The fine clouds of feathery, bronze-purple leaves are wonderful as a centre piece for a sunny herb garden, or among tall perennials and grasses. The foliage acts as a delicate veil through which the flower heads of herbaceous plants and bulbs can be seen.

Festuca amethystina has the most striking combination of silvery-blue, tufted blades of foliage, with drooping, dark violet-tinged flower stems that will rise above the foliage in the first year if sown early enough. It is a gem for containers or a rock garden.

Diminutive Festuca glauca makes a tight mound of steely blue, needle-like blades and is one of the most tactile of the evergreen grasses. Planted as a specimen or in swathes across a garden, the colour is so unexpected it can't help but catch the eye.

Squirrel-Tail Grasses are the ultimate architectural plant, adding see-through effects, autumn colour and winter shapes. They carry silky, golden-greyish panicles in early and mid summer, which develop a reddish or purple tinge at the tips. Fantastic in massed groups, or around taller, more stately plants. .

The Bay Laurel is a naturally pyramid-shaped tree with aromatic, evergreen leaves and shiny grey bark. The shiny thick leaves are used extensively to flavour French, Italian, Spanish and Creole cooking. Bay will thrive and are very attractive in containers making them ideal for the patio.

Russian Sage is one of the great garden plants of all time, but if you've been frustrated by their floppy nature, this new variety will be a welcome addition. Growing only to about 60 to 75cm (24 to 30in) tall, Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Taiga' is also the first Russian sage available as a first year flowering perennial.

The flower colour of Primula auricula is originally yellow, but by hybridization has resulted in every colour imaginable. Auricula are easy to grow and a few specimens make excellent plants for a sun room to be brought out and admired when they come into flower.

Ricinus communis is fast growing, tall and dramatic with huge leaves and interesting flower spikes that add drama to borders and beds. Impala grows to a reasonable garden height of around 90 to 120cm with gorgeous copper-red palmate leaves with vibrant red veins.

An absolute gift to flower arrangers, this is a noble and ornamental plant for the back of any border making nice clumps of foliage. It is, of course, the flowers that are remarkable: three or four inches across, “green” is one’s immediate impression on seeing them.

Sagina subulata is one of the best low growing ground covers. Irish moss is most often used as a ground cover, softening paths and stepping-stones. It gives a lush accent to rock garden and terraces. For a luxurious carpet of green, few plants can match Irish Moss.

Stipa capillata 'Bridal Veil' is one of the prettiest perennial grasses. Forming a dense, glossy green clump of foliage they bloom in summer with beautiful upright plumes. The hair-like awns are at first clear green, and as they mature they turn a beautiful silvery-white.

'Pony Tails' is wonderfully impressive. In summer, plants are covered with masses of elegant pale feathery seed-heads which are held a little above the foliage. These can be cut for use in arrangements indoors. Alternatively they make a useful winter food source for finches and other seed-eating birds.