How to Grow Roses

You can grow wildflowers in a border, a pot and a window box as well as in a meadow.

Brodiaea are bulbous perennials with attractive funnel-shaped flowers in June and July. These can be blue, lilac or white, held at the top of slender stems on an umbel flowerhead, like a small version of an agapanthus. Like agapanthus, this plant does best in a sunny spot, sheltered from frost. Not only are brodiaea an attractive addition to an early summer border and patio pots, but they make excellent cut flowers.

The flowers of spider lilies emerge on bare stems between August and September. Named spider lily because of its long arched stamens, which resemble spiders legs, these flowers are exotic and bold, perfect for a late summer border.

Sweet william (Dianthus barbatus) is a short-lived hardy perennial, loved for its showy display of colourful summer flowers. The foliage forms low rosettes of non-spreading mid-green or bronze-green leaves. Large flower clusters are borne on sturdy stems up to 60cm high, made up of many individual florets with a surrounding ‘ruff’ of green foliage. Flower colours come in shades of pink, purple, red, dark maroon, and white, and blooms are often bicoloured, too. Sweet william is hardy, easy to grow from seed, and makes an excellent cut flower.

Never never plants, Ctenanthe, are tropical jungle plants, native to Central and South America. They’re grown as house plants for their decorative oval leaves, which are striped, sometimes in a herringbone pattern, in dark or light green, yellow or silver, often with a purple or red underside. There are 15 species in the Ctenanthe genus, with plants ranging from the compact Ctenanthe burle-marxii and Ctenanthe setosa to the towering Ctenantheoppenheimiana, which can grow to a metre tall.

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is a deciduous shrub in the olive or Elaeagnaceae family. It grows naturally in Asia and Europe, including Britain where it’s considered native to the sand dunes of the east coast. It’s been introduced elsewhere in the country, often to stabilise dunes, but has spread and become invasive. It retains its foliage until late into autumn and tends to shade out other plants. This is a particular problem in the UK on sand dunes, where thickets of sea buckthorn can outcompete the local flora. As a nitrogen-fixing plant, sea buckthorn also enriches the soil in dunes, making it less suitable for other dune species that have evolved to grow in soil conditions with low nutrients.

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Also called the inch plant, Tradescantia is a fast-growing creeper with pretty purple, pink, green, and silver foliage, depending more on the variety.

Climbing plants don’t always need a big pot of soil to thrive – if you have limited space, these specimens will be more than happy to grow in small vases/glasses/bowls of water.

There's perhaps no flower that's inspired more poetry, art, and prose than a rose. From formal rose gardens surrounded by boxwood hedges to cottage gardens overflowing with roses, foxglove, and native flowers, these layered blooms are held up as the star of the garden. They're carefully pruned into formal arrangements and allowed to climb and cascade over charming trellises.

How to Grow Marigold Flowers Marigold flowers are easy to grow and bloom nonstop through summer. Learn how to start these bright blooms from seed and keep them growing all season! Why grow marigold flowers in your garden?

Cosmos are sun-loving plants with a long flowering season. They fill borders with a profusion of flowers, ranging in colour from white through to pink, red and orange, and they have masses of feathery foliage.