Spring Bulbs & Plants

Living up to its name in every way, 'Graceful Beauty' offers a soft, romantic touch. The delicate 3-inch flower heads are a gentle combination of pure white florets with subtle lavender-pink centres, creating a soft, shimmering effect. Unlike the bold giants, this variety has a more refined and understated elegance, making it perfect for cottage gardens and romantic planting schemes. It blooms generously, often producing several stems per bulb, and its sweet scent is an added delight. Plant it where you can appreciate its subtle charm up close, perhaps alongside pale pink roses or silvery foliage plants.

When it comes to making a statement, 'Globemaster' is in a class of its own. This magnificent variety boasts some of the largest flower heads available—enormous, 8-10 inch globes packed with thousands of star-shaped, purple florets. What makes 'Globemaster' truly special is its incredibly long bloom time; as new florets open from the center, the flower head continues to expand, maintaining its perfect spherical shape for weeks on end. It’s a living sculpture for your garden, providing a powerful focal point that commands attention and inspires awe. Even after the colour fades, the dried seed heads provide architectural interest well into the winter.

True to its name, 'Gladiator' is a strong and statuesque presence in the garden. Standing tall on robust, sturdy stems, it produces impressive 6-inch globes of rich lilac-purple. It is one of the earliest of the giant alliums to bloom, creating a dramatic and powerful display that stands up to spring winds. 'Gladiator' is an excellent choice for creating vertical interest at the back of a border or for planting in bold groups to create a wave of colour. Its classic globe shape and reliable performance make it a champion of the late spring garden, effortlessly pairing with peonies and irises to create a truly spectacular show.

The "Giant Allium" is the species that started the craze for these incredible plants. Allium giganteum was one of the first giant ornamental onions to be introduced to European gardens from its native Central Asia. It produces wonderful 6-inch globes of bright lilac-purple flowers on towering stems that can easily reach 5 feet. While newer hybrids may be larger, giganteum has a classic, reliable charm and a slightly more open flower structure that gives it a softer, more airy feel than its dense hybrid cousins. It is a true garden heirloom and a must-have for creating that classic, vertical cottage garden look.

With a striking and unusual form, Allium 'Forelock' brings a wild, windswept elegance to the garden. It builds upon the classic drumstick shape with a dramatic flourish. The main bloom is a dense, elongated oval of burgundy florets that gradually lightens to a soft green at the base. Bursting from the top is a spectacular, trailing crest of long, thread-like purple florets that resemble a lock of hair caught in the wind. This tufted "forelock" gives the bloom an incredible sense of movement and drama. It’s an ideal choice for adding a sculptural, artistic touch to borders and gravel gardens. The two-toned effect and unique silhouette make 'Forelock' a standout specimen that bridges the gap between cultivated formality and untamed natural beauty.

Named for the god of love, 'Eros' is a captivatingly romantic allium. It produces delicate, airy umbels of pale lilac-pink, star-shaped flowers that seem to float on slender stems. The flower heads are about 4 inches across and have a very open, lacy structure, giving them a whimsical and ethereal quality. This variety is perfect for creating a soft, dreamy look in a cottage garden or a naturalistic planting scheme. It is exceptionally beautiful when swaying in a gentle breeze, mingling with fine grasses and other delicate perennials. A truly enchanting and graceful addition to the late spring border.

Behold the celestial firework of the plant world, the Star of Persia. This allium produces an enormous, airy globe, often reaching up to 10 inches in diameter, composed of as many as 100 individual, star-shaped florets. Each metallic, silvery-lilac flower has a remarkable amethyst sheen, creating a sparkling, ethereal sphere that seems to hover in the garden. It blooms a bit lower to the ground than its giant cousins, making it a perfect statement piece for the front or mid-border. After flowering, the architectural seed heads are just as stunning, drying to a beautiful silvery-tan that persists for months. Use them to add long-lasting structure to the garden or bring them indoors for magnificent dried arrangements that capture their starry magic.

A jolt of electric, azure-blue for the summer garden, Allium azureum is a gem of startling intensity. Unlike its paler relatives, this allium delivers a spectacular splash of vivid, cornflower-blue, a colour that brings an unparalleled energy to the border. It forms dense, tightly packed globes of star-shaped florets, each held aloft on slender, upright stems that rise above withering, grass-like foliage. This trait makes it a perfect candidate for interplanting, where its brilliant flower heads can float magically above a sea of lower-growing perennials and grasses.

Native to the windswept steppes of Central Asia, it is perfectly at home in full sun and sharply-drained soil. For a truly breathtaking effect, plant in generous, tightly-packed drifts where its collective power can create a dazzling, vibrant haze of blue. Pair it with the contrasting fire of orange geums or the cool silvers of artemisia and eryngium for a display that is both dynamic and sophisticated. A plant of pure, unadulterated colour, Allium azureum is guaranteed to stop onlookers in their tracks.

For those who crave deep, dramatic colour, Allium atropurpureum is an unparalleled choice. It produces dense, dome-shaped clusters of tiny, star-like florets in an intense shade of dark, blackish-purple. The colour is so rich and saturated it appears almost velvety, creating a powerful point of contrast against brighter flowers and silvery foliage. Standing on tall, slender stems, these dramatic blooms seem to float above their neighbors, adding a touch of moody sophistication and depth to planting schemes. They are particularly effective when planted in large drifts, creating a river of dark wine-red that flows through a perennial border. Their elegant form and striking colour make them a sophisticated addition to any garden design, from contemporary to cottage.

For the deepest, most regal purple, look no further than 'Ambassador'. This variety is prized for its densely packed, 7-inch flower heads that boast an incredibly rich and saturated shade of dark violet. The flowers are so tightly clustered they create a perfect, velvety sphere that looks almost manicured. Standing on thick, strong stems that can reach over a meter tall, 'Ambassador' has an imposing and formal elegance. It's an ideal choice for adding a touch of drama and sophistication to your planting schemes, and the flowers are exceptionally long-lasting both in the garden and as a cut flower for magnificent indoor arrangements.

The quintessential English cottage garden plant, this Hollyhock mix provides towering spires of colour and a wonderful vertical accent at the back of a sunny border. Hollyhocks produce tall, stately stems lined with large, impressive, open-faced, single or semi-double flowers. This mix will contain a beautiful range of classic cottage colours, including soft pinks, deep reds, creamy whites, buttery yellows, and potentially even dramatic near-blacks. They are magnets for bees and butterflies, which are drawn to the pollen-rich centres of the simple, open blooms. While technically a perennial, they are often best treated as biennials, flowering in their second year from a spring sowing to create their magnificent and iconic floral display throughout the height of summer.

A superb and richly coloured Yarrow, 'Red Velvet' is celebrated for its large, flat flowerheads and its fade-resistant, vibrant colour. It forms an upright clump of beautiful, aromatic, fern-like, grey-green foliage. From early summer, strong, branching stems rise above the foliage, topped with large, plate-like clusters (corymbs) of tiny, daisy-like flowers. The colour is a stunning, deep, velvety crimson-red with contrasting tiny yellow centres. Unlike some older red varieties, 'Red Velvet' holds its intense colour very well, even in strong sun. It is a fantastic plant for a sunny, dry border, providing long-lasting colour and a wonderful, flattened texture that contrasts beautifully with spires and cones. It is highly attractive to pollinators and makes an excellent, long-lasting cut or dried flower.

A delightful and easy-to-grow perennial, Achillea ptarmica 'The Pearl', also known as Sneezewort, offers a completely different look to common yarrows. It forms a spreading clump of lance-shaped, dark green leaves. From early summer right through to autumn, it produces a profusion of branching stems topped with loose sprays of charming, button-like, pure white, fully double flowers. The individual blooms look like perfect little pearls or pom-poms, creating a wonderfully frothy and delicate effect in the border. Unlike other Achilleas, this species prefers moister soils. It is a fantastic filler plant, weaving amongst other perennials, and is an outstanding cut flower, adding an airy, baby's-breath-like quality to bouquets. It is vigorous and will spread by rhizomes to form a good-sized patch.

Allium 'Purple Sensation' is certainly sensational in its popularity among gardeners as well as its absolutely striking good looks, and you’ll be thrilled to have it. At the end of a fairly short stalk, 100 or more lavender purple stars shoot out in a circle of superb symmetry and seemingly painted-on colour. Any great artist would be proud to have designed these flowers, and a cluster is a breath-taking sight. Plant several Allium 'Purple Sensation' bulbs (commonly known as Dutch garlic) close together and see for yourself why this is one of the trendiest plant species to have in your garden. They also smell divine and butterflies flock to them. Just fabulous!

The long-lasting, sweetly scented blooms of Allium hollandicum 'Purple Sensation' last well in the vase, and even the spent flowers look striking with their structured flower stems precisely arranged in their spherical pattern. All in all, it’s a gorgeous plant, with a sculptural yet airy appearance, and it’s pleasant to see it finally winning gardener’s hearts as it deserves.