Brightening the garden with its cheerful blooms, Tagetes patula (French Marigold) is a compact, bushy annual boasting semi-double, double or crested flowers, up to 2 in. across (5 cm) in various combinations of reds, oranges, and yellows. Blooming from early summer until frost, the showy blossoms generously cover the finely divided aromatic foliage. The flowers and foliage have a spicy fragrance and have been used to deter insects in the garden. Easy to grow and low maintenance, French marigolds are excellent for beds, containers, or as edging plants.

Resembling lavender with its rich violet-blue flower spikes, Mealy Cup Sage 'Victoria Blue' (Salvia farinacea) is a compact, multi-branched variety which blooms profusely from late spring to frost. Densely packed with small flowers that peek from the calyces, the abundant flowering spikes rise above the foliage of narrow, fresh green leaves. Easy to grow and low maintenance, it requires little deadheading and attracts butterflies. Grows in thick, round clumps, up to 18-20 in. tall (45-50 cm) and 12 in. wide (30 cm)

Grown for its striking foliage, Jacobaea maritima or Senecio cineraria (Dusty Miller), is a bushy perennial or subshrub with silvery, finely textured, dissected leaves, sometimes with a lace-like appearance. Attractive throughout the growing season, the leaves are covered with fine matted hairs, giving them a felted or woolly, silver or white appearance. After the first year, it will produce clustered heads of small, daisy-like, cream to yellow flowers, which are not particularly ornamental. Some cultivars do not flower and many gardeners prefer to remove the flowers as they can detract from the foliage. Striking in the night garden, Dusty Miller is a versatile foliage plant that is perfect to soften color contrasts in the garden, and tone down bright, hot colors.