Foliage & Fillers

Named for the famous Dutch Delft blue pottery, Nigella papillosa ‘Delft Blue’ is an eye catching hardy annual with flower petals in varying shades of blue and grey, and intricate deep-purple centres. They make a splendid addition to mixed beds and border displays and the flowers attract and feed bees as well as other beneficial insects.

Nigella papillosa ‘African Bride’ is a most attractive variety. Deep rich purple stamens that highlight pure white blooms are followed by intriguing red seed pods. A hardy annual that is very easy to grow, it is rather special as a cut flower, and lovely in summer borders too.

Once you see Nigella in bloom, you will always recognise it by its unique mist of airy bracts and foliage. It earns its common name of Love-in-a-Mist from the tangle of ferny, fennel like foliage that forms a mist around the flowers. Nigella papillosa 'Curiosity' blooms have deep rich purple stamens that highlight delicate blue blooms and are followed by intriguing seed pods.

An unusual twist on the classic cottage garden flower, Nigella 'Transformer' adds intriguing texture with its uniquely shaped flowers and upright, seed pods. A good choice for borders, mass plantings or cut flowers. Used fresh or dried the seed pods are a great filler in bouquets, cut flower production is just 12 to 16 weeks.

'Bells of Ireland' are flowers to please anyone who loves flower arranging. Cut fresh, the bells will last for years and they are very useful for winter arrangements but they also look good in flower borders and with the recent fashion for green blooms are becoming more sought after.

Miscanthus are the queen of ornamental grasses. Miscanthus sinensis ‘New Hybrids’ provide a multitude of cultivars with varying heights, leaf widths and bloom times. Some plants will be upright growing and others will have a cascading habit, also expect variation in colouring.

An icon for well over a hundred years, the range of Miscanthus cultivars expanded dramatically in the 1950's when the German plant breeder Ernst Pagels persuaded two of his plants to set seed at the same time. The result of his work has provided us with some of the finest flowering grasses available today. ‘Early Hybrids’ are a selection of early blooming cultivars with differing colours and forms.

Coveted by crafters and arrangers, every devotee of dried-flower arrangements is no doubt familiar with Statice. This perennial variety is a stunning spectacle when in bloom, producing clusters of silvery white frilly flowers that last all summer. Delicate and exquisite, they look like they are made from paper.

Persian Cress or Ornamental Cress is a trendy filler green among floral artists and they keep it in regular demand. This easy to grow filler foliage grows upright, sturdy branches decorated with tiny, silvery seed pods by the thousands.The flower stems are durable and age well, turning golden at the end of the season.

From the Tian Shan Mountains of northern China comes this tough little subshrub that is among the finest expressions of silver foliage to be found. Helichrysum thianshanicum is a superb silver leaved evergreen, subshrub that forms a tight mound of eye-catching silver foliage.

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.

Introduced in 2008, Gaura lindheimeri 'Summer Breeze' has now been made available in seed form. A hardier, more robust variety, long blooming and floriferous, it produces open, willowy, vase-shaped plants, with long graceful stems that suspend numerous little, dainty, butterfly shaped flowers at their tips.

Gaura lindheimeri 'Sparkle White' is a stunning hardy perennial. A Winner of the Fleuroselect Gold Medal, this bushy, clump forming variety has a neat, compact habit and produces a flurry of dazzling white, starry blooms on graceful slender stems from early summer right through to autumn.