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. The name sounds like it should belong to a haughty Spanish princess sashaying through the Mexican desert, like Victoria Montoya who married John Cannon in the 1960s television series, The High Chaparral.In fact, this is not a haughty plant at all

there are not enough, because I bet you a shiny 20p piece that in a couple of weeks, when they have died back and other things have doubled in size, that you will have completely forgotten.I plant a lot of bulbs every year for various clients — last autumn I had about

Looking at the bulb catalogue that is sitting on my desk as I write, I see that there are no fewer than one hundred and sixty one varieties of allium.These vary from the tall to the short, the deep purple to pale pink. Some have heads the size

ornamental cabbages with marvellous frilly leaves, in shades ranging from washy pink to beetroot to deep purple, together with larger ornamental kale.The Americans are very keen on ornamental cabbages and use them in quantity for public plantings (and also

about eryngiums in the ‘We love’ pages of the July 2011 edition. I would like, if I may, to expand on that a bit and introduce you to a few more.I love eryngiums: they are about the only plants that manage to be architectural, delicate, pretty

the beginning of the tree planting season and I want to state the case for one particular tree. A tree that, if you want your autumns to always be as sparkly as an Maharanee's tiara is indispensable. Ladies and Gentlemen (drum roll, please)...I give you

. Like the lives of James Dean or Tupac Shakur, it's short and spectacular. Thereafter, the leaves can be a bit dull and cast a lot of dry shade, so be wary of planting cherries as the sole centrepiece in a small garden. Plant small trees instead

A few weeks ago I wrote about the redesign of part of my garden. It's going well — thank you for asking. One of the plants I mentioned was Nectaroscordum siculum, which I think merits a blog of its own, as it's one of my very favourite plants

everything in the garden is looking. Plants that were mere toddlers when I left have blossomed into adolescents.Most notable is the cow parsley, or Queen Anne’s lace. Over the past decade or so we have encouraged it to seed itself amongst the trees alongside

. I had a bit of a gap into which I decided to plant the following:Thalictrum delaveyii - five foot tall. Drop dead gorgeous.Patrinia scabiosifolia - strong yellowy colour. No nonsense.Monarda 'Purple Ann' - a pinky red varietyMathiasella bulpeuroides