Talinum calycinum

A terrific little hardy succulent from the southern USA with vivid pink flowers on slender stems above neat tussocks of narrow green leaves. 

Needs full sun and dry soils. Dies down to the roots in winter when it should be kept on the dry side. Fully frost hardy.

£6

Viburnum obovatum

Almost never available in the UK, this is a very distinctive species from the south-eastern USA with tiny blunt rounded leaves on very fine stems. The new shoots are red/purple tinted and being semi-evergreen, it also colours up a bit in autumn. Pretty white flowers are produced in dense clusters in spring and the berries are blue/black. Can make a large shrub but easily controlled. 

Not entirely hardy in the UK so a sheltered site is recommended, not too dry.
£16

Setaria palmifolia

A large and dramatic grass with strikingly ribbed leaves and forming a tussock to about 2ft high and twice that across. The flowers are relatively modest millet-like sprays but the overall effect is very lush and exotic. 

Usually considered a tender species for subtropical bedding but I've had it for years in open borders both on heavy clay soil and the better drained soil at the nursery, mulched with straw in winter. It usually gets heavily bitten back in winter but there's always been plenty of root for it to come back strongly in spring.
£8

Notocactus (now Parodia) magnificus

I have a few babies of this magnificent cool-growing species ready to go in 3in pots. 
Mature plants are more or less spherical, up to 10ins across, sea green with dense bands of straw-coloured prickles along the ridges. Lemon-yellow flowers are produced regularly.

Not hardy, but doesn't need much heat - just frost free and dry in winter.

£6

Rubus acuminatus

Surely the most un-bramble-like bramble you've ever seen, and one of my absolute favourite shrubs of any kind. A small evergreen shrub that neither scrambles nor suckers. To me it looks a lot like Ribes laurifolium, but the nodding white flowers are typical Rubus.

Adaptable but best in woodland shade with shelter and moisture. Many thanks to Barry Clarke for letting me have cuttings of this one.
£18

Lonicera syringantha

A medium-sized shrubby species with heavily fragrant rosy pink trumpet-shaped flowers in spring. The foliage is neat and grey-green. Easy and adaptable – one of the best fragrant shrubs.

£16

Delphinium tricorne

An unaccountably rarely seen small tuberous spring-flowering American woodland species up to about 12ins high but often much shorter, with relatively large purple flowers. 

An excellent and easy addition to a spring woodland collection with Erythroniums, Trilliums etc. Here they're in a raised bed in full sun but not dry, where they do very well.

£8

Clematis scottii

Surprisingly large (to more than an inch in diameter) rounded violet flowers are produced on lax stems up to about 18ins long in spring and summer followed by feathery seed heads. The foliage is greyish green pinnate. 

Plants die down completely in winter. In time will build up into a hefty clump of fine-cut foliage with the flowers held above, a bit like some sort of giant Pulsatilla. 

Easy to grow here in large pots, over-wintered in the tunnel, but better in a sunny, very well drained spot outside, especially in the drier parts of the country. Exciting plants.
3L tall pots ~ £21

Canna x ehemannii

This is a wonderful plant - I normally find Cannas a bit too garish for my taste but this one has elegant and vivid cerise flowers in nodding sprays and on tall dark stems and broad lush green leaves, plus it's an enormous tropical looking banana-y thing to 10ft or more in full flower. Plus, it's been hardy here. All I've done is give it a thick pile of straw in winter. 

It dies down completely (the straw is held in place by the dead stems) but always reappears in May and is luxuriant and magnificent by August. A wonderful plant for anyone with a taste for the tropics. 

sold out for now