June

Heliopsis ‘Summer Nights' is a special selection made by Dale Hendricks of North Creek Nurseries, USA. Introduced in 2004 it produces a profusion of single blooms in early to mid-summer, with rich, deep golden-yellow petals and deep mahogany centres. The foliage is red-tinted and the stems are tinted dark burgundy.

Helianthus 'Sunfill Purple' is a novel purple sunflower with sumptuous dark centers and petals tipped with edged hints of purple. These fast-growing sunflowers produce geometric flower heads for use as bouquet greenery. Just 50 days to maturity, sow successionally, mid spring right through to mid summer.

With most sunflowers, the beauty is in the flower petals, but the multi-layered, green outer calyxes of Helianthus 'Sunfill Green' create the show. This fast growing annual source of cut fillers for bouquets produce geometric flower heads for use as bouquet greenery. Sow successionally, mid spring right through to mid summer.

Helianthus annuus 'ProCut White Nite' is a professional, pollenless cut-flower variety that is used by florists all over the world. The cream petals mature to white and contrast beautifully with the dark brown centre. They plants are uniform and vigorous in growth even under low temperatures.

An exciting addition to the ProCut line, ‘White Lite’ produces tall, ivory-petaled flowers with golden centres. This blonde beauty is sophisticated enough for use in wedding flowers and sturdy enough for market bouquets.

Helianthus 'ProCut Red' is a stunning new dark addition to this widely grown series. Flowers are a deep, rich rusty-red, one of the best dark colours on the market. Dark chocolaty centers gradually give way to ruby ringed petals that fade to a lighter tip. Sow mid spring to mid summer for continuous blooms.

Helianthus 'ProCut Plum' is an elegant sunflower with petals the most delicious mix of soft colours. Café-Au-lait lightly brushed with dusky bronze-crimson. In the vase it mixes well with other blooms in bronze and reddish tones. Just 60 to 65 days to maturity, sow mid spring to mid summer and cut when the petals begin to unfurl from the face

Lighter than orange and darker than yellow, Helianthus ‘ProCut Peach' is the latest colour to be added to the series, a beautiful warm, pale yellow hue that shimmers towards the peach-coloured range. It produces perfectly shaped, single pollenless blooms. Sow mid spring to mid summer for continuous blooms.

If you like well-branched, free-flowering, traditional sunflowers that are not too tall, 'Holiday' is the one you've been looking for. At 120cm (4ft) tall, with golden yellow petals and dark centres, it bears armfuls of cheery 15 to 20cm blooms. Irresistible for cut flower bouquets and for a large garden planting.

Helenium hoopesii is considered by some to be the most valuable of the species. It blooms with bright golden yellow disk florets that each form a kind of rounded knob that transforms the flower from your typical two-dimensional daisy into something much more interesting and sculptural.

If there's one plant that can inject a little razzle-dazzle into the border during gloomy late summers it is Helenium. From late July 'Helena' blooms with masses of vibrant blooms in a spectrum of rich colours from gold to mahogany red. Perfect for the back of the border and wonderful for cutting.

Gypsophila paniculata 'Snowflake' is a pretty double-flowered baby’s breath that offers big airy clouds of white blooms in early summer. The flower panicles are strong-stemmed, compact and bloom a bit earlier than standard forms. Each stem has hundreds of tiny white flowers on wire-thin branches, giving an airy, soft impression.

Gypsophila has recently become rather trendy among celebrity and designer florists, even taking centre stage as the main flower focus of bouquets and arrangements. 'Covent Garden' produces hundreds of tiny, single white flowers on wire-thin branches, giving an airy impression.

One of the grandest of plants, Euphorbia characias 'Wulfenii' has upright stems clothed with whorls of fleshy, mat grey-green leaves that lend the whole plant a textural quality that is unparalleled. From March to June the plants are topped with intense chartreuse-green flowers'.

What spring garden would be complete without a bed of delightful, sweet-scented Wallflowers, harbingers of warmer weather to come? “Ivory-White” is a fabulous, yet hard to find form. A compact variety with a bushy habit which is ideal as an underplanting to tulips and other spring bulbs.

Erysimum (formerly Cheiranthus) cheiri ‘Fire King' is another old and tried variety, with striking, flame-like, glowing orange-scarlet flowers. A compact variety with a bushy habit and a rich fragrance, they will supply the household with an abundance of cut flowers for many weeks.

‘Fair Lady Mixed' is a classic tried and trusted variety. Reliably hardy, this uniform mixture blooms in a wide range of colours, both pastels and bright colours and includes the more unusual dusky-pink shades. This marvellous; fragrant, floriferous flower is extremely easy to grow and very rewarding.