If you are searching for an easy, perennial and attractive groundcover plant for a wet or boggy area, this plant is the perfect plant for you! A herbaceous perennial groundcoverer, it has prostrate branches that root at the nodes and sprays of flowers that may be white or varying shades of blue or mauve, and although hard winters can cut it back severely, it invariably re-sprouts each spring. A relatively widespread species, it lives in southern Africa, New Zealand and Australia and has become naturalized in Brazil. It was originally collected by Joseph Banks in New Zealand. ... Learn More

This rare, semi-shrubby plant from the foothills of the Chilean Andes bears spectacular, bright pink, trumpet-shaped flowers on thick stems which carry toothed and pointed leaves. It will grow huge in a sheltered spot, although it dies back underground in severe winters. ... Learn More

Flowers open like dazzling butterflies, in the brightest red you can get, crowding two foot stems for a very long time in mid-summer. Although it will grow in any good soil, it is a superb plant for boggy or even wet conditions and in the margins of a pond it makes a stupendous sight. ... Learn More

A compact variety renowned for its excellent garden performance with clear sky-blue flowers set above narrow, airy foliage on compact plants. It makes a sparkling addition to beds, containers, and and window-boxes, and looks well placed in the rockery or at the edges of pathways. It is one of the most easily-grown annuals and is deservedly popular for its versatility and long flowering period. ... Learn More

Remarkably similar to the Puya of the Andes in South America or Echium wildpretii from the island of Tenerife, this giant unrelated rosette plant displays the evidence of parallel evolution, producing similar looking plants as they evolve in similar habitats. Although the dark maroon to black flowers are attractive, they are almost completely hidden within the bracts. This rare and astonishing plant is native to wetter spots in the alpine zone of Mount Kenya between 3300 and 4600 m, where the extreme climate is usually clear and cold in the mornings, with intense sunshine, and cloudy or foggy ... Learn More

One of the most lovely garden flowers and completely hardy, this rarely-seen beauty displays its narrow, flared, fiery red and orange trumpet flowers, much loved by bees, above clumps of fine foliage. At the bud stage, the flowers are tubular and red over most of their length, fading to yellow toward the tips. When they open, the tips curl back in a two-lipped fashion, showing off the yellow interior. Completely vice-less, and rarely setting any good seeds, it will very slowly spread over the years making a solid clump in the garden. ... Learn More

A new and rare Chilean introduction growing many stems which carry delightful and utmostly showy, burgundy-red, wine-coloured flowers in late spring. This semi-woody perennial has upright, branching stems ending in a raceme with intriguing, curved-funnel-shaped flowers above thick, waxy, narrow leaves. It will do well in any rich, very well drained, rocky soil in a sunny spot. ... Learn More

Another giant rosette plant which is stunningly similar to the puyas of the high Andes, and also to the giant echiums that evolved separately, on the Canary Islands, demonstrating convergent/parallel evolution. It forms a large rosette of narrow, hairy leaves that eventually produces a giant inflorescence of creamy white flowers, up to 3 m tall, protected by masses of long, silvery hairy bracts and pollinated by birds. Lobelia telekii is native to the high mountains of tropical eastern Africa and inhabits dry, rocky slopes between an astonishing 3500 and 5000 m elevation on Mount Elgon, the Ab ... Learn More

An incredible giant, hardy Lobelia from Chile. From a large rosette of thick leathery felted leaves arise thick stems carrying tropical orchid-like deepest carmine flowers. A valuable late season display from July until the autumn frosts. ... Learn More

Rare and unique, this palm-like giant Lobelia forms a large rosette of purplish-green, large, narrow, hairy leaves, and a tall sizeable woody trunk. Eventually a giant flower spike arises protected by masses of long, silvery hairy bracts, and finally countless deep blue flowers open. Similar in stature to a giant Echium, it can grow up to 6 metres in total. Rare even in the wild, where it is pollinated by birds, it lives in the high-elevation bogs of the alpine zone, between 3700 and 4300 m (12100 and 14100 ft) and is native to the high Rwenzori Mountains of tropical Eastern Africa from Ugand ... Learn More