Silver-grey foliage and stems supporting the masses of lemon yellow flowers make this rather unusual crucifer quite a curiosity. It is supposedly a perennial, but is best treated as either an annual or biennial. ... Learn More

This sizeable evergreen tree has a buttressed trunk and a spreading crown, and bark that is smooth and grey, with small pale brown pustules. The attractive clusters of orange-red fruits are officially described as edible, but they are hard and not palatable and are usually grown for their ornamental effect. The large leaves, a little like the rubber plant, have wonderfully pale green veins that show up beautifully against the emerald green of the leaves. This particular ficus is a beautiful addition to any home and makes an excellent container plant. ... Learn More

An unusually small tree in the wild, it has disproportionately large leaves, hence one of its common names, which start intensely red, and turn more and more green when reaching their ultimate size of up to 50 cm length. Its edible fruits, which ripen both on branches and the trunk, are used to make jams, juices and curries in India, whilst in Vietnam, unripe fruits are also used in salads. It also provides various traditional medicinal uses, and its large strong leaves are often used as plates! The tree is cultivated in India and from Myanmar to Vietnam and SW China and Brazil. ... Learn More

Probably the most commonly grown evergreen tree indoors throughout the world, this species can make an excellent house or patio plant, with pendulous branches bearing glossy, slender-pointed ovate leaves, up to 12cm in length. The flowers are followed by small, reddish-orange fruits which slowly change to black. Outdoors it is one of the easiest trees to keep looking perfect in the correct climate (USDA zone 9b). With its elegant growth and tolerance of poor growing conditions, it does best in bright, sunny conditions but will also tolerate considerable shade. ... Learn More

This is the tree that is grown worldwide to produce plum-sized, juicy, sweet purple/brown figs and although there are hundreds of cultivars this is still a favourite. Fruits will ripen from midsummer onwards in the UK but earlier in warmer countries. These are good, fertile seeds and are ready-stratified for sowing. Fruit from seedlings may vary but all will be superb fruits. ... Learn More

This attractive tree usually has a distinctive crooked trunk and a spreading crown, but unlike the banyan, it has no aerial roots. The most distinctive aspect of this tree is the large number of short compact clusters of red, furry figs which amazingly grow directly out of the trunk of the tree. Native to Australasia, SE Asia and Indian sub-continent, it has long been used in Ayurveda, the traditional and ancient system of Indian medicine. It is also one of the sacred trees of Buddhists and Hindus. ... Learn More

This lovely tree with pale grey bark produces figs which are primarily pollinated by fig wasps, which enter the flower through the hole at the base of the fruiting structure. It is sacred to Buddhists and Hindus as the Buddha himself was thought to have sat under one when he received enlightenment (bodhi). The oldest plant in the world of known planting date is the bo tree called Sri Maha Bodhi planted at the temple at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, in 288 BC. It is native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, south-west China and Indochina and Sadhus (Hindu ascetics) still meditate bene ... Learn More

"Meadowsweet" is one of the most attractive spring and summer flowers, bearing white fluffy sprays of flowers on strong stems which bear jagged-edged, corrugated leaves. Thriving in both garden soil and boggy waterside conditions, the flowers and leaves, if bruised, have a pleasant and quite pronounced 'antiseptic' fragrance, very much like "Savlon" cream. ... Learn More

The golden-leaved form of the beautiful " Meadowsweet" is an asset for any garden. Sprays of attractive, fluffy white flowers arise above stems clad in finely divided, canary-yellow leaves. The entire plant, even the leaves when crushed, has a deliciously fragrant, almost antiseptic perfume. ... Learn More

This culinary herb, well known for its fluffy, feathery plumes of soft green leaves, and flat heads of yellow, star like flowers followed by edible seeds, is a highly aromatic and flavourful herb with culinary and medicinal uses. Fennel features prominently in Mediterranean cuisine, where bulbs and fronds are used, both raw and cooked, in side dishes, salads, pastas and vegetable dishes. It is an extremely attractive plant that also performs well in the garden borders being a wonderful attractor of bees and butterflies. ... Learn More

This is the more attractive and too-rarely-seen dark form of fennel, the old herb and cottage garden plant. Massed plumes of feathery purple-bronze aniseed-scented foliage arise bearing large white "cow-parsley" heads. ... Learn More

To please you and the bees. Includes: Agastache 'Golden Jubilee', Heliotrope 'Marine', Sweet Pea 'Mammoth Crimson', Camassia leichtlinii, Euphorbia mellifera, Lavandula angustifolia, Nicotiana sylvestris, Matthiola arborescens Alba, Oenothera 'Apricot Delight' and Paradisia lusitanica. ... Learn More

This graceful plant has crinkled, dark green leaves, and bears from summer into early autumn delicate spikes of bell-shaped, shell-pink flowers, striped and spotted with red lines and spots. These lovely flowers were very popular in the past as pot plants, and indeed make lovely cut flowers. ... Learn More

"Bridal wreath". An appropriate name for this rarely grown stately saxifrage relative from Chile. Long lasting red spotted white flowers on long graceful wands above clumps of fleshy deeply lobed leaves. ... Learn More

Elegant spikes of open pale pink flowers, striped or stained with deeper pink, rise from a rosette of mid-green leaves. Great for placing at the front of a border, and very effective in paved areas. These plants grow best in full sun or partial shade in a moist but well drained soil. In colder areas, grow it near a warm wall, in a soil that drains well, but remains moist during summer. They do not like boggy or waterlogged conditions which can cause the crowns or clumps to rot off. ... Learn More