Foliage & Fillers

Achillea millefolium 'Proa' is an improved yarrow, a selected form that is higher yielding, with higher essential oil content, better flower production, and the flowers are more uniformly white. Preferred by those who use yarrow medicinally.

With cascading tassels of the most wonderful coral-pink. Amaranthus 'Coral Fountain' is a great addition to the garden and a superb filler for the vase. With generous treatment, specimens three or four feet or more with enormous drooping tassels of flowers can be obtained.

This ever-popular annual is perhaps more versatile than you might imagine – good in the border, most effective as a cut flower in arrangements, a good pot-plant and, not often appreciated – if carefully dried, the colour of the spikes remains unchanged for a considerable time.

The blooms of Amaranthus caudatus 'Mira' have a unique ombre colour that transitions from light sage green, to lilac, to deep purple. The trailing locks are like jeweled necklaces, thick, pendulous tassels that extend 60 to 90cm long. They add exceptional texture and visual interest to gardens and floral designs alike.

Amaranthus caudatus viridis is the green form of the popular drooping amaranthus. The lime green flowers, which slowly fade to cream as they age, form dramatic tassel-like panicles which can grow to 60cm long and seem to drip from the branches in profusion throughout summer and early autumn.

Blending perfectly into the late summer and autumn landscape, the large plumes of Amaranthus 'Autumn's Touch' combine soft pistachio-green and bronze tones to create restful, airy beauty in the garden and make exciting vase material that hold their colour longer than other amaranths and delight the songbirds who flock to feast on their seeds throughout autumn.

Amaranthus 'Hot Biscuits' is a rather splendid ornamental addition to the garden and the vase. This gorgeous and graceful amaranth feature bold spikes of coppery-bronze branching plumes. They make an excellent cut flower and make exciting vase material that hold their colour longer than other amaranths.

‘Mariska’ is a little known but hardy and compact variety of Dill. With starry bright yellow flower heads, abundant foliage and growing to only 60cm, this well behaved smaller dill is an excellent variety for use as a cut flower filler and is a great variety for the kitchen garden, windowsill or container.

Angelica archangelica is a majestic plant that deserves a prominent position at the back of a border or in a wild part of the garden. All parts of the aromatic plant have culinary or medicinal uses, but it is best known for its candied stems, used as a cake decoration.

Prized for its beautiful silvery foliage, the fine grey-white stems of Artemisia ludoviciana bear silvery-white leaves that are fragrant, fuzzy and soft. This finely textured plant adds a different element to the garden, the texture and leaf form setting them apart from those other garden plants with rather less refined foliage.

Artemisia stelleriana 'Mori's Strain' is a superior, dense, mat-forming selection. Uniquely shaped silver-white felted leaves with deeply divided, rounded lobes, it forms very attractive low mounds, giving an attractive ground-hugging carpet. Its foliage makes a wonderful foil for more colourful flowering plants.

Transform the way you think about basil with a whole new palette of flavours and aromas. Basil ‘Spice Boys Ararat’ produces metallic grey-purple leaves that turn a darker shade of purple when the plant is in flower. Aromatic and striking, the leaves and flowers and are often incorporated into bouquets.

Ornamental Grass Briza maxima has blue green leaves and flower heads that hang like scaly little heart shaped lockets that are tinged with pink from late spring to mid summer. They make a wonderful cut flower and flowering in 10 to 12 weeks from spring sowing, they are very easy to grow to perfection.

A classic filler adding colour and texture, Bupleurum provide charming foliage and blooms of chartreuse green for the vase. Developed for the florist trade and recently introduced, 'Green Gold' produces wonderfully upright plants. Its flowers are produced on long, sturdy stems that have an exceptionally long vase life, lasting up to 10 days in a vase.

Gardeners and florists alike value Celosia spicata for its long-lasting blooms. 'Xantippe' has spikes that start pale pink and gradually mature to silver. A favourite for use in arrangements where its unusual structure adds height and an airy, wispy aesthetic. Its flowers can also be dried.

Cyperus alternifolius is a very popular both as a house plant and pond plant. The bracts are symmetrically arranged in an umbrella formation and held atop elegant stems that sway with the breeze, giving a tropical touch to the garden. They are also excellent when used in fresh or dried floral arrangements.