Echinops

The country’s Cape Floral Kingdom has incredible bloom diversity with around 9,000 species – and some make spectacular plants for our British gardens

REAL readers' gardens!

April’s palette turns electric when euphorbias unleash their vivid colours, often outlasting and outshining other spring favourites

John Massey’s Ashwood Nurseries has been breeding superb hellebores for the past 35 years, and they are acknowledged to be the best in the world. It all began because John was looking for winter work

Purple punctuates the planting: here an acer, verbena and some pinky-purple crinum, or swamp lily, stand out

There’s magic in every seed – so start planting them today for a garden bursting with colour and buzzing with life