This outstandingly beautiful, medium-sized tree bears bright deep-pink flowers with shades of orange and red. Originating in Eastern India, it produces large-seeded long pods containing a black cathartic pulp which has been used as a horse medicine. ... Learn More

This unusual specimen can finally grow into a tall, deciduous tree bearing large, short, sharp prickles all along the branches, and also on the trunk which has a pronounced buttress at the base. The leaves drop off in the dry season, and it is leafless for a long period, allowing the glorious array of large and beautifully-marked pink flowers to display to their best. The large Kapok seed pods contain the fibrous fluff which has been used since early times for a large variety of uses. ... Learn More

This extremely choice shrub or smallish tree, is clad in pink flowers, which open from tiny winter buds which appear on last year's wood, sometimes on the trunk itself, the branches being totally covered with blossom before the heart-shaped leaves appear. The flowers are displayed over a very long period from spring into early summer. ... Learn More

Amidst light green shiny leaves arise sprays of small, tubular, very fragrant, yellow-green flowers on the ends of the stems, flowering from late spring to autumn, and which produce clusters of small, black, egg-shaped berries during summer and autumn. This easy, hardy, evergreen shrub is quite possibly the hardiest and longest blooming Cestrum of them all, as it perfumes the night for many months. In cooler countries it attracts bees and butterflies, and in the Americas, hummingbirds! In 2004 this species made the Royal Horticultural Society’s list of the top 200 plants of the last 200 years. ... Learn More

Large, frilly-petalled, golden-eyed, purple-pink flowers open in early summer on this superb, easy-to-grow plant which is perfect for a really hot border or shrubbery. Native to south-western Europe and western north Africa, it is often grown solely for its attractive, greyish-white oblong leaves. ... Learn More

An exceptional pink hybrid seedling here years ago, possibly with some of the blood of the rare Cistus palhinhae we collected in Portugal. Huge, frilly, paler-eyed pink flowers cover this dwarf shrub in spring and early summer. Will thrive in a baking hot position. ... Learn More

A compact and bushy, evergreen shrub, flowering from February until June, with colours that can vary from rose pink to purple. It is native to southern Europe and the area around the eastern Mediterranean, but is naturalized in other areas of the world, such as California. It prefers a well-drained soil and does best in full sun. All cistus do best if pruned after flowering which will retain shape and provide healthy young growth for next years flowers. The seeds were collected at 2000m if that is relevant. This plant is the source of the resin labdanum - used in perfumes as a replacement fo ... Learn More

Coffee is one of the world's favourite drinks, and also one of the most important commercial crop-plants, and actually the second most valuable international commodity. Coffee trees can be grown outside anywhere there is a subtropical climate, although they make an attractive specimen and talking point as a pot plant in cooler climes. Arabica coffee is accepted as the best of all forms and this variety is "Ethiopia Sidamo", a type grown exclusively in the Sidamo Province of Ethiopia. It produces small greyish beans, and is especially valued for its deep, spicy wine, or chocolate-like taste and ... Learn More

Coffea Arabica Cattura is a dwarf coffee variety that is said to have been discovered in a plantation in Brazil. It is popular in Central and South America for its modest size to less than 2 m tall and its tolerance of full sun. Plants generally start flowering when only 30 cm tall. The coffee plant is originally native to the humid montane forests of Ethiopia and South Sudan but today it is cultivated in many other parts of the world. Coffee trees can grow outside in a subtropical climate, or provide an attractive pot plant and talking point in cooler climes. ... Learn More

This is an easily-grown shrub with pea-like yellow or deep orange flowers, delicately pencilled in red throughout the summer followed by large, translucent, inflated bladder-like seed-pods. This is one of the amusing plants that children delight in 'popping', and I well remember being chased by an angry neighbour when I popped his pods! ... Learn More

In summer, sizeable racemes of fragrant, pea-like yellow-orange flowers open, which are followed by translucent, pale brown seed pods. When mature it forms an upright, bushy, rounded, deciduous shrub with pinnate leaves divided into oval, grey-green leaflets, making a striking specimen in an open position. ... Learn More

A rare, relatively small-growing tree bearing exquisite, bright orange flowers that grow in large cone or cylinder shaped clusters, the fine ferny foliage adding to the artistic appearance. Although growing predominantly in tropical and subtropical gardens it can make a superb specimen in a large pot. Also known by the common name Colville's Glory, it was named for Sir Charles Colville, an ex Governor of Mauritius. ... Learn More

"New Zealand Tie-Palm". A long lived 'palm' producing a slowly thickening trunk, carrying at the top a rosette of strap-shaped long leaves. This tree is in the same family, and similar to a "Dragon Tree" or dracaena, but it is hardier in winter, and easier and faster to grow. Older plants grow enormous panicles of deeply scented white flowers in early summer, producing white berries in autumn and winter. Severe winters can kill the leaves but this invariably results in the trunk sprouting several heads. ... Learn More

Rare and very difficult to source from apparently anywhere in the world, this graceful long-leaved Cordyline from the North Island and the north-western parts of the South Island of New Zealand grows in coastal and lowland scrub and rocky banks. Even in New Zealand it is not especially well-known compared to the much more familiar Cordyline australis and indivisa plants. In mid-summer enormous sprays of white flowers are produced followed by heavy, cucumber-shaped bunches of small round red/purple berries. The leaves are quite different from Cordyline australis being longer and broader in th ... Learn More

This rarely-seen plant is a magnificent species for the connoisseur, with wide, thick bronze/green leaves with orange midribs and glaucous, blue-grey undersides. When mature these broad blades can grow up to 4ft long and 5-6in wide. These beautiful native New Zealanders grows high in the mountains on deep organic soil in forest clearings, and are perfect for cool, moist conditions, where you might also grow tree ferns. They are able to withstand lower temperatures than the closely related and much easier Cordyline australis, although they appreciate some protection in very hard winters when th ... Learn More