A well-filled packet of cottage garden forms and species in all shapes and colours from our gardens . A good bet is just to sprinkle these around the garden as they do best when grown without transplanting. ... Learn More

New, rare, delicious, and barely ever available in the Western World, the beige skin of this fruit contains luscious flesh which is sweet, tasty and delicious, and which is translucent white, with the shiny brown seed visible inside, looking like the pupil of an eye. As a result, they resemble the bulging eyes of the dragons often depicted in Chinese art. Closely related to lychees, they are native to China, Taiwan and South East Asia. The skin is hard and smooth, rather than softly-prickly like the common lychee, but peels off more easily than that of the lychee, rather like an egg shell! Con ... Learn More

A bulb expert describes this as 'an orange-flowered bluebell with a green base', which just about sums it up. In the wild in Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, North West Africa and the Balearics, it prefers rocky, stony or sandy ground, but in the UK may do best in a warm, sheltered scree or rockery, or perhaps even better in a pot in an alpine house. It is also referred to as the brown bluebell! ... Learn More

Reputedly one of the world's oldest living plants, these amazing, evergreen, subtropical tree-like plants bear just a few branches of lance-shaped leaves, often crowded towards the tips. Mature plants produce fronds of fragrant greenish-white flowers, which are followed by attractive clusters of bright orange berries, each of which holds a sizeable, very hard, pearl-like seed. When the bark is damaged it exudes thick, red, blood-like sap, hence one of its common names! Making statuesque specimens in warmer countries, these are also superb, highly-valued, expensive pot plants elsewhere. It is ... Learn More

These showy, bright pink, leathery skinned fruit have a sweet seed-speckled pulp inside, which has acclaimed super food powers. They grow on vine-like cacti which produce aerial roots that allow them to cling to surfaces, creating a creeping, climbing habit. A fast-growing crop, the plants can produce for more than 20 years once established. Chinese legend claims they were created thousands of years ago by a dragon in battle who blew a burst of fire containing the fruit. ... Learn More

Another staggeringly impressive introduction from Plant World. We have for the first time, cross-pollinated 3 different Echiums to produce these new plants. The first year a sizeable rosette grows on a short strong trunk. Early the following year (or rarely a year later), several radiating stems sprout from the crown, bend upwards and reach for the sky. Within weeks, numerous short branches expand outwards from each stem bearing countless thousands of buds. When these finally open here, our customers are amazed as these strong, vertical branches sag under the weight of countless thousands of ... Learn More

Thirty centimetre spikes of countless purple-blue flowers open on strong branching stems in spring and summer, although very few good seeds are often produced, and it is a specialist job to collect and clean it successfully! This really is a perennial in a sheltered situation, e.g. in a large pot or a warm, protected garden. In The Scilly Islands and the southwest of the UK this plant often makes a very long-lived small tree. It is often grown and valued for the enormous, solid silver-grey dome of evergreen foliage, and the gorgeous flowers are just candles on the cake! Please be aware that b ... Learn More

A good mixture of all three of the colour variations, blue, pink and white, of Echium pininana. Plant young plants out as soon as possible in the season to allow plants to be large enough to survive the winter in the open ground. Otherwise, overwinter plants in pots in a frost-free place. To identify each type. Very pale stems have white flowers. Darker stems have blue flowers, Thinner leaf forms are Pink Fountain with pink flowers. The odd variant habit or colour may always appear, so we must respectfully point out that all of our new, and sometimes unique hybrid seed, by its very nature ... Learn More

This incredible plant initially produces a palm tree-like rosette, with large, thick, hairy leaves on a strong woody stem. This unusual plant is scientifically a 'triennial', and either 12 or 24 months after sowing, the centre, holding thousands of flowers, shoots upwards, sometimes to 4-6 metres! Bees love this giant, which, if you are lucky, will gently self-seed but never becomes a nuisance, as the seedlings are so visible and easy to pull up (if you have the heart)! Most plants will be deep blue although the odd variant colour may always appear. The odd variant habit or colour may always a ... Learn More

A friend on Guernsey sent us some seeds of an absolutely pure white Echium pininana she had discovered. We could barely believe such a plant existed, but were thrilled to finally see an enormous 15 foot high snowy cascade. Most plants will be white although the odd variation in colour may always appear. You can easily see this at the small plant stage when you will discover that the plants with pale green stems are guaranteed to have pure white flowers. Busy bees also pollinate the many plants we grow here in just a few hectares. It is therefore likely that you may get the occasional surpris ... Learn More

This is possibly the most lusted-after plant in our gardens every May and June, and is a fabulous cross we made between the superb Echium wildpretii with its 1.2 metre, fat red spike and the giant blue Echium pininana. The result is a 35 centimetres wide, tapering tower of delicate pink flowers which are like a lighthouse attracting bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. Although most plants will be pink, the odd variant colour will always appear, but all are very desirable as our bees also pollinate the many plants we grow here.... so you may get the odd surprise! The odd variant h ... Learn More

Another of our new, big echium hybrids. In spring, countless buds sprout sideways from the trunk, they turn upwards, and then become thick, stout, strong, vertical columns. Tightly-clustered sprays of multicoloured but predominantly pink flowers, cloak them in early summer, continuing to slowly open from the the bottom upwards for many months. The flowers on this variety should be even more compact than on its relatives as it has inherited this characteristic from one of its parents, Echium wildprettii! If deadheaded after flowering, numerous new shoots will usually appear around the remaining ... Learn More

This newly discovered hybrid perennial slowly forms a semi-dwarf, shrubby, bush-forming plant, which erupts with just a few stout, compact trusses of bright pink flowers. This really is a perennial here, and has a very good chance elsewhere in a sheltered situation in a warm garden, or even in a very large pot. The odd variant habit or colour may always appear, so we must respectfully point out that all of our new, and sometimes unique hybrid seed, by its very nature, may produce occasional freaks and oddities. Busy bees pollinate the many plants we grow here in just a few hectares. And so, yo ... Learn More

A staggeringly different addition to our already long list of new, big echium hybrids. In spring, countless buds sprout sideways from the trunk, they turn upwards, and then become thick, stout, strong, vertical columns. Tightly-clustered sprays of multicoloured but predominantly violet-purple flowers, cloak them in early summer, continuing to slowly open from the the bottom upwards for many months. The flowers on this variety should be even more compact than on its relatives as it has inherited this characteristic from one of its parents, Echium wildprettii! If deadheaded after flowering, nume ... Learn More

The amazing show-stopper, Echium wildpretii, is one of the world's most impressive plants with its 3 to 4 foot spike of raspberry-red flowers erupting from a swan's nest of thin, grey hairy leaves. But it can sometimes succumb to frost and winter wet. So we back-crossed it with one of its bigger and tougher children, "Pink Fountain", itself a cross between the relatively hardy Echium pininana and Echium wildpretii! And this unbelievable 4 to 6 foot spectacle was the result. Fat, bee-magnet spikes are thickly crowded with dark pink or strawberry-red flowers, and blue-pollen-powdered anthers. I ... Learn More