There are three blue-flowered hardy geraniums that are star performers in any garden. Geraniums Rozanne, Jolly Bee and Orion have large, bright blue blooms and all three flower over a long period. They are happy in sun or partial shade and are perfect scrambling through other plants in the herbaceous border.

Perfect Roses picked from the garden

June’s flower has to be the rose. There are so many to choose from rampant ramblers to miniatures that the choice has to be down to space available and personal taste. Modern English roses from David Austin have been bred for disease resistance, fragrance and a neat habit.

Amelanchier lamarckii ‘Ballerina’ is a perfect small tree/large shrub for practically any garden.  Right now it is a haze of delicate white flowers and delicate bronze tinged foliage.  It has a light and airy branching habit, bears edible fruit in the summer (if you can beat the birds to it) and wonderful autumn colour.  A real star performer.

It has to be the hellebore with its wonderful range of colours from purest white to near black.  Give them the right conditions – cool light shade with a moist root run - and they will self seed all around the garden.  However, if you want to guarantee the flower colour, you will have to propagate by division – they are very promiscuous.

If ever a plant deserved the epithet ‘small, but perfectly formed’ the Iris reticulata is the one.  I planted these ones (‘Harmony’) on October the 18th and it has been worth every minute of the wait to enjoy this little pot of perfection on my desk – and fragrant too!