These perennials are all summer flowering and out now.
Here is the lupin everyone admires. Of course, it is Masterpiece one of the dynamic West Country Lupins. Supersized, super colours. Purple and orange all in one flower. Amazing!
I once saw gaura this in a Japanese garden with bamboo, ornamental silver pear and of course water and it looked fabulous.
We just love it because it's soft and gentle in a border or pot. Gaura does have some hardier varieties.
This is an achillea but a new variety much more compact than the Pearl. I'll be planting this in my sunny border to add that delicious mid height froth of white that we often look for in plant like gypsophila. This will set all the other flowers off perfectly. Achillea ptarmica 'Peter Cottontail'
No Peter jokes please but what a lovely name!
Phygelius is sometimes commonly called cape fuchsia.
It is not surprising this is closely related to our #penstemons and #antirrhinums but not fuchsias. Look at the tubular bells. This is a fairly #hardy thug in my garden. Definitely not an annual. It spreads making suckers. Great for summer in the right place.
I think these would lend themselves to a tropical planting scheme with large leafy plants and cannas.
One of the easiest penstemons to grow is Garnet. Greats late summer into late summer colour.
The one thing to remember is do not trim them back until you have new shoots in the spring. Works well with reasonable light and drainage in most borders towards the front.
