If you want a huge flower, and you want it as soon as possible, then the Early Russian is the plant for you, it is a reliable, and very fast grower and grows tall and strong so there’s no need for staking. Ideal for competitions and hiding that shed that will be painted ‘next year’.

These vigorous upright plants are multi-branching giving a very bushy appearance, producing numerous gorgeous six inch blooms with pale lemon-yellow petals surrounding a dark brown centre. Valentine is an excellent cut flower. A Fleuroselect winner.

Helleborus viridis is a very demure plant, very early flowering with bunches of open, saucer-like flowers, of a startling bright green. This low growing, clump forming perennial will revel in light shade. A well-drained soil, leaf- or humus-enriched soil is all that they need.

Hosta are grown predominantly for their outstanding foliage, from leaves as small as a teaspoon up to those larger than a dinner plate, colours range from deep blues to silvers, darkest shiny greens to bright yellows, from a single solid hue to the myriad of variegations the choice is almost overwhelming.

The more I see of this rather attractive little plant, the more I grow to appreciate it. Now I seem to spot it all over the place, in meadows, woodland, road verges and gardens. The bright yellow fragrant flowers can be seen in blossom from the end of April through until mid September.

“Frances Perry” is a very desirable plant. This stunning red Meconopsis is a much less commonly seen relative of the yellow Welsh Poppy. This is an undemanding perennial in many climates and is particularly valued by those gardening where other Meconopsis are less easy to please.

The Meconopsis genus contains some of the most exquisitely beautiful of all flowering plants. M. cambrica is the easiest to grow, and is reliably perennial. The delicate cup-shaped, golden-yellow flowers are borne in abundance from late spring to early autumn.

Gleaming disks of bright yellow set off by dark centres provide really strong vibrant colour in the garden. Mesembryanthemum (means “midday flowering") is a ground-hugging, sun loving, spreading plants, perfect for rockeries, they can also be used between flagstones and in dry walls.

Dorotheanthus bellidiformis is popular plant better known to gardeners by its former name, Mesembryanthemum. This bright, ground-hugging little annual forms patches of brilliant, almost iridescent colour in spring, often with reddish stems and fleshy, rubbery, greyish-green leaves.