Woodland

Prunella vulgaris is an interesting and quite beautiful little wildflower plant. The plants produce pretty blue-violet flowers in summer, the flowers freely produce nectar and are highly attractive to bees. If you’re looking for something to add to a meadow garden, or something for those shady areas this is the plant for you.

Pulmonaria obscura is an extremely rare species. Known from just three small locations in adjacent ancient Suffolk woodlands, covering an area of 18 square metres it has only 600 individual stands. One of the first perennials bloom in spring, the flowers are light red, changing to purple and to blue at maturity.

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.

Blue is such a vivid colour in the crystal-clear light peculiar to early autumn. But it's rather a rarity so the airy wands of small blue buttons found on Succisa pratensis are a particular blessing from August to October. This little wildflower is a very versatile plant and worthy of greater appreciation.

Related to Heuchera and Tiarella, Tellima grandiflora form a tidy clump of rounded leaves and are topped by lime-green airy spires. They make excellent groundcover, thrive in shade between flowers in a border and make a good filler for separating strong shapes or bright colours.

Thalictrum lucidum is a less well known species of meadow rue, it sports luscious deep green, fern-like foliage. In mid-summer the plant is festooned with a superb array of fragrant flower stems, topped with airy puffs of soft cream flowers each with bright yellow stamens.

Valeriana officinalis is a graceful wildflower that is native to Europe and Western Asia. The tall, branched flower stalks are held atop a low mound of foliage, the densely clustered flowers are sweetly scented and usually white with a hint of pink.

To garden with an Oudolf-esque plant like Veronicastrum, it is not necessary to turn your outdoor space into a prairie: you are allowed to keep your flower beds. Naturalistic planting travels well, and Veronicastrum holds its own in a formal border as well as in the middle of a lawn which has turned into a meadow.

Veronicastrum virginicum 'Album' is one of the most fashionable plants around. It's an icon of the prairie-style of planting which has marked the young millennium. The multiple tapering, soft spikes of white flowers look like elegant, living candelabras. Topping dark-bronze stems, they provide vertical structure to any border.

The legendary fragrant sweet violet: Viola odorata is often referred to as 'The King of Violets', with a beautiful fragrance and also several herbal uses. An excellent wild/woodland garden plant, it can be found near the edges of forests or in clearings.

Cultivated in Switzerland in 2004 from the famous 'Queen Charlotte', One would think that 'Reine de Neiges', or 'Snow Queen' would be a white bloomer. The flowers are almost white, a clear crisp ice-blue. Long blooming and upward facing, their fragrance is intense.

Viola sororia 'Dark Freckles' is a rare and most unusual violet with speckled flowers. It is similar to the wild violet, but its blue flowers are heavily speckled with violet / purple. It is covered with the cheerful little flowers in spring right through to autumn producing up to twenty per plant in its first season alone.