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Potsize - 1L
Cirsium rivulare 'Trevor's Blue Wonder'. A new variety that compliments its similar cousin C.rivulare 'Atropurpureum'. Whilst being superficially similar it has flowers that are bluer in hue and are carried on stems that are purple stained over white pubescence. A little stiffer and more vigorous in growth. Like all Thistles, the flowers are a magnet for butterflies. 1m, May-June and then sporadically through the season. Would like a moist site. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 9cm
Digitalis lanata - (Cafe Creme) - Woolly Foxglove. One of the more unusual foxgloves, mabe not instantly recognisable as such. The flowers are carried in a typical foxglove spike, but instead of the usual hanging bells, each flower is very rounded, white with dense brown netting, a broad white lip and a glowing yellow inside. They are reminiscent of a column of curious, comical, gaping mouths. A reasonably perennial species. Light shade 60 cm CAUTION- TOXIC IF EATEN Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Foxgloves Compared
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 9cm
This foxglove always catches peoples attention. Its form is typical with tall spires hung with flared bells, but the colouring is most striking. The flower is a nice clean white, but inside it is so heavily spotted in a rich maroon that the spots merge to fill the throat. The leaves are narrow and tend to a grey green. 120cm high. June to August. 120cm high. June to AugustDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Foxgloves Compared
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 9cm
Digitalis purpurea 'Snow Thimble' Digitalis purpurea 'Snow Thimble' is the variety of foxglove you want if you are looking for pure refined elegance. The flower spikes are well formed with large hanging bells of pure white, spotted delicately chartreuse in the throat. To add to this the spire blends from green at the tip through palest lemon buds into the pure white fully opened bell. A plant of great distinction. Very good in woodland situations. CAUTION- TOXIC IF EATENDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Foxgloves Compared
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 9cm
Digitalis purpurea f. albiflora ('Alba')' is the classic white foxglove, refined elegance and so easy to grow. The flower spikes are well formed with large hanging bells of pure white, spotted in the throat. To add to this the spire blends from green at the tip through palest lemon buds into the pure white fully opened bell. A plant of great distinction and great for the bees. Very good in woodland situations. CAUTION- TOXIC IF EATENDiscount of 20p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Foxgloves Compared
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Potsize - 1L
Echinacea pallida 'Hula Dancer'. A tall variety of cone-flower forming clumps of hairy, narrow , lance-shaped foliage. From June to October it sends up flowering stalks to 80cm (2'6") topped with large daisies comprising a typical spiky central cone and a skirt of narrow drooping palest pink petals. For well drained soils in sunDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over Echinaceas are hardy as far as temperature goes and they are undoubtedly lovely. What is also not in doubt is that they die reliably in many people's gardens. At the root of this is the great British Winter climate. Echinaceas want moist roots and dry free flowing air; what we give them is a regular deluge followed by misty, muggy days. The consequence is fungal rots and a dead Coneflower. You can help by planting your Echinacea in an open situation where the breeze will keep the crown drier, but the stark reality is that Echinacea are not reliable in everyone's garden. As a consequence will only consider complaints about Echinacea within a month of purchase and certainly not following a Winter.Links
Echinacea Compared
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Potsize - 1L
Epimedium x perralchicum 'Frohnleiten'. Beautiful tough evergreen ground cover, thirving even in the dry beneath trees. The leaves open an attractive pale ochre-green, beautifully netted with russet tones, colouring well in Autumn (more coloured than 'Wisley' on both occasions). Flowers are like strings of glowing small bright yellow daffodils held upright and above the foliage. A German cultivar selected by Heinz Klose, it has slightly more pointed leaves with a more toothed margin and large flowers held well up. 45cm. Easily grown in any good soil. ( E.perraldianum x E. pinnatum subsp. colchicum ).Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Epimedium Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
Epimedium x warleyense ( Ellen Willmott ). E. alpinum x E. pinnatum subsp. colchicum. The upright stems of delicate coppery orange flowers set this hybrid apart from most epimediums. They are held well up above the foliage in a warm orange haze. The leaves are apple green in a mildly spreading clump that is a little less dense than most species. Height 20-40cm in flower. Originally sent from Warley Place, the Garden of Ellen Willmot, to Professor Stearn as E.perraldianum when he was writing his monograph. Subsequently identified and named by Professor Stearn. for any good soil in partial shade. spring.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Epimedium Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
This is really a very fine Sea Holly indeed in more than one sense of the word. Eryngium 'Pen Blue' is in the x zabelii family with sea-green tripartite leaves. The flowers are borne on 60cm violet stems and are a picture of beauty. The collar is particularly wide in comparison to the central cone and its segments, radiating like the spokes of the devil's chariot are narrow, spiky and a striking electric Blue. Further adding to the effect, the flowers are beautifully arranged and composed with the secondary flowers slightly smaller and held a little lower. Altogether a class act and a magnet for the bees. Found by Jane Edmunds in her garden in Penselwood, Somerset.Links
Eryngiums Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 1L
Eryngium agavifolium. An architectural species which hails from stony hillsides and rocky riverbanks in the Cordoba region of Argentina. It has long pale green strap-like leaves with spiny edges, probably the broadest of the commonly grown long leaved species. The flower spikes are stiff 1m stalks topped with a small terminal knob of greeny white spiny cones. We've had this plant for years, but it has taken me many years to persuade Dawn of its merits. She's finally given in so it remains to be seen if I'm vindicated. A bold statement and Great for the bees. For full sun in a well drained but not dry soil. Hardy to -10 if really happy, less if miserable.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Eryngiums Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 1L
Eryngium bourgatii . Rosettes of deeply cut crisp, curly grey-green leaves with silver veins make a notable feature all on their own. The clump gives rise to branching spikes of blue-green thistles with blue spiky bracts that begin silver. A beautiful plant all year 60cm (2ft) high which needs well drained soil in full sun. Great for the beesDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Eryngiums Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
Eryngium giganteum - Miss Willmott's Ghost. Flowering stems branch and branch until they form wide heads of silver white cones surrounded by large silver bracts. A marvelous architectural plant and an eerie presence in the half light. This plant can behave as a biennial or short lived perennial dependent on situation and how well it grow in its first year. Whichever it will usually seed itself around to provide replacements. 60cm tall, Summer. This plant earned itself it's common name 'Miss Willmotts Ghost from the habit of Ellen Willmott - a spiky character herself - carrying seeds of this plant in her pocket and sprinkling them in gardens she visited. In this way she silently left a trail of the plant in her wake.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Eryngiums Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
A really big, bold statement of a plant for the back of large borders. Great clouds of ivory coloured, almost white, soft fluffy flowers sway on grey green stems which are richly clad in handsome whorls of fresh green foliage. A handsome architectural plants which can top 2m and is irresistible to insects. Flowering from July-September. Please don't expect to receive it in flower in Summer !Links
High and Mighty
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 9cm
Lesser Celandine. Gold-edged, bronze buds open to a typical celandine colour, the difference being that Ficaria verna 'Montacute' (Ranunculus ficaria) has 4 ruffs of petals, prettily incurved to reveal the contrasting bronzy reverse. The petals are neatly square-ended, almost as if they have been trimmed. Unlike 'Flore Pleno' the centres of the flowers are open revealing a green eye surrounded by a boss of orange anthers. The leaves are arrow shaped, green flecked with silver. A favourite of mine and one of the earliest to flower. Said to have been rescued from a verge in Montacute, Somerset in 1994 just prior to being destroyed in roadworks. -
Potsize - 9cm
Lesser Celandine. Glossy Buttermilk petals, shaded purplish on the reverse set off by a central boss of double-cream stamens. A nice contrast to the other cultivars or where the bold yellows are a bit too strident. Plain green leaves. This selection comes from Allan Robinson, former Rock Garden Superintendent at Wisley, who named it after his cat. -
Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
A first rate architectural foliage plant for moist or boggy soils. Leaves are rounded, ruffled and deeply cut and of a beautiful shade of green. Large heads of coarse bright yellow-orange daisies produced in late summer which the bees just adore. 120cm -
Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
This variety was first discovered in a garden in Georgia, USA and has gone on to earn a reputation for being the very best of the red Bee Balms. It shows excellent (but not guaranteed) resistence to mildew and is a highly attractive to bees and hummingbirds, though I've not yet seen any of the latter here in Dorset. The flower heads are relatively large with wide gaping flowers of an unabashed scarlet set off by dark bracts. 1m plus tallDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
An excellent introduction from White Flower Farm. Said to have excellent mildew resistance this variety has flowers that stride that middle ground between pink and red. In bud the flower heads have more than a passing resemblance to raspberries. It is undemanding, growing in a wide range of conditions. It is tolerant of quite wet sites and will grow where it is much drier, but somewhere in the middle is best. Give it full sun for best flowering and to best get the scent of the leaves. It is highly attractive to pollinating insect but apparently loathed by deers who clearly have no taste. 60-90cmDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
Potsize - 1L
Quite distinct for a Nepeta in that it forms a dense upright bush rather than a lax mound of foliage, standing up well despite the elements. The flowers appear in a dense terminal cluster, quite large and standing proud above the foliage. The flowers are more in the style of Nepeta 'Souvenir d'Andre Chaudron' or a Dracocephalum, long like a Salvia and a strong mauvy-blue. This is a hybrid between N.yunnanensis and N.nervosa, a recent cross made by Janet Egger (Terra Nova Nurseries). 80cmLinks
Nepeta Compared
Catmint in the Garden
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee and Butterfly friendly
Potsize - 1L
Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' is a must for the front of any sunny border where it produces with great reliability a 3-4ft wide mound of soft grey green foliage and a hazy cloud of lavender blue flowers which the bees and butterflies adore. Trim to encourage second flowering. Easy to grow and divide. A useful alternative to lavender for short hedging. This variety is more hardy combined with better damp tolerance than Nepeta faassenii. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Nepeta Compared
Catmint in the Garden
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee and Butterfly friendly
Potsize - 1L
Nepeta nervosa is a dense shrubby perennial flowering in late summer with short dense spikes of pure blue flowers. Best in well drained soil in full sun. Cut back after flowering. 30-60cm. Leaves are narrow and much greener than most Nepeta with darker flowers in denser heads. A pretty addition to the Genus. Runs a little more underground than other species. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Nepeta Compared
Catmint in the Garden
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
Densely packed racemes of intense pink catmint flowers on long, fat bottlebrushes stand upright above nice, pointed creased green leaves. Bees just love it ! June to September. 40 x 30 cm. dense and intense pink Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Nepeta Compared
Catmint in the Garden
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
This fairly recent introduction has at least three things to recommend it. To start with the flowers are a much richer shade of mauve than the usually found catmint and this plant has gained a reputation for being even freer in its reblooming also. The growth is a little more compact than normal as well, up to 30cm tall and twice as much wide. An ideal plant for edging along paths or beds.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Nepeta Compared
Catmint in the Garden
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee and Butterfly friendly
RHS AGM
Potsize - 1L
Despite its name, 'Wlaker's Low' is much the same size as 'Six Hill's Giant' at about 60cm height and spread, though it has a reputation for collapsing less. It is a good variety, flowering slightly earlier in May, compared to June for 'Six Hills Giant', with a more arching habit and more tint to the stems. Grown side by side, you can appreciate a denser flower spike with a richer colouring. It will flower a second time if cut back hard after flowering. Well deserving of its AGM Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Nepeta Compared
Catmint in the Garden
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
A useful edging plant, especially in warm dry borders, with soft curving stems providing an almost continuous display of white catmint flowers on mounds of soft silver-grey scented leaves. 30cm, pure white. May to September. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Nepeta Compared
Catmint in the Garden
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee and Butterfly friendly
RHS AGM
Potsize - 1L
Nepeta x faassenii (mussinii of gardens, N.racemosa, N.mussinii x N.nepetella) Nepeta x faassenii produces sprays of lavender blue flowers from mid Summer until Autumn over short mounds of grey green foliage. An excellent alternative to lavender as a short hedge, brilliant below roses and good at the front of any border. Catmint deserves its popularity as a cottage garden stalwart. Trim to keep tidy and encourage a second flowering. 50cm. Excellent for the bees. Many plants grown in the trade as Nepeta racemosa are in fact this hybrid. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Nepeta Compared
Catmint in the Garden
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
SUNDROPS. Always interesting with pink and red stained young shoots that arch and drip with bright sunshine yellow flowers in summer. Autumn colour is a deep glowing red. Best in full sun. 50cmDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
Potsize - 1L
Onopordum acanthium. (Scotch Thistle). A stately architectural plant with attitude ! The large Acanthus-like leaves are densely woolly silver and tipped with real thistle barbs. At first forming an impressive evergreen rosette, during the second year, in April it mounts its advance skywards. A very stout, silver 'trunk' is winged, well clothed in woolly silver leaves and terminates in a broad candelabra bearing a succession of the big mauvey-pink and nectar-rich silver thistles that are depicted on tins of shortbread and which are beloved by the bees and butterflies. Usually monocarpic, this impressive plant wants lots of room and sun but is unbeatable to add structure to the border. usually self seeds very modestly so you can relocate the offspring to appropriate positions whilst small; although I have moved enormous plants in high Summer for safety's sake (they were very prickly by the path) and gotten away with it. Planted young and well fed they can top 2.5m tall.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
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Potsize - 1L
Produces a low spreading mound completely obscured in late summer by the mass of rich pink flowers crammed in tight rounded heads. A sight only enhanced by all the butterflies it attracts. Grow it either on its own where it will produce a dome or close to other short perennials where it will mingle its blooms with theirs. The name translates as Pink Dome. 30-45cm for full sun and reasonable drainage. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
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Potsize - 1L
This cultivar is quite distinctive as the flower heads are exploded into a bright pink cloud rather than the dense cluster more usually found. The longer stalks show off well red stems and calyces. Use this variety when you want a lighter effect. Equally as good as the other cultivars for attracting the bees and butterflies. 45cm for full sun and reasonab;e drainage. Will seed around, especially into gravel. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
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Potsize - 1L
This is one of those plants that has really surprised us by how much we like it. It comes from a fairly robust genus where elegance is not usually the order of the day, but it really is a thing of great refinement. In habit it is fairly open and quite large growing at least 1m in each direction. The stems branch widely with each node bearing a long tapered leaf whose edge colours red, a colour that repeats into the long tapering flowering stems which are narrow and carry small starry white flowers which point and twist like those fireworks that whizz as they are sent skywards. An undemanding plant for a moist to wet soil and a must for the flower arranger. Good with Euphorbia 'Fireglow' or Schizostylis coccinea ''Major' Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
A recent addition to the range of Persicaria, being one of the darkest to date. Flowers are produced over a very long season in a rich deep congealed blood red. Height between 80 and 120 cm. A firm favourite of our good friend Dinah, and she knows a thing or two about Persicarias. Very drought tolerant. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
Long spikes of Rose Madder buds, opening in narrow sections to a salmon pink flower to give a striking banded effect. A little earlier than some into flower from mid summer onwards into Early Autumn. Bred by Belgian Persicaria breeder Chris Ghyselen. 120cm in height. Good in a wide variety of soils providing it doesn't get too dry. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
This is one of the many varieties bred by the Belgian Landscape designer Chris Ghyselen. It is like a shorter, more floriferous form of P.amplexicaule Alba, growing 90-120cm in height. The leaves are long and pointed, forming an attractive feature on their own. July to October. for sun to part shade. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
This variety was a chance seedling identified by Alan Bloom. It is shorter than the species with an extended flowering season all the way from July through to November. The flowers are a rich magenta pink with electric blue stamens. Height 100cm (sometimes more) by 70cm wide. Very drought tolerant. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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- Bee Friendly
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- RHS AGM
Potsize - 9cm
Primula beesiana. One of the smaller growing Chinese species of Candelabra Primulas. From a rosette of leaves reaching 8-15cm rise strong silver-dusted stems to about 25cm which carry several whorls of rich mauve pink flowers each picked out with a yellow eye. Lovely in drifts by water or for a moisture retentive soil in sun to part shade Discount of 30p per plant for quantities of 3 -9, 50p for 10 or overLinks
Primula Compared
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Potsize - 1L
Delightful frilly double primroses open creamy white and quickly develop a suffused fleckled pink glow which is strongest on the outermost petals. The central petals have a hint of lemon at the base. As it is sterile it flowers over a v ery long seasonn from late Autumn into early Summer. A sweet little poppet.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities 3 or over or for any 10 from the 'Higly Bred Primula' categoryLinks
Primula Compared
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- Bee Friendly
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- RHS AGM
Potsize - 9cm
Primula elatior (Oxlip). The wild form of our native Oxlip. From early spring a rosette of apple green foliage emerges which in april or may sends up stems from 10 to 30cm which are topped with a one sided umbel of short stalked primrose flowers. It was once prolific in eastern England from London to Cambridge and into Norfolk, where it was synonymous with acient woodland coppices and grew in large numbers, replacing the common primrose. It is easily grown in heavy rich soils, particularly over chalk, in shade or partial shade which do not dry out in summer. Discount of 30p per plant for quantities of 3 -9, 50p for 10 or overLinks
Primula Compared
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 9cm
Primula japonica 'Carminea'. Easily grown sturdy candelabra primulas with strong stems baring up to six dazzling tiers of the deepest cerise primrose flowers. For rich moisture retentive soils. Best grown in shade or partial shade to avoid the sun fading the flowers. Flowers in May and June. >Discount of 30p per plant for quantities of 3 -9, 50p for 10 or overLinks
Primula Compared
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 9cm
Primula poissonii. An easily grown Chinese species, not as tall or chunky as some of the more common Candelabra primulas, but quickly forming good clumps of evergreen bluish foliage up to 20cm high. The flower stems are about 30cm high and display the whorls of up to 10 deep magenta, yellow eyed flowers to great effect. Ideal for moisture retentive soils in shade or damper conditions in more sun. >Discount of 30p per plant for quantities of 3 -9, 50p for 10 or overLinks
Primula Compared
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 9cm
Primula veris 'Sunset Shades' (red cowslip). Cowslips with party dresses. It is likely that these cowslips share some of their genes with red flowered polyanthus and although still typically cowslip shaped, they are larger flowered, more flambouyant plants with flowers in shades of red and orange. They make super garden plants enjoying the same conditions as P.veris: they need to see the sun but without drying out in summer and flower in April to June. >Discount of 30p per plant for quantities of 3 -9, 50p for 10 or overLinks
Primula Compared
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 9cm
Primula veris. Our native Cowslip hardly needs an introduction but sadly its native homes are becoming less common. Charming native primula with lopsided clusters of bright cheery yellow flowers on short stems. Excellent for naturalising in banks or meadows ideally in sunny situations on well drained alkaline soils. In wetter, heavier or shadier spots Primula vulgaris our native primrose is more likely to suceed. If you have ideal conditions and space you may well get enough flowers to make cowslip wine but better still to stick to chardonnay and leave the blossoms for the bumble bees who often pierce the backs of the calyx to sip the nectar. >Discount of 30p per plant for quantities of 3 -9, 50p for 10 or overLinks
Primula Compared
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Potsize - 9cm
Primula vulgaris subsp. sibthorpii. (Primula acaulis subsp. rubra) These Primroses looks for all the world like our native Primrose which the fairies have painted pink. Their habit and flower shape are just the same but this subspecies hails from the eastern mediterranean and grows in similar shadier and cooler conditions to those that we associate with our own wild primrose. The flowers are usually purplish pink or rosy red and can flower from February to April. >Discount of 30p per plant for quantities of 3 -9, 50p for 10 or overLinks
Primula Compared
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Bee Friendly
RHS AGM
Potsize - 1L
Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'. The leaves of this plant look stunning from summer to mid winter being long apple green with almost complete silver guilding. The large violet blue flowers appear in February and continue until May displayed well above the bold clumps of stunning foliage. A excellent all rounder tolerant of some sun or full shade.. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Pulmonaria Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
It won't just be the bumblebees that can't resist this especially floriferous, bright pink Pulmonaria. Excellent ground covering foliage is boldly splashed with white spots and is mildew resistant. April - May. A Terra Nova introduction bred for flower size and quantity. 25 x 25cm Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Pulmonaria Compared
Botanical Style Photographs