June

The Kniphofia hybrids have extended both the flower colour and height range. The usual fiery reds and oranges work particularly well in a planting scheme based on 'hot' colours - use them to light up sultry August borders. The cooler yellow, cream, ivory and sometimes green flowers is more restful.

'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.

Hyssop is a strong-flavoured aromatic herb which is enjoying a revival with home gardeners. An ideal plant for use in containers or as a low hedge or border within the herb garden. Highly attractive to bees, it makes excellent honey and is a must for any wildflower garden.

Hyssopus officinalis 'Alba' is a much less well known variety of hyssop. Also known as 'White Hyssop' the plants sport bright white flowers from July to October. Widely used as a 'taste enhancing' herb or wildlife plant, the plants are a dark, vibrant green with a spiky, upright habit and narrow tongue-like leaves which have a peppery scent when stroked.

In spring, Dame’s Rocket lights up the woodland edges with her blossoms, providing nectar for hummingbirds, moths and butterflies, and fragrance for the soul. Very easy to grow, sow seeds directly where they are to flower in early summer.

Dames Rocket produce flowers varying in colour from deep rich purple, through all the paler lilac shades to white. Highly attractive to bees and other beneficial insects, the fragrant flowers perfume the air in late spring and early summer evenings.

Gorgeously scented pure white flowers are held above rosettes of dark green leaves. Like all sweet rockets it is highly attractive to bees and other beneficial insects, the fragrant flowers perfume the air in late spring and early summer evenings. The night-scented stock is a close relative.

Herniaria glabra is a relatively unknown perennial that deserves to be used more often in our gardens. The nursery industry calls it ‘Green Carpet’ and well they should. This lovely bright green creeper spreads effortlessly in all directions. An excellent choice for between flagstones or as a lawn substitute.

Heliopsis is a great plant for the busy home gardener. ‘New Hybrids' is a selection of the newest forms, they will bloom the first year from seed with a profusion of blooms in shades in lemon, golden yellow and orange-yellow. The plants will produce arm loads of flowers all summer long and never once ask for decent soil or proper care.

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. They are uniform and vigorous in growth even under low temperatures.

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.