In early spring, nodding flowers that are yellow with green keels, open on tallish stem surrounded by slender stiff leaves that are not clasping below. In the wild it grows on sandy and calcareous flats in the western and southern Cape of Good Hope. These plants are closely allied to Ornithogalum. ... Learn More

Large, pleasantly-scented yellow flowers open in early in summer, the perfume being especially overwhelming at night time. The petals have attractive green stripes down their centres and open in flat-topped racemes on long, pale-green stalks that stand erect. This lovely South African native plant is easy to grow and should be hardy, as it is found in the Cape area at Witteberg growing at altitudes up to 2200m. It makes a superb warm-garden plant and is equally happy in a pot. ... Learn More

This lovely bulbous plant bears bright yellow, green striped, almond-perfumed flowers, rather like tiny daffodils, all summer long. When stroked, the fleshy, needle-like leaves, exude a sweet scent. These plants from the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa can easily flower the first year from seed. ... Learn More

This is the sensible alternative to ordinary hollyhocks if you have rust problems. The vigorous multi-branching stems are generously laden with typical hollyhock flowers in all colours from white to crimson, but they carry rounded fig-shaped leaves which are very rust-resistant indeed. ... Learn More

This plant, which has deeply lobed fig-like leaves, produces more branching stems than the common hollyhock and is relatively rust resistant, so if you've failed with the normal one give this a try. ... Learn More

This new, compact, clump-forming species, has rounded, shallowly-lobed, softly hairy, grey-green leaves, and loose clusters of tiny, yellow-green flowers from June-September. It is noticeably smaller and less vigorous than Alchemilla mollis, rather like a large A. alpina. Clean, pure, de-husked seed. ... Learn More

Masses of feathery sprays of greenish-yellow starry flowers above soft hairy wavy-edged leaves make this one of the most popular border and ground cover plants of all time. ... Learn More

This attractive wetland plant has lily-like basal leaves and thin, continuously dividing stems bearing delicate white, pale pink or lilac flowers that open in late afternoon, and close again at dusk. It is a semi-aquatic or aquatic plant that is unrelated to true plantains, which are members of the genus Plantago. Alisma is the ancient Greek physician Dioscorides’ name for a plantain-leaved plant and the specific epithet, 'plantago' is from the Latin for the sole of a foot, referring to the flat leaves. ... Learn More

Impressively lovely heads of bright rose-purple, urn-like flowers, with sharply-pointed tepals, the outer recurved and the inner with inrolled margins, open in umbels from May to July on an extended stem long after the leaves have died. This native of the Western United States and Canada makes masses of tiny, spherical bulbs but is not invasive. ... Learn More

This slender plant makes a dense umbel of narrowly bell-shaped, pale purplish-pink flowers which in effect are fairly big for a small allium. A lovely plant from the Alpes-Maritimes of Southern France which is easily grown outside in a sunny spot. ... Learn More

From Western China, this rare and delightful species bears in July drumsticks of delicate rose-lilac flowers with dark red filaments. These honey-scented heads look to be made of pink velvet. It is seldom seen, but in contrast to its rarity this well-mannered plant is easy in the garden in sun or light shade and a fertile soil. It is native to slopes from 2500-3000 metres, of W Xinjiang in China, Kazakstan, Mongolia and Russia. ... Learn More

One of the most alluring alliums, both in fragrance and design, this is a priceless gem. The sizeable spherical flower balls are composed of smaller star shaped white flowers, each with a deep red heart that glows like a ruby. Pictures don’t really do it justice, clustered together in an umbel, the blooms will make an unforgettable sight in your flower bed. ... Learn More

Heads of unusually attractive fragrant flowers, which can vary from rose pink to dark purple, open their petals which are delicately marked deeper at the centres. Generally flowering from May to August, they live at heights usually between 2,000 to 8,500 feet. As a rule their chosen habitat is rocky, thin or sandy soils, foothills, mountains, particularly in dry areas including chaparral and woodland habitats, and on open or shaded slopes, so this is an indication of what they like. In their native USA they have been recorded from southeastern Washington and northern Oregon to southern Califor ... Learn More

Delicate, but strong and charming, and a valuable bloom in the late summer gap, this pendulous allium (pulchellum means "beautiful!") has wide, bell-shaped, reddish violet flowers, that sprout out and then down, resembling an exploding firework. It excels especially among silver-foliage plants, when its dusty bells dangle from massed slender stems. It will soon bulk up making impressive clumps. ... Learn More

This is the rare and exquisite but easily grown pure white form of this valuable, late-flowering plant. Strong flower stems carry graceful loose heads of icy white, bell-shaped flowers, just like an exploding firework display, for two months or more. If you are lucky, in well-drained soil, it will gently self sow and form handsome drifts. RHS AGM winner ... Learn More