Pickford Design 29 views ♡

A miniature lemon yellow iris from the Balkan countries. These can bloom from mid October with a flourish and sporadically over summer. Ideally grown in a sunny free draining soil with rhizomes visible on surface. Grown in an alpine rock garden, border or container this plant benefits from rhizome c...

Japanese Black pine. Broadly conical, evergreen. Rigid dark green needles in 2's, 10cm long. Egg shaped cone 7cm long. A coastal tree tolerating salt winds and poor sandy soils. Performing well as shelter on high exposed cold sites.None available anywhere that I can find. Useful to train in the Japa...

So popular overseas. A whopper. Sow the seed too.Up to 2m in height, with spreading, glossy, pale green strap-shaped basal leaves which die down before the flowers. Dense globose umbels of lilac-pink flowers to 10cm across with prominent stamens, are borne on tall stems in summer. They even stand up...

A lovely late season addition.United States. Royal Catchfly This delightful perennial - with a taproot - bears several stems up to 1m. Designed for hummingbirds, they look great in a hot border with their bright red flowers which are very valuable in later summer. Only a few.

IPlumed Thistle. From Japan comes this stoloniferous cushion-forming and evergreen plant. It is spiky like your average thistle. But if you can cope. it will be well worth it. An improved variety from Jelitto. For gritty well draining soils or simply average ones. Sun. Best in the rock or gravel gar...

This Himalayan species has much larger leaves in summer than other species.In winter the plant is deciduous and longish stolons loop over the substrate with old brown leaves attached which I find interesting. It has upright stems with a loose umbel of a few flowers on tallish stalks in mid summer. B...

Such cute flowersCompact, evergreen shrub. red/orange/white-tipped flowers appear from spring to autumn. Grows approximately 50 x 50cm. Prefers a sunny location and is hardy once established. However if you have frost it can be dug and potted up and brought in as a houseplant. Or leave it as a potte...

A compact, small shrub with a profusion of white flowers, naturally growing on stony slopes and cliffs—slow-growing but striking even at modest height.'Panda' is ideal for small gardens and rockeries. Slow growing. it reaches just 40–60cm in height after 10 years and features neat, mounding ever...

Everyone should have a JOY Plants plant.Not sure how two so very different plants (Large vs Petite), albeit with the same coloured flowers can have such a different form. Horses for courses in terms of choice.A perennial wallflower that has been bred in New Zealand and provides masses of fragrant fl...

A rare and lovely, tough plant. Fast growing.False Mallow, South America. Hardy deciduous, (if very frosty) plant that trails and creeps beautifully in full sun. Rare found in a lovely and very old rose garden. Can be invasive evidently, so be careful. It was a nice little thing in a sunny and dry s...

A wide spread European, African and Azerbaijan woodruff. 10–60 cm, my seed source seems a tight cultivar with small pale purple flowers, on long, thin, green, stems. Early summer. Messy sort of low mass, but trim after flowering.

Incredible colour slection and as tough as old boots.Clump-forming perennial which grows to about 75-90cm tall, with dark green, toothed, lance-shaped leaves, and clusters of dark violet flowers with yellow centres, flowering on strong stems, over a long period from early to late autumn or early win...

Superb for dry gardens. Intoxicating colour.Desert penstemon. Multi-stemmed plants with clasping, oblong, toothed, saucer-leaves around its amazing flowers. Sturdy, hardy and a very early splash of colour. It is highly valued in xeric landscaping for its vibrant, hot pink-to-magenta tubular flowers...

A special and rare purple-blue flowering plant for enthusiasts and those who love variety.Mescal bean or Texas mountain laurel is an evergreen, usually multi-trunked shrub or small tree ranging from just a few feet tall to more than 9m in height, though its usually much less, especially on poor soil...

A special flowering, drought tolerant rariety. A dessert willow-looking begonia.Southern California's desert regions.The desert willow is a small, multi-trunk tree, fragrant, trumpet-shaped flowers in shades of pink, lavender, and white. These are seedlings so we don't know. The flowers attract poll...

Dwarf Turkish Alpine Wallflower. Smothered in the spring with incredibly sweetly scented, lemon, blooms. An excellent rock garden or edging plant for sunny areas, and tolerant of hot, dry sites with poor soil. Also great spilling out of cracks in rock walls, or between flag stones. Small species, fi...

Dwarf Turkish Alpine Wallflower. Smothered in the spring with incredibly sweetly scented golden yellow flowers. An excellent rock garden or edging plant for sunny areas, and tolerant of hot, dry sites with poor soil. Also great spilling out of cracks in rock walls, or between flag stones. Small spec...

From the Southwestern Iberian Peninsula. Small, 1cm long, narrow leaves on a petite shrub, bright white flowers 2cm diameter with a yellow blotch. Long flowering over summer. Hardy and drought tolerant. It is small and tidy, not lax (this and C. libanotis are often confused) It has a habit not unlik...

Nearly ready,Larkspur or Redcap, orange-red flowers even in winter. Sweet and unusual, a joyous bright splash of colour through winter. Nice clump in a border or rock garden. Hardy and easy. 40cm H. Not long lived but wonderful when you have it. Collect the seed and resow to ensure it is always abou...

Spanish foxglove. A lovely smaller growing variety, having lovely pink pendulous flowers in early summer. Similar to the common and rather course by comparison, D. purpurea in general appearance but are more compact and perennial. They have foliage covered with yellowish, glandular hairs and are per...

Chinese Mint Bush. The bushy hardy and drought tolerant plant has beautiful flowers, which bloom until late autumn, is perennial, even though its above-ground parts freeze in winter to regrow in the following year. Back of the border. 120-160cm, chop down in winter to half size or less. Bees love it...

A must have toughie.This Mexican native has a rosette of broad, strapped leaves. The central, three-petalled, large, bright white flowers are borne over a long period in late spring and summer. Usually under snow in winter its an easy plant for those tough spots. It likes perfect drainage especially...

The Pineapple Lily. South African bulb, hardy here in Canterbury. Deciduous, coming up with broad fleshy leaves in spring followed by tall pineapple-like spires of fleshy florets in late summer. spent seed heads add interest into winter. Easy in full sun, unless very hot and then happier in part sha...

Pale blueEastern Europe, Caucasus, Southwestern Asia: mountain meadows. Pale blue with darker stripes. A valuable late spring bloomer, (and sporadically thereafter), the compact growth is excellent for pots and troughs.Salicyna, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons