Interesting Foliage

Originally bred by and developed in Japan, Agastache 'Golden Jubilee' was named to honour Queen Elizabeth II's 50th year of rule, celebrating the Golden Jubilee in 2002. This bright gold-chartreuse beauty has one of the most remarkable leaf colour of any plant. Offering late season punctuation the flowers are a powerhouse source of nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects.

With cascading tassels of the most wonderful coral-pink. Amaranthus 'Coral Fountain' is a great addition to the garden and a superb filler for the vase. With generous treatment, specimens three or four feet or more with enormous drooping tassels of flowers can be obtained.

The blooms of Amaranthus caudatus 'Mira' have a unique ombre colour that transitions from light sage green, to lilac, to deep purple. The trailing locks are like jeweled necklaces, thick, pendulous tassels that extend 60 to 90cm long. They add exceptional texture and visual interest to gardens and floral designs alike.

Blending perfectly into the late summer and autumn landscape, the large plumes of Amaranthus 'Autumn's Touch' combine soft pistachio-green and bronze tones to create restful, airy beauty in the garden and make exciting vase material that hold their colour longer than other amaranths and delight the songbirds who flock to feast on their seeds throughout autumn.

Amaranthus 'Hot Biscuits' is a rather splendid ornamental addition to the garden and the vase. This gorgeous and graceful amaranth feature bold spikes of coppery-bronze branching plumes. They make an excellent cut flower and make exciting vase material that hold their colour longer than other amaranths.

Ornamental Grass Briza maxima has blue green leaves and flower heads that hang like scaly little heart shaped lockets that are tinged with pink from late spring to mid summer. They make a wonderful cut flower and flowering in 10 to 12 weeks from spring sowing, they are very easy to grow to perfection.

Gardeners and florists alike value Celosia spicata for its long-lasting blooms. 'Xantippe' has spikes that start pale pink and gradually mature to silver. A favourite for use in arrangements where its unusual structure adds height and an airy, wispy aesthetic. Its flowers can also be dried.

Over the past few years, the new breeding of Coleus has exploded them into hundreds of wild and crazy types of colours and forms. Overwhelmingly the favourite is the Kong series for its sheer presence, each leaf is easily as big as your palm, and probably twice as large as the next biggest Coleus you can buy.

Grown for its outstanding foliage colours, the Kong series of coleus boasts extremely large leaves with irregular edges, each leaf is easily as big as your palm, and probably twice as large as the next biggest Coleus you can buy. 'Kong Red' displays a broad vein of brilliant red down the centre of each leaf.

Featuring huge leaves that are coral in the centre and edged in bright green, Coleus 'Kong Salmon-Pink' is a 'Premium Shade' variety, that are great for large containers and mass plantings, performing best and showing the most intense colour in full shade, they also work well for indoor plant programs. It's hard to go wrong with this plant.

This wonderful Victorian type coleus ‘Black Dragon’ forms a riot of rumpled leaves in velvety purplish black leaves, each bordered by frilly edges. The ruby red centres are sometimes flecked with violet or pink. Easy to grow from seed, they will show their first colours in as little as two weeks.

Coleus 'Coral Candy' features a new plant form - narrow, serrated leaves that gracefully drape down the mounded plants. The first seed raised coleus to ever win the coveted AAS Winner designation - AAS Judges noted that this beautiful variety holds its colour well, even when grown in full sun and holds up nicely in the autumn.

Coleus have been perfected, the new varieties have colours that intensify in sun, but can also thrive in shade. “Coral Sunrise” is an excellent example of the new developments, The beautiful coral pink heart-shaped leaves have neatly serrated edges, with shades of olive and intense bright green margins.

Cyperus alternifolius is a very popular both as a house plant and pond plant. The bracts are symmetrically arranged in an umbrella formation and held atop elegant stems that sway with the breeze, giving a tropical touch to the garden. They are also excellent when used in fresh or dried floral arrangements.

Deschampsia cespitosa is a lovely variety of ornamental grass especially valued for it’s tall flower plumes. The sprays of airy delicate flowers, eventually changing to bronze add texture and colour to the winter garden and deliver a knock-out punch to cut-flower arrangements.

Fullers Teasel a sub-species of the common teasel. The bristly flower heads were cultivated, matured and dried. Inserted into wooden frames, they were used to bulk up the pile on woolen cloth. The variant name 'fullonum' refers to the name of the trade of the 'fullers' to raise the nap on woolen cloth - to 'tease' it. Teasel is still used today by some who weave wool by hand.