July 2026

Landscape and Garden Design in the UK

Flowers for the garden

1) Sunflowers are super easy to grow from seed and a popular choice for attracting bees and pollinators into the garden.

Helianthus annus

Sunflowers are annual plants. They complete their entire life cycle, from seed to flower, making new seeds, and dying, in just one single year.

Sunflowers track the sun from east to west.

Sunflowers produce seeds that are edible for both people and birds

Tall stems add a structural element to a garden. The flowers are brightly coloured and provide vital food for birds and wildlife in the autumn.

Growing sunflowers improves the soil and can remove toxic elements from the soil and can even absorb radiation.

Deep taproots and lateral fibrous root systems help to aerate the soil so act as a soil conditioner.

2) Lavender is a popular, aromatic, drought tolerant garden plant that is widely used in landscape and garden design.

Lavandula angustifolia

• Herbaceous Perennial: Lavender will live for more than two years and will come back year after year.

• Can be easily grown from seed.

• Used to create a naturalistic planting style in garden design

• Low maintenance

• They offer stunning purple summer colour.

• Fragrant flowers

• Hardy in the UK climate.

• English lavender is ideal for traditional cottage style borders and path edges.

• Wildlife friendly plants which provide food for pollinating insects.

• Offers several health benefits. For example, reduces anxiety, promotes sleep and soothes the nervous system.

3) Bird's foot trefoil, often called bird's foot clover, is a low-growing native UK perennial wildflower featuring bright yellow, slipper-like flowers and claw-shaped seed pods. Landscape and garden designers include clover within wildflower meadows and naturalistic planting plans.

Lotus corniculatus

• Native perennial wildflower

• Drought tolerant

• This native wildflower feeds endangered pollinators like the Dingy skipper

  
  

Dingy skipper butterfly feeding on Bird's foot trefoil

• Nourishes butterfly caterpillars.

• Bird's foot trefoil naturally enriches poor garden soil.

• Pest free

• Disease free

4) Agastache - Giant hyssop  is a herbaceous perennial with fragrant leaves and spikes of colorful, tube-shaped flowers. Flowers from mid-summer to autumn.

Agastache

• Look: Tall, colorful flower spikes that resemble bottlebrushes.

• Scent: Leaves smell strongly of mint, licorice, or anise.

• Benefit: Highly attractive to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

• Care: Easy to grow, loves full sun, and tolerates dry soil.

5) Aster x frikartii monch - Michaelmas daisy is a herbaceous perennial. It has large lavender-blue, daisy-like flowers and flowers from mid summer to late autumn.

• Mildew Resistant: Highly resistant to powdery mildew.

• Size: Grows 70–90 cm tall.

• Sunlight: Needs full sun.

• Soil: Requires well-drained soil.

• Pollinators: Attracts bees and butterflies.