Thin stems bear open arrays of many white flowers, each with five tiny pointed sepals and five larger oval petals. Native to the west coast of North America from British Columbia to California, it grows in shady areas near riverbanks and streams, each heart-shaped leaf having reddish hairs and several rounded lobes with teeth along the edges. ... Learn More

This uncommon plant is endemic to southern California, where it grows in shady forested areas near streams in the mountains. It bears a dense array of many small white flowers, each with five tiny pointed sepals and five larger oval petals and reaches up to a meter tall on a thin wiry stems. ... Learn More

This is one of the most profuse and long-flowering annuals, each plant producing clouds of blue to purple flowers from July until late autumn. Flowering so heavily that the feathery foliage is often obscured, its tidy, mounding growth habit is useful in borders or as an edging. Also a good choice for filling in around tall, leggy plants and carpeting bare spots. Especially effective draping over retaining walls, in pots and hanging baskets. ... Learn More

Fantastic, bright yellow, buttery, papery, everlasting flowers bloom from April and all through summer. The deep green foliage slowly makes a mound growing to around 40cm tall, this condensed bushy mound producing a seemingly endless procession of large buds. Flowers have a papery feel and are one of the longest lasting cut flowers, indeed lasting "forever" when completely dry! It is surprisingly frost hardy in a sheltered spot. ... Learn More

This tough palm has large, unusually attractive, bluish-green, very finely-divided fan-shaped leaves, which are rounder and wider than those of Brahea armata. A medium-height palm, it can reach 3 metres or more, and is thus well adapted to small gardens. Endemic to Mexico, it will thrive in sandy, well-drained soil, in the sun or partial shade, and can withstand frost and drought well, and is happy down to 23°F (-3°C). A slow growing palm, It makes a perfect, easy-to-grow specimen for temperate and subtropical climates. ... Learn More

Sprays of white flowers, held on short stems on this loose tufted plant, age to a rosy-purple colour in June and July. It is incredibly hardy down to -28C, and is native to the Eastern Alps and also the Arctic. ... Learn More

Although Brazil nuts are technically seeds, not nuts, their brown nut-like casings have led most people to call them nuts. Produced by a South American tree in virgin rain forests, they are an extremely popular food in many Latin American nations, and indeed in the rest of the world having a rich, creamy flavour. In nature, Brazil nuts develop inside a large capsule rather like a coconut, which, if cut open, reveals a number of three-sided nuts. In good growing conditions in the tropics, the tree can reach heights of 150 feet, so plant it carefully! ... Learn More

This bulbous gem opens its delicate but tough powder blue flowers, much loved by butterflies, on slender, graceful spikes in May. Although a distant cousin of hyacinths, this fragrant, fairy-like cousin (which is NOT the "Spanish Bluebell) is much more refined. ... Learn More

This is the pure white form of the more commonly-seen blue variety which will establish happily on a hot rockery. ... Learn More

An attractive and lovely annual grass bearing large trembling lockets on many stems. Gently self-seeds, moving around the garden until it finds a place where it is happy, but is shallow rooted and very easy to pull out should the need arise. ... Learn More

This new and quite distinctive taller form of the normal "perennial quaking grass" (Briza media) has stems which are almost double the usual length, whilst the most attractive clump retains the usual compact width. ... Learn More

This amazing bromeliad looks almost otherworldly with its large dark green rosette of spine-edged leaves surrounding the centre, in which the leaves turns a spectacular lipstick-red in mature plants, before they produce a long stem of attractive flowers which later become beautiful round yellow fruits. The fruit is edible although rather acidic, but the medicinal properties of the bromeliad family are often used as a natural anti-inflammatory. This fabulous plant is commonly found in northern South America in countries like Mexico and the Caribbean islands. ... Learn More

Masses of enormous, ivory-white, delightfully fragrant trumpets, 20 to 25cm (8 to 10 in) long, adorn this fabulous plant. There is only white forms, and they can often bloom the first year from seed, and from their second year on, if they are allowed to grow, they can make large shrubs or trees, with lush foliage, and producing flowers continually. A mature plant, blooming from midsummer until frost, may display as many as 80 to 100 blooms at one time! In the cool, moist air of evening, their perfume is spellbinding. They do well either in the ground in warmer climes or large pots elsewhere, and these exotic beauties, previously native to South America, but now extinct in the wild, can transform a terrace or patio, or even a bright sunlounge, into a tropical paradise. All seven species are known only in cultivation or as escapes from cultivation, and incredibly, no wild plants have ever been confirmed. They are therefore listed as Extinct in the Wild by the IUCN Red List, although they are popular ornamental plants and still exist wild outside their native range as introduced species. It is suspected that their extinction in the wild is due to the extinction of some animal which previously dispersed the seeds, with human cultivation having ensured the genus's continued survival! All parts of the plant are toxic! ... Learn More

With some of the deepest colours of all "Angel's Trumpets", this rare form has spectacular pastel pink blooms which begin in the spring and continue throughout autumn, the long trumpets turning their fluted edges up after dark, whilst exuding a deep and potent fragrance. These lovely flowers are native to Central and South America from Honduras to Peru. ... Learn More

Enormous, slightly fragrant, pendulous, yellow-veined orange trumpet flowers hang in substantial numbers from branches clad in large, soft, slightly hairy leaves. Easy to care for, it is a robust flowering shrub, native to the Andes mountains in South America. In cultivation it makes a truly impressive specimen either in the garden in warmer climes, or in a very large pot elsewhere. For centuries, South American shamans have used the Angel Trumpet plant for various rituals and healing techniques....we do not advocate this though.. ... Learn More