Superb, slow-growing, tight cushions of fine silver leaves produce tight buds with pale pink flowers. Preferring a dry sunny spot, this is a rare and unique plant only available in small numbers. ... Learn More

Three-foot-tall scapes bear large, waxy, white, green-striped blooms with yellow stamens in late May and June. This long-lived, easily cultivated and well-behaved, giant snowdrop relative is perfect for the sunny perennial border. On sunless days the blooms will remain closed, rendering them invisible, their petals blending in with the flower stalks. But as soon as the sun appears, a burst of brilliant white stars and bells will dazzle your eyes! A common name for these sun lovers is "Sleepy Dick" (?), referring to their usually late-in-the-day “awakening”. It is a complete puzzlement why th ... Learn More

Tall slender spikes of starry pale green and white flowers appear extremely early in the year, sometimes as early as Christmas. This rare and fascinating British native has the extraordinary quality of having young flower shoots which may be eaten as a vegetable, similar to asparagus. The common name "Bath Asparagus" comes from the fact it was once abundant near the English city of the same name. ... Learn More

An amazing, non-chlorophyll producing, parasitic plant, attaching itself to the roots of its host plant without actually harming it. Produces bizarely beautiful, orchid-like, purple-veined cream flowers on wax-like stems. ... Learn More

Definitely an unusual tree with many names, for many reasons. Growing up to 18 metres tall, it is native to the Indian subcontinent where is it used for foodstuffs, medicines and dyes. The large leaves which grow up to a metre in length, are borne on leaf stalks which are up to 2 metres in length. As these leaf stalks wither, they fall off the tree and gather at the base of the trunk where they look like 'broken bones'. The tree is a night-bloomer and flowers are adapted to natural pollination by bats. Enormous seed pods are produced, with the fruits (up to 1.5m long) curving downwards like sw ... Learn More

Resembling a giant sisyrinchium with large, dark inky blue flowers, this showy Mexican plant will show of its best in a hot well-drained position where it will slowly clump up giving reliable midsummer colour. ... Learn More

Incredibly lovely pale Wedgwood blue starry flowers appear above thin iris-like leaves. This plant was originally grown in a friend's Australian nursery, but grows and flowers unprotected here and produces a rare and valuable colour in the garden. ... Learn More

Brilliant, deepest cobalt-blue, large starry flowers adorn this beautiful iris-relative from Australia and South America. Hardy in a well-drained position and worth any effort for the colour alone! ... Learn More

Compact bunches of incredibly lovely pale Wedgwood blue starry flowers appear above thin iris-like leaves. This plant was originally grown in a friend's Australian nursery, but grows and flowers unprotected here, and produces a rare and valuable colour in the garden, where it is very long-lived in a well-drained spot. ... Learn More

Rare and sought-after, native to East Asia and China, this little known annual is edible and known as the Bluebell of Japan. A member of the mustard family, its violet flowers are a beautiful addition to the garden. Growing to around 60cm tall and 30cm in spread, it grows pale green basal leaves around 15cm long. The leaves are edible and can be eaten raw or cooked into dishes. The gorgeous flowers are around 3cm across, and are produced in racemes of up to 25 flowers. Petals appear in a cross shape, with four petals surrounding a yellow eye with blooms from late spring to early summer. Enjoys ... Learn More

Compact basal tufts of long grassy leaves give rise to attractive, woody flower panicles which are incredibly fine and airy, starting from late spring and lasting all winter. These benefit from then being cut back to the ground to encourage new flower spikes and growth from the old base and also to avoid the plant becoming too large and prostrate. This incredibly graceful plant is rare and almost unknown but really should be more widespread. It is well established in the grounds of Highlands College, Jersey, where it may be a garden escape, and also in West Kent in the UK. ... Learn More

A rare and lovely New Zealand foxglove relative making a spreading carpet of dark green, rounded, leathery leaves beneath dense sprays of white, tubular, mimulus-like flowers in candelabra-type whorls up the stem. This lovely plant is breathtaking in light shade in a moist spot when it will slowly spread to form a succulent carpet. ... Learn More

From the Andes east of Valdivia in southern Chile, in 1994, we collected this clump forming, very long-flowering, non-invasive plant. A rosette of trifoliate leaves is surmounted by a continuous succession of dazzling yellow flowers from spring until late autumn. ... Learn More

Common in the tundra of the Arctic grows this densely-tufted plant with flowers which are small and green, ageing to reddish, and grouped in an open upright cluster, before ripening to dense red tufts holding the seeds. This astonishingly hardy plant, to Zone 2 in the USA, has attractive, fleshy, kidney-shaped leaves which are very tasty. Indeed I have eaten these tasty leaves, high in vitamin C, high on the Scottish mountains in the UK where it maintains a foothold. ... Learn More

Tufted and stemless white to red-purple flowers open on upright stems above a compact cushion of ferny compound leaves growing from a persistent woody base. This alpine plant is found at high elevations in gravelly, well-drained locations, screes, bare slopes and alpine fellfields up to 4100m in California to Alaska and eastwards to Colorado and Quebec. It is unique within its genus by virtue of its viscid, 'sticky with glandular warts', bracts and inflorescence. ... Learn More