February

Scabiosa atropurpurea is one of the longest-flowering and most glamorous of flowers that you can grow from seed. Easy to grow and fast to flower, this invaluable plant will attract many butterflies and bees to the garden and the long, straight stems will supply you with cut flowers throughout the season.

One of the longest-flowering and most glamorous of flowers that you can grow from seed, Scabiosa 'Summer Fruits' is a fantastic, fruity blend of delicious colours including raspberry, plum and blackberry. For weekly inclusions in the vase keep the flowers cut to keep the production of flowers right throughout the season.

Boasting the most desirable of deep blue flowers, Scabiosa ‘Oxford Blue’ is a reselected form that stands out from other varieties, it boasts the most desirable of deep lavender-blue flowers. The large, domed, dark centred cushions with contrasting white 'pins', bob atop strong stems. A prodigious bloomer, they will supply you with excellent cut flowers.

Cleanliness is next to godliness even in history. For centuries Saponaria officinalis has helped keep us clean while providing a little loveliness in our gardens. The flowers are an important nectar source and emit a pleasant and intriguing clove-like scent, seducing both night moths and butterfly species.

Santolina, commonly known as Lavender Cotton is a small shrub with soft, woolly, finely divided foliage, that make neat, rounded bushes. They are valuable for mass planting, ideal for knot gardens and small hedging around herb gardens etc. It will stand any amount of clipping and shaping - a perfect plant for control freaks.

This Japanese species of Burnet has infiltrated our psyche and somehow manipulated us so that we can find no fault with this most refined of perennials. Flowering in the first half of summer, the highly tactile flowers float like dainty ghosts at the tips of their slender stems.

Sanguisorba officinalis is a native of Europe and an old-world herb that is currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity thanks to the revival of interest in perennial gardens and naturalised form of planting. Perfect for natural style planting schemes, it looks right at home in a swaying sea of grasses.

Salvia patens is undoubtedly one of the very best blue flowering plants and one of the truest blues found in nature. 'Patio Deep Blue' is a compact variety that is perfect for containers or for the front of the border, there is little else that can compete with the richness of its colour.

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.

Semi-double and double velvety blooms in subtle shades of pale cappuccino, deep caramel, copper and dusty raspberry and everything in between. Rudbeckia 'Sahara' is one of the most spectacular blooms in the late summer border, coming to its peak just as others are starting to fade.

Rudbeckia hirta ‘Maya’ is a fabulous award winning variety, bearing beautifully doubled golden daisies with petals so dense they almost look like pincushions. Golden yellow, with a kiss in the centre — almost like a Zinnia in appearance. An outstanding cut flower and wonderful in mixed containers.

The heavy blooming ‘Irish Eyes’ has fantastic bright yellow and gold daisies with emerald green eyes, a far cry from your typical black-eyed Susan. It is easy to grow, great for cutting and offers lots of blooms in the heat of summer. This popular ornamental is at home in wildlife gardens, cutting gardens and mixed borders.

Rudbeckia hirta 'Denver Daisy' has large, golden daisies with chocolate brown centres and marks at the base of each petal. Growing to around 75cm (30in) tall, this lovely variety performs well, is exceptionally heat tolerant and blooms for a long time in summer.

Considered by many gardeners as the most complete border flower, when Rudbeckia ‘Cherry Brandy’ was first introduced, it took the plant world by storm. This stunning cultivar is the world’s first red Rudbeckia, it produces a mass of spectacular cherry-coloured blooms all summer long.

This attractive plant will be equally at home in the flower border or keeping company with the sage and thyme in your herb garden. Delightfully aromatic, the floral-peppermint scent is subtly different from other mints. Mountain mint is a great nectar plant, its honey is much sought after.

The physostegia has prolific dazzling tubular flower spikes which are arranged on distinctly square stems. This oddly named perennial is perfect for the middle of a mixed or herbaceous border. The flowers are on swivels that can be bent right or left on the stem - a useful feature for floral displays.