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from late summer to autumn, attracting bumblebees, honeybees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies.HebeA trusty, late-flowering favourite. The plant's pink flowers make the perfect landing pad for pollinators such as butterflies, moths, bumblebees

changing from pink to blue...a clear illustration of the affect of pH on plants.My garden soil must have got more alkaline, possibly through watering with 'hard' tap water during hot weather last summer, hence the pink flowers this year. I'll need to change

coloured white, pink, green, mauve or smoky purple. Blooms may be plain or patterned. Plants will self-seed readily. Height/spread 45cm x 30cm.Lenten rose, Helleborus x hybridusProduces pendent, bowl-shaped, green flowers set against spiny, evergreen

developing, so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for a milder week ahead to enjoy these new flowers in pristine form.Adding a few winter flowering plants really pays dividends, providing another reason to get outside to breathe in some of the freshest air

. Then it was mostly about greenery, this time it is about flowers.Everything is beginning to explode into colour. Looking out of my office window there is a sea of pink as the Geranium psilostemon and Centranthus ruber are particularly rampant. There is a lone spike

coloured flowers, usually with a brilliant boss of yellow stamens at the centre. While many bedding plants remain dwarf and compact cosmos grows taller, swaying above them on the breeze. Seeds are cheap, and these tender summer bedding plants are always

of each crinkled leaf and the reddish pink below is stunning. Who needs flowers when you've got colour like this?Many of my patio pots are planted for season-long impact, and that often means foliage wins over flowers. I've pots of ornamental grasses like

of flower on Rosa 'Penelope'.Dahlia 'Hillcrest Royal': not a pink for the fainthearted. It is a full-bottomed swaggering pink that can really enliven a dowdy corner where the other plants are suffering from a bit of post-summer tristesse.Dahlia merckii

plants, but Euonymus alatus was probably the first. Hailing from China and Japan, it is slow-growing, and deciduous. The greenish-white flowers appear in spring and, for much of the year, it is a green, innocuous-looking shrub.However, in autumn

, this spreading plant features clumps of strappy leaves alongside sprays of trumpet flowers in shades of red, yellow and orange.My top plants for extending colourCrocosmiaThis plant is ideal for the no-fuss gardener. The large, long-lasting flowers in pinks