Highly popular, English Lavender 'Hidcote' is a free flowering variety that is prized by most gardeners for its long-lasting and delightful scent as well as the fashion in which its dark purple flower spikes beautifully contrast with its blue-green evergreen foliage. Hidcote is a perfect choice for low hedges, edging or creating borders. Excellent for crafts and dried flowers as they retain their color. Blooms once in late spring or early summer. May have a second and third flush of flowers during the season if the flowers are cut soon enough.

Free-flowering, Agapanthus 'Northern Star' (African Lily) is a striking herbaceous perennial boasting showy rounded clusters of dark blue, star-shaped flowers from mid to late summer. They rise on stiff, upright stalks atop clumps of beautiful, deciduous, glossy green leaves tinged with deep violet at the base.

Santolina pinnata subsp. nepolitana (Green Santolina), a favorite of Mediterranean gardens, is a beautiful evergreen shrub noted for its attractive foliage, profuse midsummer show of long-stalked, button-like bright yellow flowers. Aromatic if bruised, this compact variety of Santolina features thinner, pinnate, gray-green leaves that have a more feathery look, a finer texture and more graceful demeanor than Santolina chamaecyparissus.

Native to South Africa, Arctotis x hybrida 'Flame' is a stunning African Daisy exhibiting large, 4 in. wide (10 cm), bright bronze-orange daisy-like flowers surrounding a golden disk and beautiful, and finely cut, silvery-green foliage. Blooming continuously from late spring to frost (in hot areas, Arctotis will stop blooming in summer until the temperature cools off. Blooming will start again in fall), the flowers close at night and may only partially open up on cloudy days. Typically growing in compact mounds about 20 in. tall (50 cm) and 10 in. wide (25 cm), this plant won the prestigious Award of Garden Merit of the Royal Horticultural Society.

Reminiscent of the desert sun in Arizona, Gaillardia x grandiflora 'Arizona Sun' (Blanket Flower) produces 3 in. wide (7 cm), single flowers with mahogany red rays adorned with a golden-yellow ring at their tips. This short-lived perennial is renowned for its profuse, long-lasting, colorful mounds of bright flowers atop attractive gray-green foliage from early summer to fall. Rich in nectar, the flowers are real magnets for butterflies!

Probably the most widely grown cultivar of Crocosmia, award-winning Crocosmia 'Lucifer' produces decorative clumps of erect pleated leaves and brilliant wands of fiery scarlet red tubular flowers which bloom for 5-8 weeks from mid to late summer. Extremely showy, this South African native is a magnet for hummingbirds and butterflies. Its vibrant blossoms give way to seedpods that persist into fall and attract hungry birds.

Multiple award-winner, Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna' is a favorite of many gardeners for its unique, glowing dark purple stems and stunning, vertical spikes of rich, violet-blue flowers appearing in late spring or early summer. Very striking when in bloom, they last for weeks and bring strong color and form to the landscape. Drought tolerant and deer resistant, this Salvia is a real magnet for butterflies, hummingbirds and bees! Reliable and compact, it grows in round clumps of gray-green, aromatic foliage up to 18-24 in. high (45-60 cm) and nearly as wide.

An excellent performer, award-winner Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam' (Threadleaf Coreopsis) is a compact perennial forming a gorgeous mound of finely divided leaves. Blooming continuously from early to late summer, it gets covered with a profusion of 1 in. wide (2.5cm), buttery yellow blossoms. The airy clumps of fine, threadlike foliage on upright stems add a lovely delicate texture element to the landscape. Long-lived, this Tickseed is perfect for beds, borders and containers.