves. For a woodsy bed. A good clump of newly expanded fronds looks fantastic. Hardy except in really cold districts.

Panicum virgatum 'Dallas Blues' £4.50

A fine bold blue leaved selection of this North American grass. Broader in leaf than 'Praire Sky', taller too, up to 2m in the right conditions. Big purplish panicles. Full sun. We could also offer you P. v. 'Warrior', green leaved with red tinted inflorescences, to 1.8m.

Papaver orientale 'Beauty of Livermere' £4.50

Tall, with bright red flowers backed by leaf-like bracts. Terribly impressive.

Papaver orientale 'Fatima' £4.50

Pink and white, rather frilly flowers.

Papaver orientale 'Karine' AGM £4.50

Very compact, shallow bowl-shaped light salmon pink.

Papaver orientale 'Leuchtfeuer' AGM £4.50

Glowing orange with a hint of pink, compact.

Papaver orientale 'Patty's Plum' £4.50

Bulky, floriferous, indescribable purple/brown/red colour - now it's no longer the in thing you can plant it only when you have the perfect place for it...

Papaver orientale 'Pinnacle' £4.50

White fringed orange.

Papaver orientale 'Place Pigalle' £4.50

White petals vividly edged in red, a colour scheme more familiar in opium poppies than in orientals. A compact (45cm) variety.

Papaver orientale 'Raspberry Queen' £4.50

Bob Brown summed it up as 'Barbara Cartland with running mascara'.

Papaver Super Poppy series

American hybrids of, supposedly, complex parentage. In horticultural terms I'd sum them up as oriental poppies with thicker, tougher, glossy petals which means the flowers last quite a lot longer (this year a 'Jacinth' flower lasted 10 days even inside a polytunnel in sunny weather!). This is a very good feature.

Papaver 'Jacinth' (Super Poppy series) £5

Glossy red-pink.

Papaver 'Medallion' (Super Poppy series) £5

Purple pink, rather Patty's Plum-ish.

Papaver 'Tequila Sunrise' (Super Poppy series) £5

Rather frilly pinky orange..

Paradisea lusitanica £5

Fine upstanding spikes of good sized, pure white, flared trumpet shaped flowers in early summer. Good fertile garden soil in sun or part shade. Height approaches 1m with us.

Patrinia scabiosifolia £4

Tall species for the border, with nice pinnate leaves and bright yellow flowers. Usefully late flowering.

Pelargonium 'Renate Parsley' £4

Long-flowering ovale hybrid, with ovate grey leaves and small bicoloured flowers, the upper petals deep red, the lower pale pink. Much easier from cuttings than others of this type, important for us and you, since you'll want to root cuttings as an insurance and to refresh the plant every few years.

Pelargonium rodneyanum £3.50

Tuberous pelargoniums have a tricksy reputation, but this Aussie is perfectly easy, and hardy with us. Low and a bit spready, with lots of bright purple-pink flowers over a long summer season. Strangely uncommon.

Peltoboykinia watanabei £4

Deeply lobed, shining green peltate leaves up to 30cm across; creamy flower spikes; height around 40cm. A handsome foliage plant for a cool, moist position. A rare Japanese member of the Saxifragaceae.

Pennisetum orientale 'Robusta' £4.50

A notably taller form of this pretty grass, with upright pink-tinged bottlebrush flower spikes.

Penstemon hidalgensis £4.50

Thanks to the splendid Portland Pitmans, champions of all things Penstemon, for seed of this huge rare species from high altitudes in Mexico. In the wild it tops 1.8m, rather less in the garden. The stem leaves clasp the stem in opposite pairs, the flowers are purple and quite big. It remains to be seen how much protection it will need as a perennial. Keep the young plants we supply in the greenhouse or coldframe overwinter. In colder parts of the USA it can be grown as an annual, which may be the way forward here. Apart from Nold's book, we recommend the American Penstemon Society website for information on P. species.

Penstemon smallii £4

A smart species with big, toothed leaves, with a (healthy) brownish tint much of the time, and lilac flowers. 40cm.

Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Inverleith' £5

A short (max 75cm, often much less), compact and very well behaved form of this sometimes overbearing species. Short spikes of dark red flowers, handsome dark green foliage.

Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Taurus' £5

Similar flowers but quite a bit taller.

Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Rosea' £5

Up to 1m tall in good ground, making a very dense clump with slender spikes of pink flowers. Very attractive - used in quantity in the long borders at Rosemoor.

Persicaria bistorta 'Hohe Tatra' £4

A smart, very bright pink, relatively short form of another variable species; again, it does not seem as thuggish as many.

Persicaria polymorpha £5

The best of the tall white species, we reckon. Big panicles of white flowers, ageing pinkish. Can reach 2m when established. It does not run (honest, guv!), and is not picky about soil. Few.

Petasites paradoxus £4

As a rule, never trust a butterbur if you've less than half an acre to plant it in. This is a true exception, and beautiful to boot. Dense clumps of silvery foliage to 40cm. Small heads of gently fragrant flowers in late winter, before the new leaves.

Phegopteris decursive-pinnata £4

The Japanese Beech Fern. Gently spreading clumps of soft, pale green fronds, curled in at the tips and edges during spring, to excellent effect. A delicate-looking but easy little fern for a woodsy spot.

Phlox glaberrima 'Morris Berd' £4

A nice bushy herbaceous thing, with big pink flowers all over, rather than on top of the clump. Horticulturally, it's 'Bill Baker' with bigger flowers. From the USA.

Phlox paniculata 'Blue Paradise' £4.50

The bluest we know, a luscious colour in cool, moist weather; around 60cm. Like all the paniculata varieties, it has the classic summer evening fragrance.

Phlox paniculata 'Mary Christine' £4

Perhaps the scarcest of the variegated cultivars, tricksy to propagate and rarely seen. It has a clean white variegation with good sized pink flowers, much like the colour of the old indestructable passed on from one cottage garden to the next. The variegation varies a little from shoot to shoot, although is far from random; reversions are occasionally seen and should be removed. We gave our original plant to Sarah's Mum quite a few years ago, and she has come to think very highly of it. Thanks to Beeches Nursery and Kevin's turbocharged plantsmanship.

Phlox paniculata 'Monica Lynden-Bell' £4.50

Very pale pink from dark buds, and is shorter than some, around 60cm.

Phlox paniculata 'Tenor' £4.50

Deep salmon flowers, with leaves flushed purple in spring.

Phlox paniculata 'Utopia' £4.50

Really tall - 1.5m and self-supporting in Sarah's mum's garden, with very large dense heads of pale pink flowers again; not often seen and a great favourite of mine.

Pimpinella major 'Rosea' £4

A straightforward pink flowered umbellifer. 1m or so in flower, but delicate. Easy.

Pinellia pedatisecta £4

Pretty summer growing Asiatic aroid. Slender soft greeny yellow spathes to 30cm in early summer. Not a dangerous bulbil maker! Shade.

Plectranthus excisus £4

Forget the look of the tender species, and think of this as a hardy Coleus. The leaves are interesting - some gremlin has bitten the tip off each and replaced it with one that's too small. Dies down completely in winter.

Podophyllum peltatum £4

North America's May Apple is an attractive, slowly clumping woodland perennial, with pairs of smart peltate (that's umbrella-ish, crudely) leaves and a waxy white flower in the axil.

Podophyllum pleianthum £5

Perhaps the most satisfactory garden plant of the rather more exotic Asiatic species. Striking hexagonal leaves are apple green, and the nodding flowers are dark red and clustered, tho' a little smelly. Good woodsy conditions.

Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty' £6

Hybridists have been to work , combining good leaf markings with a vigorously clumping habit. This is an impressive plant when established in a woodsy bed, as at Rosemoor. Plant Breeders Rights, so we had to buy some little ones in for you and grow them on.

Polemonium caeruleum 'Pam' £4

A sweet little white-variegated form, blue flowered and mildew free.

Polemonium foliosissimum 'Cottage Cream' £5

Tall, self-supporting creamy white variety. Very tall says Sarah.

Polemonium 'Hannah Billcliffe' £5

Notably large flowers, starting lilac and ageing to a pale pinkish, giving a bicolored effect.

Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve' AGM £5

Mauve flowers over an exceptionally long season in spring and summer. Tough, compact, slightly spreading, up to 50cm tall and not prone to mildew. This is a plant which is common for all the right reasons.

Polemonium 'Northern Lights' £4.50

Short (30cm), with nice clear blue flowers

Polemonium reptans 'Stairway to Heaven' £4.50

Cream variegated leaves purple tinted when young, and blue flowered. Apparently disease free! So good we had to swallow our old fashioned propagators' pride and buy in some plugs, since it is protected by the dreaded Plant Breeders' Rights.

Polemonium reptans 'Virginia White' £4.50

Pure white, and spring flowering. Remove flowering stems as they go over to encourage repeating. Not for very dry sites.

Polemonium 'Sonia's Bluebell' £5

One of the most distinctive and sought after of the many hybrid polemoniums. Elegant, rather nodding, cup shaped flowers in clear blue. It's the colour of the Scottish bluebell (harebell to us southerners) rather than the English Scilla. Less prone to mildew than many. Few.

Polemonium yezoense 'Purple Rain' £4

The purple-leaved Jacob's Ladder was done a great disservice by being distributed as a very variable seed strain. Having no truck with that sort of thing, we've obtained a really well coloured one and increased it by division. Leaflets smaller and more than in caeruleum, flowers more violet than blue.

Polygonatum cirrhifolium £4

Whorls of delicate leaves and nodding little lilac bells on slender stems to 45cm. Shoots erupt from creeping rhizomes so late in the spring you fear something's wrong, and flower within a fortnight. For a humusy soil in some shade.

Polygonatum x hybridum AGM £4.50

Another example of a plant which is common for the best reasons. This hybrid is the usual Solomon's Seal of gardens, in this clone quickly making a dense, almost weed-proof patch of elegantly arching flowering stems with all the grace of the species. About 60cm tall. No berries, unfortunately. For a rich, moist soil, best in light shade.

Polygonatum odoratum 'Flore Pleno' AGM £4.50

Classic Solomon's Seal, with interesting double flowers. 30cm here. It bulks up beautifully in a rich moist soil.

Polygonatum aff. roseum £4

A rarely seen miniature, with wiry 10cm stems and small leaves. The flowers are pinkish and nodding: the translucent red berries are a joy. Collected on Kanchenjunga years ago, and probably not roseum itself.

Polygonatum sibiricum DJHC 600 £4

Dan Hinckley collected seed from a plant in Sichuan, which had blue fruits, narrow leaves up to 12cm long, and which reached 3.9m in height through the lower branches of a larch. With us, the flowers are brown. These are divisions of one of the seedlings he raised. Quite how to make it grow this tall remains to be seen, but the ends of the leaves twist round as if they want to help it cling to other plants

Polypodium cambricum 'Pulcherrimum Addison' £6

One of the nicest mutant polypodies (there are hundreds, and we only want the nicest ones). The fronds are bipinnate, i.e. divided once more than normal, have quite a neat, substantial look and tend to be held quite upright. The young fronds are curved in at the edges. Very distinctive. Found on Whitbarrow, a massive lump of limestone above Morecambe Bay, in 1861.

Polypodium cambricum 'Richard Kayse' £5

Bipinnate, but much less so, and flat as anything, giving a lovely lacy effect. First found near Cardiff in the 17th Century and recollected in the late 20th century from the type locality, and is presumed to be the original clone. One of the first we grew, having picked it out, quite naively, from Martin Rickard's erstwhile National Collection of the genus, without knowing its rarity and the great price it normally attracts (we learned that the hard way before we left).

Polypodium cambricum 'Prestonii' £8

This time the pinnae are lacerated, but not very deeply, are rather broad and overlap quite a bit. It's beautiful and very distinct from all the others we list. Came into cultivation by way of a nasty little bit of eco-vandalism by one of the old-time fern collectors, but all we can do now is cherish both the plant and the remaining limestone pavements of north-west England.

Polypodium cambricum 'Falcatum O'Kelly' £6

Compared with all the others we list, the pinnae are almost entire, but curve round towards the frond apex, giving a narrow, forward-swept outline to the arching fronds, which move in the wind more than others. Distinct and lovely. Originated in the Burren a century ago.

Polypodium glycyrrhiza 'Malahatense' £4

Bipinnatifid, sterile form of a North American species, found in British Columbia. They say the rhizomes taste sweet - I'm yet to be convinced.

Polystichum acrostichoides £4

The Christmas Fern of the American north east has distinctive narrow, coarsely lobed, rather upright fronds. Useful for cutting in winter. Moister shade.

Polystichum setiferum 'Pulcherrimum Bevis' AGM £4.50

You probably know the old classic, which commanded a big price from nurseries; you may have greened with envy at the way the Savill Garden could plant them, almost casually, by the dozen, to great effect. Without resorting to technicalities, the frond is very elegant, long and slender, nicely tapering, with well spaced pinnae. It produces offests, but not very freely, so the crowns get big and uncrowded, and the price stayed high. It's been tissue cultured, which is why you see it all over the place at ordinary prices now. It does not look quite right. Partly this is because the plants are quite small (i.e. not 1m tall) when you get them, partly it's because they have lots of little crowns, crowded together, which over time you might want to separate - we've started doing this for you on these. But still, I think it's an open question whether they will look exactly like the original in the end (we do have old, pre-TC stock for comparison but not (yet) for sale). They do, however, look extremely similar, and they make very nice plants. These plants are from tissue culture. So now you know (maybe). P.S. almost nobody asks us for it, despite our price being competitive. Don't go imagining you're getting non-TC plants from anyone else unless they actually tell you so. Even then, you might want to ask them to swear it's not a division from previously tissue cultured stock. I'm not bitter...

Primula 'Arduaine' ? £4

This lovely petiolarid with icy blue flowers in very early spring, clustered in the bowl of a farinose rosette, came to us as P. whitei. We find it entirely growable in pots in a cool position here in South Devon. As far as I can tell, it must be the hybrid with P. bhutanica, named 'Arduaine' (pronounced Arrdoony, I believe), although in our inexpert hands it doesn't quite make the bowlfuls of blue soup you sometimes see on the AGS showbench.

Primula 'Barbara Midwinter' £4

On the scale of a primrose, with deep carmine flowers with well separated petals, through the winter. Distinctive leaves. Really special. juliae x (megaseifolia x juliae).

Primula 'Blue Riband' £3.50

A compact primrose with large violet blue flowers in spring.

Primula 'Clarence Elliott' £3.50

Perhaps the most satisfactory allionii hybrid: vigorous and floriferous. Large lilac, yellow centred flowers in early spring, glaucous leaves. Alpine house or perfectly drained sink.

Primula Cowichan polyanthus

We're not plant snobs, honest guv. A good polyanthus is a lovely thing, especially when used for its colour and form rather than in a jazzy bedding scheme. Barnhaven's Cowichan seed strains with their prolific, normal sized (i.e. not blowsy giant) flowers with only small yellow eyes are great, but almost uniquely in the nursery trade we go on to select elite clones and propagate them vegetatively, taking care not to transmit virus in the process.

Primula Cowichan Amethyst £3.75

Deep plummy violet-blue.

Primula Cowichan Garnet £3.75

Selected for good deep red-brown with tiny eye.

Primula Cowichan Yellow £3.75

Yellow with red tinted stem and calyx).

Primula Cowichan Venetian £3.75

An almost indescribable glowing red with a hint of brown.

Primula double primroses:

Primula 'Captain Blood' £3.75

Dark red double.

Primula 'Dawn Ansell' £3.75

A pure white double jack.

Primula 'Lilacina Plena' £3.75

A mauvy pink double, vigorous and highly satisfactory.

Primula 'Gigha' £3.75

Not cream but white flowered ordinary primrose from the eponymous Hebridean island.

Primula munroi £3.50

A large flowered, deep lilac, high altitude form, flowering 10-15cm high. Humusy soil.

Primula 'Ingram's Blue' £4

A distinctive old poly. The deep violet blue, yellow eyed flowers hang slightly on long pedicels. Choice.

Primula x pubescens 'Christine' £3.75

A robust hybrid auricula with red-purple flowers, growable in the open garden. I'm not a huge auricula fan, but this is lovely.

Primula sieboldii 'Duane's Choice' £4

A brash American dude. It's the one of the best clones of the sort which has dark backs and pale fronts to the divided petals, in this case a strong purple pink back giving excellent contrast. The flowers are large, and the edges of the petals tend to curl forwards, showing the backs. All our sieboldiis are propagated vegetatively. They go down to underground crowns in winter. Drought is their enemy.

Primula sieboldii 'Dart Rapids' £4

We've taken pains to select an equally good, but far more refined and English counterpart. Again it has a pale face and strongly coloured reverse, this time in very pale / really deep lavender, and with entire petals.

Primula sieboldii 'Pago Pago' £3.75

This name refers to a seed strain, of which this is a selected clone. Moderately sized flowers of an intense magenta-pink, not at all frilly.

Primula sieboldii 'Snowflake' £3.75

Pure white and very feathery.

Primula 'Sir Bedivere' £3.50

Little primrose, dark purplish red flowers with starry yellow eye, red petioles.

Primula 'Tie Dye' £3.75

Ginormous, awesome / mega-gross polyanthus with violet, white-streaked flowers. You can thank, or blame, Dan Heims.

Primula 'Tomato Red' £4

Depending on the weather, the colour is of sliced or whole tomatoes, at varying stages of nearly-ripeness. A floriferous primrose, which is unambiguously attractive, despite any other impression my attempts at accuracy might convey.

Pulmonaria 'Benediction' £4.50

We've broken our 'no Pulmonarias cos nobody buys them' rule already. 'Benediction' is not only so very good - a rich true blue with nice round spots, it also remains quite hard to obtain.

Ranunculus acris 'Flore Pleno' £4

The fully double Meadow Buttercup is a safe, easy perennial for the more or less sunny, not too dry border. Few.

Ranunculus ficaria cultivars

These are Lesser Celandines, which can be a bit invasive. (Just making sure you knew.)

Ranunculus ficaria var. aurantiacus £3.25

Rich orangey fowers, leaves marked silver and black.

Ranunculus ficaria 'Elan' £3.25

Pale yellow petals, regular double.

Ranunculus ficaria 'Jake Perry' £3.25

Pale lemon, grey backed single flowers contrast well with black-purple tinted leaves. Very telling when caught by a ray of early spring sunshine. Wendy 'Bosvigo' Perry's selection.

Ranunculus ficaria 'Ken Aslet double' £3.25

White, grey backed petals, regular.

Ranunculus ficaria 'Modern Art' £3.25

Unusual wavy outline to the leaves - they look almost lobed. Rarely seen. Thanks to Ruth Boundy.

Ranunculus ficaria 'Ragamuffin' £3.25

A seriously weird mutant, a full double in which the 'petals' are thick and leafy in texture, yellow and dark green. Strangely attractive.

Ranunculus ficaria 'Witchampton' £3.25

Silver mottled leaves, ordinary yellow flowers.

Ranunculus repens 'Snowdrift' £3.75

This time very heavily white-variegated. Shyer flowering, less vigorous, but even so...

Rheum kialense £4 FROM SPRING 2010

Big needn't be best in the rhubarb world. This dinky species rarely gets above 40cm in height, is always pretty, but I love it best just before the flowers open in spring: the inflorescences look like white sausages dotted with red. Sun, reasonable drainage: and don't put it in a crumble.

Rodgersia aesculifolia AGM £5

Splendid horsechestnutty foliage, white flowers. To 1.5m when established. Moist soil.

Rodgersia 'Buckland Beauty' £5

Big bold leaves, flowers a strong clear pink, going over to dark red. One of the very best.

Rodgersia pinnata 'Superba' AGM £5

Bold foliage, bronzy pink when young, red tinted later, and bright reddish pink flowers on red stems. Very lovely, for moist soil in sun or part shade. Take note, ye who care, these are divisions, not the variable seedlings so commonly offered.

Rodgersia pinnata L1670 £5

Roy Lancaster's Chinese collection, with typical pseudo-pinnate leaves (unlike the palmate leaves of 'Superba') yielded several subtly different seedlings at Spinners. Divisions of them all were at first circulated, before it was realized that one seedling had better colouration than the rest - it has now been named 'Jade Dragon Mountain': we have it, but it's on a sabbatical year. The plant we offer this year came from one of the earlier distributions. It looks extremely similar, with red-pink flowers ageing to deep red on good red stems.

Rodgersia podophylla 'Rotlaub' £5

This species is valued for the distinctive large leaves, with 5 to 7 big, blunt ended, jaggedly toothed leaflets arranged almost as a circle. It spreads freely in moist shade to form dramatic clumps. 'Rotlaub' is an Ernst Pagels selection with red tinted leaves.

Rodgersia podophylla 'Smaragd' £5

As above, but with dark green leaves and airy inflorescences of white flowers. Pagels' again.

Romanzoffia tracyi £3.75

Tidy cushions of dark, shiny round green leaves all through winter and spring. Lots of pure white flowers in spring. Summer dormant. Easily spread by lifting its small tubers when dormant. It comes from moist cliff habitats on the Western seaboard of the USA, and appreciates a moist, well drained soil in at least partial shade. Easy, and like nothing else.

Roscoea

Splendid, fully herbaceous members of the ginger family, from the Sino-Himalayan region. Grow them in a humus rich acidic soil in part shade, and don't let them dry out when in growth. They spend an extended winter underground. All ours are propagated by division. They may not come into growth until May, so do not panic!

Roscoea auriculata 'Floriade' £4.50

Rich purple flowers in July, with a sharply contrasting white bit in the middle (there's technical for you). In a species which varies a great deal in colour intensity and impact of the flowers, this cultivar stands right out.

Roscoea x beesiana Cream Group £4.50

Strong growing, to 40cm. Lots of big creamy flowers over an extended season. Large. To my mind, the best of the creamy yellows. The naming of these hybrids has, at long last, been sorted out (see The Plantsman, June '09 - well, you ought to see every issue, really).

Roscoea x beesiana 'Monique' £4.50

White, not cream flowers on a vigorous plant. Variable purple veining on the lip. Long season.

Roscoea cautleoides 'Early Purple' £4

The first to flower here, short and stout, a nice soft purple.

Roscoea cautleoides 'Kew Beauty' AGM £4.50

Particularly fine pale yellow flowers, taller and more slender.

Roscoea humeana 'Rosemoor Plum' £4.50

Stocky, deep plum purple and clumping up well. May flowering.

Roscoea purpurea 'Brown Peacock' £6

As above, with brown-tinted foliage.

Roscoea purpurea 'Purple Streaker' £5

A splendid short stocky plant with big flowers shockingly bicolored purple and white.

Roscoea purpurea 'Red Gurkha' £7.50

The one everyone's been asking for. The flowers really are red, large too, on a short stout plant with dark red pseudostems. It's very late into growth (June - so mark the place and be very patient!) and late flowering too (mid-August -September). If delivered in spring, keep in its pot until well into growth.

Roscoea scillifolia f. scillifolia £4

The mini-roscoea, this year in its soft pink form rather than the black we've listed for some years.

Rudbeckia subtomentosa £4.50

Long narrow yellow rayed daisies, small brown centres. Open plant to 1m.

Rudbeckia triloba £4.50

A much branched plant covered in small yellow, brown centred daisies in late summer to early autumn. Sometimes short lived, keep seed.

Salvia aurea 'Kirstenbosch' £5

A bushy little shrub with smooth grey resin scented leaves. The big, shoe-polish brown, clove scented flowers are backed by large, long lasting calyces. Very, very different. This form reaches 1m in South Africa, less here. Best some winter protection. Sun.

Salvia 'Black Knight' £5

A tall (up to 2m) hybrid with impressive dark purple flowers in dark calyces. Not the hardiest, although probably tougher than the rather similar 'Purple Majesty'.

Salvia concolor (not guaranitica!) £5 - very much subject to crop!

A tall plant, 2m+, with long showy spikes of bright blue flowers late in the year. The foliage is superficially patens-like, with distinctive blue petioles. Borderline hardy, best in shade. (A customer keeps it outside in sun, with a mulch, on heavy ground near chilly Grantham, Lincs.)

Salvia confertiflora £4.50

Red-brown hairy inflorescences of crowded orange flowers, to excellent effect, from late summer until the frosts. It's a tenderish plant from Brazil, best planted out for the summer and overwintered in the greenhouse from cuttings taken in summer. 1m.

Salvia corrugata £5

Dark green, tough, very deeply veined leaves, rusty beneath. Luscious dark blue flowers, best and earlier on plants overwintered, but needing protection in most areas. From Ecuador.

Salvia greggii , microphylla and x jamensis (their hybrid) forms - all £4.50

These share the familiar wiry bush form, eventually topping 1m, quite hardy (certainly up to bad winters in the Cotswolds - that makes Sunderland look subtropical, you Northern cynics) given sun and perfect drainage. Tidy them up in spring, once you know what's what. A few cuttings as an insurance are always wise.

Salvia greggii 'Desert Blaze' £4.50

Cream-edged leaves and red flowers.

Salvia greggii 'Stormy Pink' £4.50

Dusky pink flowers from dark calyces.

Salvia microphylla 'Newby Hall' £4.50

Scarlet flowers, combining brilliantly with the pale green leaves, and has a good hardiness record.

Salvia microphylla 'San Carlos Festival' £4.50

From the USA and a warm purplish pink, hard to describe, but very pleasing.

Salvia x jamensis 'Hot Lips' £4.50

White with red tips to the lower petal, but temperature sensitive, sometimes veering off into all white or all red for a few weeks.

Salvia x jamensis 'Raspberry Royale' £4.50

Raspberry red.

Salvia x jamensis 'La Luna'£4.50

Cream.

Salvia x jamensis 'Sierra San Antonio' £4.50

Floriferous; large rich cream lower lip, pink tube and red upper lip and throat - the colour scheme is sliced strawberries with clotted cream. Very pretty indeed.

Salvia involucrata 'Hadspen' £4.50

Proves hardy in a sheltered position in southern English gardens. Makes a big clump of stems to 1m or more, topped in autumn by spikes of deep red-pink flowers, larger and darker than in 'Bethellii', with a tuft of pink bracts at the tip.

Salvia 'Mulberry Wine' £4.50

An involucrata hybrid, and much better. It flowers earlier, and while they lack the weird bract, the flowers are a warmer, redder colour.

Salvia nemorosa 'Carradonna' £4

Superlative form of the classic smaller herbaceous species. Good purple flowers on very dark stems. 60cm.

Salvia pratensis forms

A tough, hardy, floriferous, entirely herbaceous species; all these forms are by division:

Salvia pratensis 'Lapis Lazuli' £4

Clear pink.

Salvia pratensis 'Indigo' AGM £5

Dark violet blue.

Salvia pratensis 'Albiflora' £4

White, very rarely seen.

Salvia 'Silas Dyson' £4.50

A twiggy, fairly hardy maroon flowered hybrid from the excellent Dyson's Nursery in Kent. Looks quite like a microphylla or jamensis.

Salvia 'Silke's Dream' £5

First-rate recent hybrid (darcyi x microphylla) with long spikes of orange-red flowers, summer to autumn. Reasonably hardy given sun and good drainage.

Salvia 'Waverly' £4.50

Recent leucantha hybrid with bigger pale flowers, but less of the wooly purpleness.

Sanguisorba

Stout perennials for the border, all with smart pinnate leaves and bottle-brush flower heads late in the summer. Generally best in full sun and a moist, fertile soil. See Julian's comprehensive article in The Plantsman for June 07 (brag, brag). I've given up following the Plant Finder on some of these cos I think I know better. So there.

Sanguisorba albiflora £5

A shorter plant, of the obtusa persuasion, at 60cm or so. White flowers in chunky bottle brushes.

Sanguisorba canadensis £5

Tall and stately, approaching 2m in flower with long slender white inflorescences on red stems.

Sanguisorba aff. hakusanensis £5

A solid, compact one with fat pink inflorescences. 1m.

Sanguisorba magnifica £6

Michael Wickenden's unique collection from the Russian Far East, a distinct regional variant of the obtusa complex. 50cm, with grey green leaves and drooping, soft pink bottle brushes. Found on limestone cliffs (never a good sign) but has proved itself easy in the company of Acanthus spp. on the edge of a really sunny bank, where our heavy wet soil dries out in summer. Rather splendid.

Sanguisorba menziesii £5

Very distinctive blue-green foliage with reddish petioles. Maroon, drooping inflorescences. 60cm or so.

Sanguisorba obtusa white flowered £4

A white flowered form of this stout, splendidly glaucous leaved species. Not typical albiflora.

Sanguisorba officinalis early form £5

June flowering, about 1.6m tall with ovoid maroon inflorescences and well textured pinnate leaves. Passed around in the UK as stipulata which, bluntly, it is not. I rate it highly. Thanks to Paul 'Abbey' Bygrave.

Sanguisorba officinalis 'Tanna' £4.50

A short (30cm), densely running, front of border plant with round leaflets and deep red globular flower heads.

Sanguisorba 'Pink Tanna' £4.50

Taller, around 60cm, wiry and with the same running habit. Clear pink, upright, slender flower spikes in early summer. A hybrid from Coen Jansen, and one of our favourites.

Sanguisorba tenuifolia var. parviflora £5

Very like the previous plant, but the leaflets are even narrower and held more or less horizontal even when the plane of the leaf is inclined steeply upwards. This all sounds rather technical but the effect is very beautiful.

Sanguisorba tenuifolia var. purpurea £5

A nice plant, but to optimists the name implies really dark purple flowers. They are purple, but at the red-pink end of that difficult colour. 1m-ish. Late flowering with us.

Sauromatum venosum £4.50

Bold, arisaema-like aroid. Very late into growth. Bold leaves with 9 leaflets, pale green petioles splodged purple. Long, horizontal, spotty spathes before the leaves in spring. Smells of a long-dead animal eaten then vomited by a dog. Can be hardy if mulched well. Very embarrassingly, previously sold as Amorphophallus bulbifer .

Saxifraga fortunei 'Black Ruby' £4

Dark, almost black foliage; red-pink flowers in autumn. Height 20cm, for moist soil in shade.

Saxifraga fortunei 'Mount Nachi' £4

Another nice form, with bronzed foliage, brown even, and good sized inflorescences of contrasting white flowers.

Saxifraga fortunei 'Wada' £4

Larger copper tinted leaves, and taller in flower, reaching 50cm.

Saxifraga epiphylla 'Little Piggy' £3.75

Small dense rosettes of peculiarly thick, stiff, dark green, kidney shaped leaves which are spectacularly red veined underneath, requiring some effort to admire them since they are very close to the ground. Tiny plantlets are produced where the leaf lamina meets the petiole. The white flowers have ridiculously elongated lower petals. For a cool safe place in a humusy soil. Decidedly odd, but very attractive to those of us who are prepared to look closely.

Saxifraga nipponica 'Pink Pagoda' £4

Evergreen hairy leaves in low mounds. Lots of pink flowers in 30cm inflorescences. For moister shade.

Scabiosa farinosa £4

This sub-shrubby species has splendid thick, glossy dark green leaves, and forms a dense, low dome. Pale lavender blue flower heads are carried on short stems. Cuttings or seed are easy if after a few years it gets a bit twiggy. Unlike anything else we know, we've had it for 20 years and would not be without it.

Schizostylis coccinea palest pink £4.50

In the search for a really excellent white, we've acquired all sorts of things which don't quite make it. This one (a Kevin Marsh special) is excellent, absolutely not white, but a well formed delicate pastel pink, with plenty of substantial flowers.

Schizostylis coccinea alba good form £4.50

We'd really like to thank the several people who've sent us their best white forms. This is, to us, the best we've seen. While the flowers are more starry (i.e. with narrower tepals) than some of the best pinks, they are much larger and more impressive than the sorts one usually sees. Also, it seems to get rust less readily than most. Thanks to Rob Senior for this good plant.

Scilla autumnalis £3.50

Our native, violet flowered Autumn Squill. From cultivated stock originating on the South Devon coast. Flowers in high summer here. For rock garden etc where it seeds around benignly.

Scilla hohenackeri BSBE 811 £3.50

30cm winter grower with impressive puplish blue flowers in early spring. Makes a good clump. Hardy, from Kurdistan.

Scilla lingulata S&F253 £3.50

The 10cm spikes of light blue flowers emerge with, not before the rosette of tongue shaped leaves, in September. A tightly clumping bulb. Leave in one pot for several years - a good dense colony looks a treat.

Scilla persica £3.50

Lots of small soft blue flowers in a big airy spike to 30cm tall. More delicate than the imposing heads of peruviana, but still one of the large species.

Scilla peruviana

At long last we have several clones to offer from our large (too large Sarah tells me) collection of this variable Iberian / North African species. This is a large, winter growing, more-or-less summer dormant bulb, hardy in a sunny place which dries out in summer. Flowers are many, in large, pyramidal inflorescences in spring. The larger the bulb, the bigger the inflorescence.

Scilla peruviana'Alba' £4

White flowers.

Scilla peruviana var. elegans £5

Dark violet flowers.

Scilla peruviana 'Hughii' £5

Purple buds open lilac-blue.

Scilla peruviana var. venusta £5

Attractive long, hanging bracts; many small light blue flowers.

Scilla verna £3.50

Our native Spring Squill. Tiny bulbs with ground level leaves and pale blue flowers in spring. Quickly bulks up to form a fine colony in the rock garden or a pan. Sun. From a cultivated stock originating from West Cornwall. Some of the Continental forms seem less tight to the ground.

Sedum varieties £4

Three of our favourites among the (far too) many big herbaceous cultivars:

Sedum 'Carl' £4

Lovely bright pink, tinge of red in the glaucous leaf, very compact.

Sedum 'Matrona' £4

Pink flowers in large heads, leaves tinged purple.

Sedum 'Xenox' £4

30cm, with dark leaves (spilt toner?) and reddish flowers.

Semiaquilegia ecalcarata £4

Little spurless violet aquilegia flowers on a well branched 50cm plant. An old favourite returns.

Semiaquilegia ecalcarata Australian form £4

Unusual pale pink (and rather shorter) strain of the spurless mini-columbine, introduced from Aussie cultivation by Rosy and Rob Hardy. Grows and flowers as easily as the normal sort, unlike that infuriating bicolor which I swear has been genetically engineered to fail on any nursery more than 5 miles from Caernarvon...

Sempervivum 'Bronco' £3.75

Just to keep you on your toes, a house leek. A good 'un, though, with nice red tinted rosettes, pink flowers and a hearty constitution.

Sempervivum 'Othello' £4

Huge dark red (in sun) pseudo-echeveria rosettes. Some people are amazed that it's a sempervivum at all.

Sempervivum 'Red Delta' £3.50

Smaller, cobwebby rosettes, still a good red.

Senecio polyodon £3.75

One of the purple flowered South African species, with quite a few smaller daisies in a head, seeding around benignly in sunny, well drained places. Height around 50cm. Short-lived perennial.

Senecio pulcher £5

Very large, vivid magenta, yellow-eyed daisies over dark, glossy, leathery leaves. Runs gently in rich, not boggy soil in full sun. Hardy south and west, as a rule of thumb. 40cm. Best of all, it flowers in October!

Sidalcea reptans £5

A little creeping, pink flowered wetland species from the American West. Rarely seen in cultivation.

Silene dioica 'Inane' £4.50

Purple leaved male red campion. Very effective.

Siphocranion macranthum £4.50

Many, rather floppy stems carry small hairy leaves which take on purple tints and look, rather than feel, wonderfully velvety. Bright, rich purple flowers like a narrowly tubular snapdragon, in autumn. Very distinct. For a moist-but-well-drained soil away from bright sunlight. Sisyrinchium palmifolium £4.50

The combination of bright yellow flowers and large, bold fans of leaves is unusual in a Sisyrinchium. Height to 50cm, not invasive.

Smilacina see Maianthemum

Soldanella villosa £3.50

Perhaps the easiest of a famous genus, and certainly one of the most substantial. Rounded hairy leaves, frilled bell shaped violet-blue flowers on stems to 20cm in summer. For a moist but well-drained soil in a cool position.

Speirantha convallarioides £4

Dark green leaves and fragrant flowers, white as white, in late spring. Less spready than Lily of the Valley, but similar in scale, and quite closely related. For humusy shade.

Spiranthes cernua odorata 'Chadd's Ford' £3.75

An easy orchid, related to the Autumn Lady's Tresses. Tall, to 45cm, spikes of little white fragrant flowers in autumn. Gently spreading. Suits the rock garden or well drained front of border in sun.

Stachys balcanica £4

Very hairy grey-green leaves; white flowers with a hint of pink. 30cm tall. Sun, good drainage.

Stachys macrantha 'Robusta' AGM £4.50

An excellent, large flowered plant for near the front of the border. Pinky purple.

Stachys ossetica £4.50

Large, pale creamy yellow flowers; dark green textured leaves. 30cm. Very different, very beautiful. Sun and good drainage.

Stachys thunbergii £4

A useful and highly attractive plant - the name seems to have settled now (previously listed tentatively as ciliata). Low and spreading without rooting, rather in the manner of Diascia rigescens, it has dark green, shiny leaves and deep maroon flowers over a long season from early summer to autumn.

Sternbergia lutea Angustifolia Group £4

Narrow leaved form of this easy bulb which brings sunshine to the September rock garden.

Stipa gigantea 'Gold Fontaene' £5

Ordinary S. gigantea is a grand grass, with its airy, oaty flower heads lasting well into winter. This is just the same, but even taller and with slightly broader inflorescences. Has reached 2.5m with us. Sun and... space.

Strobilanthes nutans £4

Forms a nice dense weedproof clump in shade under large shrubs. In late summer, hanging inflorescences of pure white flowers appear. Found by the late Edward Needham as an epiphyte in Nepalese cloud forest, it is vigorous and hardy in our coldest, wettest spot; less reliable in colder parts of the UK.

Strobilanthes wallichii £4

A dwarf, forming a dense clump of pale green foliage, only about 30cm high. It's highly floriferous: flowers are pale violet, in early autumn. Sun or light shade.

Strobilanthes rankanensis £4

Our well established clump is huge and spectacular. Stems grow up steadily from a tough rootstock as the year progresses. By late summer it is a dome 1.8m in height and width. For several weeks in autumn, the dome is covered in a succession of large, light purple flowers. For rich soil in some shade.

Symphytum 'Rubrum' £4

Most symphytums are either monolithic, dangerously invasive, or cringeing weeds. This noble exception forms a neat little clump, around 30cm in height, with nodding, wine red flowers in early summer. A sweetie.

Symplocarpus foetidus £6

The Skunk Cabbage of the American Northeast is a real hard nut compared with the western and Asiatic Lysichiton species. Like them, it's a wet-ground plant in nature, but is certainly trickier to establish in the bog garden and for us grows well in large pots of ordinary potting compost, watered only adequately in spring and summer, fairly dry in winter. Very early into growth and flower, with snow and soil frozen hard, the spadix heats up to prevent freezing. The ground-level spathe is short and leathery, dirty green flecked red-brown. It's a fascinating and rare curiosity in cultivation, rather than a great beauty. These are divisions of a plant we've grown for years. FEW.

Synthyris sp. (big) £4

American Veronica relative. Rounded, dark evergreen leaves. Spikes of blue flowers to 30cm or more. For light shade.

Thalictrum cultratum £4

One of those minus types which you grow for the lovely, stiff, very finely divided foliage which is held with great poise. The flowers are a pleasant brown. 50cm.

Thalictrum delavayi var. decorum £4

Large violet flowers on a fairly tall plant. Straightforward and good.

Thalictrum delavayi 'Album' £4.50

A border stalwart; completely anthocyanin free so the flowers are white white white and the leaves clear light green. Sooooo fine.

Thalictrum 'Elin' £5

A spectacularly tall, and self-supporting Swedish hybrid which gets its purple tinted stems and violet flowers from rochebrunianum, and its glaucous leaves and height (3m+) from flavum var. glaucum.

Thalictrum flavum var. glaucum short form £4.50

Thanks to Jane Henry of the late lamented Churchills Garden Nursery at Chudleigh for this interesting plant. Glaucous and yellow flowered but under 1m in height. These are divisions of seedlings of her original find, which came true.

Thalictrum flavum 'Illuminator' £4.50

An old plant. The young foliage is a lovely light yellow, and much of this colouring persists for many weeks. These are divisions of our good plant. We think that most seedlings are inferior, although some nurserymen admit to doing it by seed.

Thalictrum kiusianum £3.50

The midget we first met as stunning panfulls on the AGS showbench. Lilac flowers on a very short (15cm) plant.

Thalictrum uchiyamae £4.50

For us, a splendid tall (1.8m) upright thing with good sized lilac flowers and pretty green leaves with rounded leaflets.

Tricyrtis

The Toad Lilies are autumn flowering plants for moist soil in some shade.

Tricyrtis formosana 'Dark Beauty' £4.50.

About as dark and as blue as they get.

Tricyrtis hirta £4.50

Our form, which goes back to Washfield again is notably pale, so the spots stand out particularly well.

Tricyrtis ishiiana £4

Utterly different: arching stems carry mustard yellow, nodding flowers which remain half closed and hence bell shaped. Great sprawling over a rock on a moist shady slope.

Tricyrtis macropoda 'Tricolor' £4

A rather small, strikingly variegated variety with pale green / cream leaves flushed pink in spring. It needs a cool shady position to avoid unpleasant scorching. The flowers, if you get them, are insignificant and yellowish, but it's the leaves you want. Grown much more in the USA than over here.

Tricyrtis ohsumiense £4

Another yellow, but upfacing.

Tricyrtis 'Raspberry Mousse' £4

Another of the upright, upfacing ones, whose name indicates the colouring.

Trifolium repens