With its showy pale flowers that open from dark purple buds in autumn, Tricyrtis or the 'toad lily' provides bags of late season interest for any part of the garden in light or even full shade. Held aloft on wiry 50cm tall stems, the star-shaped flowers are attractively spotted purple, and rise above clumps of glossy, heavily grooved green leaves. This perennial thrives when planted in damp, moisture-retentive soil and is suitable for growing in shady borders, woodland gardens, under shrubs or in soil close to the pond. It deserves to be planted somewhere such that the intricate flowers can be viwed up close and also makes a lovely cut flower and will do well also in a container. Despite possessing exotic-looking blooms, the toad lily is as tough as old boots although if you live in a cold part of the country or have an exposed garden, it's best to cover plants with a thick mulch over winter. Supplied as 3 x established plants in 9cm pots, ready for planting out.
Who doesn't love Peonies displayed in a vase, and what could better than fabulous flowers that will last forever? This bush of artificial peonies is made of five fabulous flowers in an eye-catching shade of dark pink with lovely green foliage makes the perfect contrast. Perfect for brightening up any room, display with your favourite vase with other artificial flowers and create your own floral arrangements. This will make a perfect gift for someone special, and part is, they require absolutely no maintenance. You don't have to worry about remembering to change the water because they can't die! Supplied as 1 x artificial peony bush with 5 flowers, 47 cm tall.
There's certainly plenty going on is the busy gardening scene featured in this Beautiful Gardens jigsaw puzzle. Designed to delight and also frustrate, you'll love seeing the gorgeous gardening picture come together. It looks as if the gardener walked away just a moment ago, leaving everything behind - maybe they've gone for a well earned cup of tea. Gardeners will recognise everything in this picture and all will have recreated the same scene many times during their own busy days in the garden. Whoever the gardener is here, they've packed a lot into it. From flowers and vegetables to an exotic agave, although the shed may be a little too tidy for some! Measuring 68cm (27in) Wide and 49cm (19in) deep when completed, with 1000 pieces to exercise your puzzling skills.
Beautiful Borders is just the guide you need if you want to create borders that burst with colour and variety, that have depth and structure, that have staying power and adaptability. There's more to it than just picking a few plants you like the look of! This book will take you through every step: designing your border, taking into account light, soil, location and aspect; choosing your flowers and plants, based on the chosen design; and preparing, growing and maintaining. Written in a clear, accessible style, with helpful checklists and tips, and beautiful illustration. Paperback 256 pages 45000 words 300 illustrations
An unusual, premium magnolia for a border or even a large patio container, Magnolia x brooklynensis 'Black Beauty' is slow growing yet produces many flowers - perfect for growing in small gardens. A new introduction from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens breeding program and not widely available, this is one of the darkest magnolias available to the home gardener. Sumptuous dark purple, almost black, tulip-shaped blooms open to reveal a contrasting creamy white interior and a sublime perfume. Blooming from late spring into early summer, Black Beauty avoids many damaging late frosts, so manages to keep its flowers pristine when other magnolias do not. An extremely hardy plant in general, surviving below -30C!Easy to grow, this fully winter-hardy Magnolia makes an eye-catching focal point in smaller spaces, and its super-easy to look after. Reaching just 1.8m (6ft) in 10 years, your Magnolia will be sent as a bare root bush and is ready for immediate planting - a cost-effective way to get your hands on this rare beauty. Please note that your tree is dormant and will not have any leaves until the spring.
Sometimes it's hard for a plant to live up to its name, but Beauty Berry doesn't fail and certainly will not let you down! An absolute knock-out, Callicarpa is grown for its long-lasting display of metallic-purple, almost jewel-like berries that cling in dense clusters to bare branches between autumn and late winter. An award-winning plant, this desirable shrub has received both the RHS Award of Garden Merit, and the RHS accolade of a Plant for Pollinators, making it a reliable and wildlife-friendly plant for the garden. In spring its young foliage is tinged a lovely shade of bronze before turning dark green, while summer interest is provided by a mass of delicate pink flowers. Then, before the berries come into their own, the dark green foliage puts on a fiery show in the autumn, turning golden and red Excellent grown alongside other shrubs in a sunny or slightly shaded position, this bushy deciduous plant grows to around 3m, but can be kept more compact by pruning. An absolute garden must-have, plant a few callicarpas together to get a bumper crop of berries!. Supplied as an established plant in a 3L Pot, plants will grow to approx. 1.8m.
This distinctive rose variety has the most entrancing flower colour imaginable and one that is rarely seen in the whole rose genus. What is more, in this particular instance the beautiful blooms are held gracefully aloft on a strong 'Standard' stem with a ball of lush foliage that will become covered in blooms that stand proud above the rest of your patio displays. Flowering throughout the summer months it will be a major talking point within your patio garden and makes a perfect centre piece of any patio container, bed or border. Blue Beauty is incredibly easy to care for - it is repeat flowering, totally winter hardy and perennial so it will create it's breathtaking display year after year. Supplied as a dormant but freshly lifted bare root Half Standard that is 80cm tall. Keep the plant cool and the roots thoroughly moist until planting and once planted, water every few days for the first month whatever the weather. To ensure your rose gets off to the best possible start, whether planted in a pot or directly in to the soil, we strongly recommend providing support with a stout cane until the roots are fully established. When your rose is flowering, normally from May until October each year, occasionally remove any spent blooms and feed fortnightly with good quality soluble plant food with a high potash content. This will make the display look even more attractive and also encourage the maximum display for the longest period. . Prune just once each year in February, merely tidying us the head into a symmetrical ball shape.
Hypericum 'Magical Beauty' is a highly desirable new variety of Hypericum (St John's Wort), admired by gardeners for its abundant, bright yellow flowers with their amazing crown-like sprays of anthers and also for its glossy pink fruits. 'Magical Beauty' bursts into life in early spring with a flourish of dark-green leaves that provide the perfect foil for its cheery blooms and later berries which appear pale yellow in autumn before turning pink, then red and finally black. A flower arranger's dream (and a gardener's for that matter), this hypericum is ideal for a sunny or part-shaded position, and because of its compact nature, makes the perfect specimen for a pot, so you don't even need a garden to grow it. Bees and many other beneficial pollinating insects find the sunny flowers of Hypericum irresistible and you're guaranteed months of colour as it starts blooming in June and continues right through to September, with its berries appearing from August. Supplied as an established plant in a 9cm pot, ready to be planted out. Reaching an ultimate height and spread of 80cm (2½).
Primula Belarina 'Beaujolais' is a real treat with scented double flowers in the most luxurious deep purple colour with a touch of white at the edge of each tightly packed petal. These decadent primroses are naturally compact and have beautifully textured leaves in rosettes and are smothered in flowers between March and June. They will look fabulous wherever you plant them. They're great in pots, containers, beds or baskets, in partial shade or sun - they really are easy to grow and bring the spring garden to life with their rich colours. Perfectly hardy in the garden, they're perfect when combined with other perennials and underneath trees and shrubs where they'll flower for months, gradually forming large clumps that can be divided every few years to give you more plants. Supplied as 3 plug plants ready for potting on or planting out, growing to a height and spread of 20 cm (8 in).
Osteospermum 'Serenity Sunshine Beauty' will fill your garden with beautiful blankets of daisy-like blooms is gorgeous shades of gold and yellow. Also known as African Daisies, there gorgeous blooms have eye-catching yellow petals that take on a golden orange tone towards the ends. In bloom from June through to September, the uniform, compact plants that have a mounding growing habit where they create carpets of spectacular colour. The perfect variety for garden borders, mass plantings and other container displays where their abundant heads of bloom will fill your pots much more than traditional varieties and will attract bees and butterflies into your garden. Osteospermum's are sun lovers and grow best in moist, well-drained soil. Easy to grow, they are half hardy and will tolerate light frost as well as heat and drought and need very little in the way of aftercare. Supplied as 12 x plug plants, ready to grow on before planting out.
If you're looking for something truly fabulous and exotic, 'Oiseau Blue' could well be it! In your garden or on your patio, this standard lollipop from tree comes into its own when it bursts into flower with its bright blue, maroon centred blooms that can be up to 8cm across in late summer. Despite looking very exotic, they are very tough and hardy indeed. You can therefore plant this in the garden with confidence, for stunning displays for many years to come. Grow it in a warm, sunny spot for the longest lasting and biggest displays - they can be hungry feeders, so give them plenty of feed as they come back into leaf and set buds. Supplied as an established plant in a 19cm pot.
The fabulous centuries old gourmet French Fig, 'Rouge de Bordeaux', produces the most amazing deep red purple fruits, with an almost violet metallic luminescence about their skins. A late cropping variety, best grown in a pot, it will thrive in a Sunny spot in a smaller pot for root restriction, which encourages bigger fruit crops and less leaves. It will do even better in a conservatory or greenhouse too, as the extra temperature will produce more, larger and sweeter fruits. Self-fertile, so no pollinators needed. Fully hardy, but crops better in warmer locations. Pick fresh in early September, the sweet, juicy red fleshed Figs contrast with the purple skins. A real delight for fig lovers everywhere.