Echinops
Echinops bannaticus (Globe Thistle)
A pollinator magnet with round steely blue flowerheads held above spiny grey-green leaves through the second half of summer.
Plants that die back or rest over winter and come back year after year, bringing most of the border’s colour from spring to autumn. Many can be lifted and divided every few years to make more.
Hylotelephium
Hylotelephium ‘Autumn Joy’ (Sedum)
A fleshy-leaved succulent perennial with clusters of starry flowers in late summer, thriving in sun and quick-draining soil.
Penstemon
Penstemon ‘Pensham Amelia Jane’
Penstemon ‘Pensham Amelia Jane’ is a long-flowering perennial with tubular, foxglove-like purplish-pink flowers that bees love, blooming from early summer well into autumn.
Penstemon
Penstemon ‘Pensham Plum Jerkum’
A semi-evergreen penstemon with plum-purple, white-throated flowers from summer into autumn, loved by bees and butterflies and happy in sun or part shade.
Penstemon
Penstemon ‘Summertime Pink’
A long-flowering, semi-evergreen penstemon with soft rose-pink, pale-throated flowers from June to October, good in pots or at the front of a border.
Persicaria
Persicaria affinis ‘Donald Lowndes’
A neat, mat-forming, semi-evergreen groundcover with spikes of pale pink flowers that darken with age, and dark green leaves that turn red in autumn.
Salvia
Salvia ‘Belle de Loire’
An upright sage with scented grey-green leaves and long spikes of pink and white flowers from spring into autumn.
Salvia
Salvia ‘Salvito Violet’
A neat, upright sage with scented leaves and tightly packed spikes of violet-purple flowers through summer and into autumn.
Salvia
Salvia ‘Strawberry Melba’
A compact sage making a low mound of scented silvery-green leaves, with two-tone pink flowers from spring well into autumn.
Salvia
Salvia ‘Amistad’
A tall salvia with deep purple flowers in near-black calyces over a long season, loved by bees and butterflies.
Salvia
Salvia Pink Amistad
A tall sage with dark green leaves and large pink flowers all through summer and autumn, though it’s tender to frost.
Verbena
Verbena bonariensis (Purpletop Vervain)
A tall, airy, see-through perennial with nectar-rich lilac-purple flower clusters on slender, wiry stems from summer into autumn.
Verbena
Verbena rigida (Slender Vervain)
A spreading perennial with fragrant lilac-purple flower clusters on stiff stems through summer, loved by bees and butterflies.