The aster most loved by designers because the blooms are the biggest and looks at home in contemporary prairie style planting (grasses!).

Aster Frikartii Monch

An echinacea of greater magnitude than regular purpurea -- really impressive blooms that have become standard for designers.

Echinacea Purpurea Magnus

Best for moist part shade and shade, with tiny blue flowers in the spring. Plant with daffodils for the perfect blue-yellow combination.

Bunnera Jack Frost

Frothy white flowers burgeoning forth in the autumn, perfect for lighting up a shady spot.

Aster Beth Chatto

Calamagrostis acutiflora Karl Foerster

Great one but if it's if happy in good soil and sunshine, it'll get tall and need staking. Small price to pay, really.

Achillea Ptarmica The Pearl

Lady's Mantle is an easy win: plant with nepeta for the perfect display that will last for weeks.

Alchemilla Mollis

This is a problem-solver plant: in shade or part shade, it smothers out weeds and casts up long stemmed flowers for weeks.

Astrantia Buckland

Really impressive, medium height with stunning clusters of large bell-shaped blooms.

Campanula Kent Belle

Hugely impressive perennial up to 5' tall with a profusion of irrepressibly joyful yellow flower heads.

Achillea Cloth of Gold

Multiple shades in lavender, salmon and cerise.

Achillea Millefolium Flowerburst

Leaves that do a little magic act of changing colours around their tiny veins. Flowers in spring like pink aliens. Shade only!

Epimedium Rubra

Morphs into three versions of itself before fully puffing out. Loads of blooms without too much foliage taking up space.

Echinacea Southern Belle

Classic. White makes everything around it perk up.

Echinacea White Swan

Even for those who hate carnations, this one beguiles. Impossibly tall and thin and then a glowing (I swear it!) pink bloom held aloft.

Dianthus Gigantea

Speckles of merlot on white petals like someone spilled wine on the tablecloth while having a fabulous time.

Coreopsis Star Cluster

Wee yellow flowers in the spring but really it's the leaves: the most perfect ground cover ever for shade.

Epimedium Sulphureum

Again: yes, weird alien flowers but THE LEAVES! If Jackson Pollock painted on perennials this would be his work.

Epimedium Domino

Along with Rozanne, the longest blooming, most profuse of the geraniums.

Geranium Dreamland

Hardly fair that it's called Joe Pye Weed -- majestic pink plumes in the late summer, buzzing with bees. An Oudolf fave.

Eupatorium Maculatum

I don't quite understand it, and yet it exists, even though we're not in some sub-tropical mystery island.

Euphorbia Miner's Merlot

Always. I don't care if everyone knows about it now, it's still the queen. Blooms forever. Get it. Love it. Long live Rozanne.

Geranium Rozanne

A slightly more restrained geranium, with pert little leaves and blooms like the cheeks on china doll. Still tough as nails, though.

Geranium Sanguineum Striatum

Essential for meadow and prairie planting. Also (fair warning) a key part of the wild rabbit diet.

Echinacea Purpurea

Wildly addicted to this. It must go everywhere. Blooms all summer, never looks worn or tired. Essential.

Erigeron Karvinskianus Profusion

Massive show of acid yellow ostentatiousness in the spring. Plant with tulips for an even grander display. Great leaf shape contrast.

Euphorbia Wulfenii

If it's happy, it will spill over and bloom right alongside the likes of Rozanne and Dreamland. Great leaf contrast.

Geranium Orkney Cherry

Along with Totally Tangerine, this is the longest blooming geum. Tallish. Prefers part shade.

Geum Mrs. Bradshaw

The one and only hydrangea everyone really needs. Underplant with Allium Purple Sensation for a border with long interest.

Hydrangea Annabelle

Tatty petals unlike anything else, except maybe some oriental poppies, which I can't grow for love nor money, but daisies are EASY!

Leucanthemum Snowdrift

Lavender breaks your heart. Nepeta grows everywhere easily every year, and cut it back and it will bloom a second time. Pollinator magnet.

Nepeta Walker's Low

Another stalwart geranium, but this one makes neat rounded clumps instead of an oozing lava effect.

Geranium Wargrave Pink

Medium height, petals like little cocktails with skirts on.

Geum Mai Tai

Will quickly turn into a clump which looks like a flock of geese all turning to look sideways. Magic.

Lysimachia Clethroides

Massively tall green and white stripey grass, even in dry soil devoid of any visible life or nutrition. Death-defying.

Miscanthus Sinensis Variegatus

Almost never sold at nurseries anymore, even though it's got great leaf contrast, is drought-tolerant, and the velvet flowers seem to glow.

Lychnis Coronaria

Green in the summer, yellow in the fall. Upright, strappy-leaved dependo-grass.

Panicum Virgatum Northwind

Leaf contrast! Quickly clumps up! Unfussy!

Lysimachia Firecracker

Grow for the dark purple leaves which provide fab contrast all season and then turn red in fall. The blooms are nice but not the point.

Penstemon Dark Towers

Look, if the National Trust gardeners and Piet Oudolf use it in all their projects.... Plus bees.

Persicaria Amplexicaulis Firetail

Another grass with lovely wispiness.

Molinia Caerulea Windspiel

Don't know what to call this. Got a cutting from someone else's garden and it's a honeysuckle SHRUB! Who knew?! Scented, easily pruned.

Dwarf Honeysuckle Shrub

Slightly more dainty, refined blooms than the classic Goldstrum.

Rudbeckia Deamii

Like white torches in the garden, especially at dusk, and mildew-resistant. Probably the most popular phlox, for good reason.

Phlox David

Blooms earlier, longer and more profusely than bog standard rudbeckia. Brilliant display in late summer and autumn.

Rudbeckia Triloba

Everyone loves it and so they bloody should. Cut back and it'll bloom again, and even the bracts look good after the petals have fallen.

Salvia Caradonna

Very tall, with tiny pink fuzzy toilet brushes waving about. Did I mention tall?

Sanguisorba Pink Elephant

Nothing like it for the shady spring border. Fizzy floral mini fireworks. And every time, I hear Noel Coward singing "London Pride."

Saxifraga Urbium London Pride

A little perennial soldier, happily casting up little blue pincushion flowers as long as you keep deadheading. Even the leaves are dainty.

Scabiosa Butterfly Blue

Make. Big. Impact. Leaves. Flowers. Seedheads. Stand back.

Phlomis Russeliana

Also a fabulous cut flower that will lift the entire arrangement. Good for virtually all garden styles except ugly ones.

Sanguisorba Tanna

Will probably survive a nuclear explosion. Nothing kills this thing. Swamps, deserts...it doesn't care.

Persicaria Bistorta Superba

Crucial for contrast (fuzzy grey leaves!) but can look manky at the end of the season EXCEPT this one: Big Ears last longer and better.

Stachys Big Ears

When garden wonks talk about "architectural plants" this towering beauty is what they mean. Once established, it suppresses weeds too.

Scabiosa Gigantea

The clue is in the name: a very short version of the classic blue scabious.

Scabisa Blue Dwarf

The ultimate wispy grass. Warning: if the soil is too rich it will get too tall and flop.

Stipa Tenuissima

Not as tall as other Veronicastrums, but that light purple is a curious force....

Veronicastrum Cupid

I'll forgive its pompously posh name only because it multiplies happily and comes up in early spring when very little else can be bothered.

Veronica Tissington White

Such a good doer: dark purple stems and leaves for contrast, and a frothy haze of purple confetti when in bloom.

Verbena Bampton

The king of grasses. Put it where it will glow in the setting sun.

Stipa Gigantea

There are so many Tiarellas now: this is the best one for clumping up and multiplying. Shade or part shade.

Tiarella Sugar and Spice

A staple in the back of the border, or anywhere you want to create a bit of "look-through" interest and movement.

Verbena Bonariensis

A medium height perennial with upright blooms for contrast in shape AND they fade in an ombre effect. Cut back and they'll bloom again.

Veronica Ulster Blue Dwarf

Does what it says: lovely pink haze waving about, much loved by pollinators.

Veronicastrum Pink Glow

I can't do without this one: flowers from spring to autumn, makes a giant weed-suppressing mat, and the silvery leaves provide contrast.

Anthemis Sauce Hollandaise

Much loved by garden designers because the terracotta colour looks so fantastic next to blues and purples.

Achillea Terracotta