Key plants in the University of Sheffield: Beautifully Stressed Garden

From amongst the rosettes of slender, bristly foliage, upright leafy stems emerge in early summer bearing spikes of violet blue or purple, bell-shaped flowers. When in full bloom, these not only look impressive, but they will also act as a magnet to many pollinating insects. This makes them ideal candidates for a wildlife-friendly garden, but they also make fine additions to the mixed border.

Pictured: Echium vulgare ‘Blue Bedder’

A rosette-forming, deciduous or semi-evergreen perennial about 90cm tall, with scalloped, long-stalked, mid to dark green leaves, slightly grey-woolly beneath, making basal clumps that produce slender racemes of warm yellow flowers with purple stamens at their centres, from midsummer to early autumn

A bushy, upright evergreen shrub, to 60cm high and 40cm wide. Foliage is aromatic and grey-green. The freely-produced fragrant flowerheads are densely cylindrical, tapering to a blunt tip, crowned by 4 sterile bracts 2.5cm long, give the heads a distinctive appearance. Flowers are very dark purple, calyces rather paler and greyer. Flowers for a long season over spring and summer.

Pictured: Lavandula stoechas subsp. stoechas ‘Provencal’

A vigorous bushy, spreading annual to 30cm, with finely divided blue-green leaves and orange, yellow or red flowers to 7cm across in summer.

A perennial forming wide mats to 15cm in height, with narrow, hairy leaves and daisy-type flower-heads 15mm in width, opening white but soon turning pinkish-purple.