August

Sunflower ‘Autumn Beauty’ produces numerous long-stemmed flowers from summer to late autumn in a variety of solid and bi-colour bright warm colours - golden yellow, bronze, brown and burgundy. The long stems are excellent for cut flowers and look absolutely stunning in a vase on their own.

Helianthus annuus 'Copper Queen F1' is a professional quality, pollen-free sunflower with golden yellow petals and rich dark brown disks. 150cm (5ft) tall. The golden yellow petals are ‘dusted’ with a layer of translucent cinnamon-red, giving the large flowers a rich orange appearance. Cut the flowers as soon as all the petals unfurl.

Helianthus annuus 'Cut Flower Mixture' offers a diverse range of sunflower varieties that are suited to outdoor cut flower production. In a wide range of shapes and colours, lemon, golds and reds. The heights range from 80 to 150cm (32 to 60in). They are lovely in borders or vases.

Helianthus annuus 'F1 Gemini Summer' is F1 hybrid tall cut flower variety with golden yellow, double flowers. This professional quality sunflower is a pollenless, uniflora type that grows 90 to 120cm tall. Cut the flowers when the petals begin to unfurl from the face.

Great big fluffy golden heads the size of a dinner plate. This whopper of a sunflower has the same stunning densely packed yellow petals as the beloved dwarf 'Teddy Bear' sunflower but on a far larger scale. They make excellent cut flowers, long lasting and are very impressive in a vase.

Helianthus ‘Ikarus’ is a fairly recent introduction, but one that has started to make huge waves. This premium pollenless sunflower has a unique habit, they are basal branching, resulting in masses of primrose-yellow blooms each with glorious dark chocolate-brown hearts. They grow 90 to 120cm (3 to 4ft) tall.

Giant Sunflower 'Mongolian Giant' is a true giant reaching up to 420cm (14ft) tall with one of the largest flowering sunflower seed heads available, up to 45cm (18in) across. One of the largest-seeded sunflower varieties available to gardeners, the plants are ideal to grow to provide food for birds to eat over-winter.

Looking a little like a solar eclipse, ‘Ring of Fire’ is a dark centred sunflower that blooms with glowing red petals that gradually flare outwards to golden-yellow tips. Growing to a manageable 100 to 120cm (3½ to 4ft) tall with a branching habit, the flowers are pollenless. It is considered one of the best varieties for use as a cut flower.

Helianthus annuus 'Ruby F1' has a dark centre is surrounded by a dense array of rich deep ruby-red petals that form large 15cm (6in) flowers, on plants that are 150cm (5ft) tall. Suitable as a bouquet flower, cut the flowers as soon as all the petals unfurl. sown directly where they are to grow, they are very easy to grow and fast to flower.

Helianthus ‘Solara’ is a professional quality sunflower and one of the longest lasting cut flower varieties available. A pollenless, uniflora type that grows to around 130 to 150cm tall. It has a dark centre, surrounded by a dense array of rich golden yellow petals that form large 15cm flowers.

A new introduction that can be grown for use as a patio plant or as a cut flower. Early blooming and growing to just 100cm (3ft) with golden-orange petals and dark brown centres 'Sonja' produces a spray of flowering side branches that surround the main stem. Durable in the garden and long lived in the vase.

Sunflower 'Soraya' is the first Sunflower ever to win an AAS award. It produces lovely rich tangerine-orange flowers with dark brown centres The vigorous, self-supporting plants stand 150 to 180cm (5 to 6ft) tall. Prized for cut flower arrangements, they produce 20 to 25 flowers from each plant.

Helianthus ‘Vanilla Ice’ is one of the prettiest sunflowers varieties available. With clusters of delicate pale creamy-yellow flowers with dark chocolate centres this compact variety grows to just 120 to 150cm (4 to 5ft) tall is suitable for the border or can be left add a naturalised charm to a wildlife friendly garden.

Perennial sunflowers typically don’t grow quite as tall and large as their annual friends. However Helianthus maximiliani is a wonderful exception. It grows slowly through the summer months as a group of short stems, until late summer when the stems bolt and the flowers head for the sky.

Most gardeners are familiar with the annual sunflower, however, it is the perennial varieties that coexist most happily with other garden plants. Helianthus mollis is a lovely perennial with butter-yellow flowers. It grows 120cm tall and requires little more attention than an annual cutting to the ground.

Based on hybrids bred by the doyenne of the Hellebore world, Helen Ballard, these must be some of the finest and most beautiful of the race we have to offer. Large flowers are produced in a variety of colours from dark purple to white - often extravagantly mottled and marked.

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.

'Melton Pastels' is a great border plant, densely flowering plant with strong stalks of pin cushion flowers in shades of shades of pink, cherry red, mauve and purple. The tall stems make excellent cut flowers and are good for the middle of the border, giving a succession of blooms through till autumn.

Munstead Lavender is a fragrant robust English lavender that, due to its short size and tightly held blooms, makes a great hedge. It flowers profusely in the spring, after which a good pruning will provide an attractive grey bush with highly aromatic leaves.

'Ellagance' are first year flowering lavenders, 'Ellagance Ice’ is the white flowered variety. The deliciously perfumed, pure white blooms make an enchanting informal aromatic hedge in the garden. The flowers are produced from July onwards and are highly attractive to bees.

Fragrant, free flowering and heat and drought tolerant. Lavandula angustifolia ‘Vicenza Blue’ bloom the first year from seed. This especially fine lavender has bold clustered flower spikes of deep lavender-blue from mid July to early September.