Phlomis leucophracta 'Golden Janissary' is the king of all Phlomis for foliage effects. Shame it's so hard to ever have enough to sell.

The particularly pale blue and well held foliage of the very rare Beschorneria wrightii. This is the real thing. Many plants in botanic gardens, certainly in California, I've observed to be wrongly named.

Albizia julibrissin f. rosea has made a small, very spreading tree in just 2 years. Here fronted by Pennisetum macrourum, with the huge growths of Carrierea calycina behind.

I just love the decay of late summer and autumn. What could be nicer than all those subtle tones?

Yucca glauca flowering for the first time with me. The seed for this plant was collected wild in the Mid-West USA, has particularly broad leaves, and rather sumptuous flowers compared to cultivated stock I have seen.

Aloe aristata, most usually seen as a house plant, grows outside permanently on the rock bed.

Eryngium venustum is a handsome, though rarely seen NE Mexican species.

Kniphofia northiae, from high in the summer wet Drakensberg Mts. of South Africa, is one of the earliest of the genus to flower, in early summer. It is a distinct, trunk forming, giant plant and one of the hardiest.

The flowers are very densely packed into great club heads.

Zantedeschia 'Green Goddess'

The Azorean Euphorbia stygiana with Glaucium corniculatum behind.

Aloe striatula. One of the hardiest of all Aloe and usually easy outside given correct conditions. Spires of old Echium inflorescences behind.

Giant Sempervivum and Agave bracteosa are added to the rock bed, where Yucca whipplei is finding its feet.

Kniphofia 'Tawny King'.

Glaucium corniculatum and Agave americana.

Achillea 'Marmalade' and Carex testacea.

Hesperaloe parviflora, an Agave relative from N Mexico and W Texas makes a hardy and exceptionally long flowering plant for sunny places with unimpeded drainage.

When planted this Agave salmiana had rather puny, slim leaves after being starved in a pot for too long. It has filled out well and now pushes out considerably fatter foliage.

This form of Eragrostis curvula, going under the collection number S&SH 10, is exceptionally soft and fine.

Agapanthus 'Buckingham Palace' is tall, dark and handsome, in fact darker than these photos would have you believe. It is one of the original true Headbourne hybrids and is only propagated by division.

Seseli gummiferum, exceptionally happy on the pure limestone rock bed.

Lobelia tupa, flowers with me from August until November.

Rudbeckia maxima flowers hover above the bleached seed heads of Jarava ichu.

The darkest of all forms of Eryngium pandanifolium, though by no means the tallest.

This large form of Eryngium horridum can have inflorescences to about 2.5m tall.

Pennisetum macrourum. Months of late season interest.

Cobaea pringlei, from NE Mexico is proving itself as a good perennial in a handful of UK gardens. It flowers for months and covers a good 10m of wooden screen here every season.

Common as muck, but who could tire of such a supremely fine plant as Verbena bonariensis?

My rather happy and vigorous Firmiana simplex has turned out to be a rather exceptional form. It is head and shoulders above the one or two other specimens in the UK, such as at Ventnor or Kew, in that the foliage is much larger and considerably more deeply lobed. Not only that, during 2006 it put on shoots about 1m long.

Hydrangea aspera Kawakamii Group is one of the last of all Hydrangea to flower and can make a sizable shrub

This nice compact Melianthus major is far less coarse than another I grow.

Pteris wallichiana. This fabulous Himalayan fern has beautifully divided fronds up to about 1.5m high.

Thalictrum uchiyamai can reach to over 2m tall, with a cloud of violet flowers.

Euphorbia x pasteurii 'Phrampton Phatty'. A new clone raised here which the visiting Roy Lancaster told me I just had to name. So I did. This plant reminds me of some of the people I saw on a trip to the USA recently.

Beschorneria yuccoides 'Quicksilver'. This is now the readily available commercial clone available in the trade. It is a good form, but, I fear, just another example of a tacky name being attached to a plant for purely commercial reasons. This is the first of many plants of this clone in the garden to flower; the inflorescence reached 3m in length and partially blocked the path as it became ever more horizontal, just as I've seen them in nature where they hang out from near vertical moist cliffs in the cloud forests of Mexico.

With mild winters and a good microclimate, Echium pininana has performed well so far, though these inflorescences only peaked out at about 2.5m; probably due to a very warm dry spring as they were expanding.

Lupinus chamissonis.

Butia capitata with a young Tetrapanax papyrifera 'Rex' to the left.

Tetrapanax again, from canny angle.

Trachycarpus wagnerianus grow blooming fast once past the juvenile stage.

The mighty rare Carrierea calycina flanked by Onopordum acanthium thistles.

Puya alpestris x chilensis. Aquired as P. alpestris, but interesting nonetheless.

Kniphofia 'Tawny King', one of the best, flank a glossy green leaved Polylepis sp. from Argentina.

My wall of Phyllostachys vivax 'Aureocaulis' beginning to put up some reasonable shoots.

Agave americana fills out rather well, and starts to give a hint of floppiness - a sure sign it's settling in and rooting out vigorously.

The giant, almost Aloe-like leaves of Kniphofia northiae softened by a haze of Eragrostis curvula S&SH10.

Crinum moorei.

The Afghan hound, Helianthus salicifolius.

Pennisetum macrourum.

The Squirting cucumber, Ecballium elaterium. Supreme unusual ground cover for well drained soils.

Again, with Anemanthele lessoniana.

Salvia confertiflora in the foreground...

Agave difformis jovially says "In for a penny!", or maybe I made that up. Maybe it's really saying "Get me out of here you bloody idiot".

The very late flowering Helianthus salicifolius looking surprisingly erect for the time of year.

Not at all a bad effect if one has large swathes of bare ground to cover.

More Agaves bedded in.

A distinct need for more planting here...

...and here.

My own design of screening, using coppiced hazel rods, chestnut posts and oak laterals starts creating a little shelter, helps to define distinct areas and looks pretty in itself.

The first plant to go in in 2003 was this Butia capitata, the Brazilian Jelly palm. It has one of the top spots within the garden, being sited in a particularly sheltered, potentially very warm south facing corner.

20 years old already, this little Agave americana had the raised bed built around it for obvious reasons.

Thrown together with my fair hands, the sides of the raised bed were crafted from locally sourced coppiced hazel rods, with chestnut uprights. How long they'll last is anyones guess........