This spreading, deciduous shrub blooms from late spring to late summer, with superb, white fragrant blossoms. It is best grown where the nodding flowers which have rich rose-red stamens can be admired from below. Very few fertile seeeds collected. ... Learn More

This breathtakingly beautiful species bears nodding blooms which open as pure white cups with rosy-purple or crimson stamens, later opening fully like bone-china saucers. Introduced from China nearly a century ago, it is also fortunately lime-tolerant. ... Learn More

The tree produces white-pink, non-hairy (glabrous) flowers in spring along glabrous branches. With a pleasing, rounded crown, abundant flowers and small, edible fruits, forming dense clusters and resembling cherries from a distance, this crabapple has been introduced widely as an ornamental tree. It can also be used for bonsai. ... Learn More

One of the most common fruits in temperate climates. The wild apple has been collected for thousands of years and later bred in many different lines each with their own desired characteristics. ... Learn More

Unlike the common garden stocks, the white form of the fragrant tree stock is rarely encountered. Slowly, with age, it develops a trunk supporting several radiating rosettes of grey lanceolate leaves, each rosette producing spikes of sweetly perfumed white flowers. It is hardy and long lived in a sheltered well-drained spot. ... Learn More

Curious maroon-brown flowers, with chocolate bracts and green stamens, produce unusual inflated fruits above attractive, musky-perfumed deeply-fingered foliage on this very rare plant. In addition, this South African native provides many odd details in its life cycle. Compared with the more well known and widely available Melianthus major, this seldom-seen beauty is more reasonably sized for the smaller garden, and has lovely fuzzy apple green leaves as opposed to the glaucous grey-green of the major. The nectar-filled flowers are intricately veined bizarre beauties of green, brown, and deep purple, which are followed by large cubical green seed pods that are puffed up, and pop like a balloon when pressed. The black nectar bulges out of the mouth of the flower, spilling out as the lower flowers on the spikes slowly rotate from right side up to upside down over the course of a day. Melianthus are apparently the only genus in the plant world that have this mysterious rotation, which would make a perfect subject for time lapse photography. ... Learn More

"New Zealand Shrubby Violet". Yes, a member of the violet family! A dwarf evergreen shrub, with small oval leaves, resembling a box bush. Tiny clusters of perfumed yellow-green flowers slowly turn to white and purple berries. A slow growing treasure. ... Learn More

An exceptionally choice and rare dwarf plant with pink buds opening to deepest violet-blue flowers. Stems bear oblong-lance-shaped, linear leaves which are dark blue-green above and white beneath. One of the best-ever alpine house and show plants, this fabulous miniature semi-evergreen sub-shrub originates from the mountains of Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece. ... Learn More

This fast-growing, drought-resistant tree, native to the southern foothills of the Himalayas in north western India is widely cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Hanging clusters of fragrant, orchid-like flowers later become hanging fruits which are three-sided brown capsules holding dark brown, globular seeds which have three whitish, papery wings and are dispersed by wind and water and are sometimes eaten like peas or roasted like nuts. The whitish-grey bark is surrounded by thick cork, and in cultivation the trunk is often cut back annually to 1–2 metres and allowed to regrow, and the pods and leaves thus remain within arm's reach. ... Learn More

Mulberries never really arrived commercially as a fruit, because they are just too delicate to travel when ripe. In Summer the fruits mature to a purplish-red, when they should be picked and eaten soon afterwards and treat them with care as they crumble easily. The fruit colour is derived from health-giving anthocyanins, and their flavour truly is sublime, as they are packed with lots of sweet juice. In addition this really is a truly beautiful ornamental tree, in spring and summer the foliage positively glows, whilst in the autumn and winter the stark, gnarled framework of branches looks absolutely stunning. ... Learn More

From New Zealand South Island, comes this truly exquisite semi-evergreen, prostrate, perennial shrub with rounded, toothed, dark green leaves, bearing dense racemes of white to pale-pink, purple-veined flowers with red centres, which open in early summer for a long period. ... Learn More

This truly spectacular tree is another of the Paulownia group, and is the fastest-growing of them all. More exotic than the more common Paulownia tomentosa, it opens its darker, cherry-tree pink "foxglove" flowers on naked branches in early spring with the large, dinner-plate-sized, soft furry leaves appearing later. If cut nearly to the ground in spring, enormous leaves develop on the shoots sprouting from the soil. It does especially well in poor, impoverished and quite dry soil! ... Learn More

This truly spectacular tree produces large, pale mauve "foxglove" flowers on naked branches in early spring, the large, dinner-plate-sized, soft furry leaves appearing later. If cut to the ground in spring, enormous leaves develop on the shoots sprouting from the soil. It does especially well in poor, impoverished and quite dry soil! ... Learn More

Flowers consisting of pure white creased petals with a deep crimson centre, have the typical bunch of protruding pollen-covered anthers, typical of most in the mallow family. The plant sends out equally long side branches which are thin and droopy, and with pruning, it can look like a normal shrub, but it spreads out annually and benefits from pruning. Foliage is a dark bluish green the leaves being notched slightly and are long and narrow. Native to Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, it is vigorous and most attractive, but it should be grown with consideration as the seeds may be invasive. ... Learn More

Amidst attractive divided foliage open sprays of glorious, fragrant, crinkly-petalled, bright yellow flowers, which form pods which are 5-10 cm long and 2.5 cm broad, and are red at first, ripening to black. It is commonly used in India for avenue trees, planted alternately with Delonix regia to give a striking yellow and red effect in summer. The wood has a wide variety of uses, including cabinet-making and the foliage is used as a fodder crop. This deciduous tree is widely grown in many tropical regions particularly in Nigeria, Pakistan, Florida and Hawaii. ... Learn More