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.

sold out for now

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.
sold out

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. 

£15

Dactylicapnos scandens

A lightly-built but potentially quite large herbaceous climber with the typical light airy foliage of the family, strung with hundreds of golden yellow lockets in summer. Previously included in Dicentra.

Sometimes described as short-lived, mine have been going for some years now, going from strength to strength without any special care. It dies back to the roots in autumn and sometimes during hot dry spells too but always comes back. Excellent for clothing spring flowering shrubs or scrambling through other climbers.

£8

Anemone fulgens multipetala

A very generous gift from a customer. I'm not usually a fan of double flowers but this is something special. The normal single A.x fulgens is a garden hybrid of pavonina and hortensis and not too rare, but although this form seems to be in cultivation in France (where the original colony is naturalised in rough grass near a sports field), it seems to be largely unknown here in the UK.

It'll need a sunny well drained site, in a traditional cottage garden, and definitely best in rough grass.

£12

Unnamed Paeonia hybrid - single cream with cherry pink edge

This was given to me as a small bit of tuber about 30 years ago - I forget who from - and it has been with me ever since. 

I know nothing more about its origins but it's been a wonderful strong grower wherever I've had it, forming a dense, rounded clump. Unless someone can come up with a better suggestion I'm going to call it Cherry Pannacotta.

Many single rounded creamy flowers, edged in pink. The foliage is very glaucous grey green (a bit like mlokosewitschii - a possible parent - but the leaflets are narrower), and strongly tinted purple in spring. Does not set seeds.

Substantial newly potted roots, probably big enough to flower, in 3l pots.
£25