One of my favourite flowers has to be the Allium and I have planted a lot in my garden and cutting garden. It has been a long standing favourite of mine and I love the purple tones in the garden, luckily this year's Pantone colour of the year is purple so I expect to see more of these beauties popping up.

This beautiful flower grows easily from a bulb and its height and form adds interest to the borders during May. It also dries beautifully to leave stunning seed heads that can be used in winter arrangements.

Ah Dahilas. I love these generous blooms. They are fairly low maintenance and reward you with a stunningly long flowering season. The range of colours means there is sure to be one that everyone can fall in love with.

They make great cut flowers and the more you cut, the more that grow, right up until the first frosts when you lift and store the tubers over the winter in a frost free place. Or, if you live in a mild area with well drained soil, you may just get away with leaving them in.

I love the cream and apricot shades that come from Cafe au Lait, Labyrinth and Henriette.

Roses and sweet peas will always have a place in my garden for their quintessential English nature and form, as well as the delicate beauty and scent the provide.

Modern shrub roses are fairly low maintenance and just require a good mulch of compost and prune in the early spring.

Sweet peas are a little more labour intensive, but worth the investment. A late autumn, winter of early spring sowing will bring multiple blooms all summer, just watch out for the mice as they love to nibble the sown seeds. They are plants that need to climb, so some sort of frame is needed and they will require tying in at the start. They are a plant that produces more flowers the more you pick and their scent can simply fill the room when cut. Don’t think of letting them go to seed though or they will stop flowering.