I planted what I think was one of these here ie up the rose on the East side of the gated arch in 2003 and it was fabulous for nine years but then failed so this is a new one I hope, but it was not great in 2012. It's a large, early flowering Clematis (April to June) and then again late summer. The few flowers it showed in 2012 were nothing like as spectacular as those of the original version. We'll see in 2013.

Very pretty with lots of pale yellow stamens. On the Clematis wigwam and in the big pot in the side passage with the Italian Buckthorn. Supposedly a light prune so I may have cut it back too far the first year.

This was slow to start and disappointing when it eventually flowered because the flowers were small and the foliage was nothing like as dark as promised. It's now been replaced.

I have two of these and they just get better and better. They flower through the Summer into early Autumn.

3m. Dark purple, velvet flowers. I put this up the left side of the swing seat in 2012, days before it lost its AGM! It flowered fine but we'll see how it does next year.

I loved this Cistus. I planted it underneath the Rowan tree in the pink bed and it grew large and flowered profusely. However, over five years or so it got so big it meant I had little space for all the other plants I wanted to plant. So, with regret I removed it and that area of the bed has never been the same since. It is under the Rowan tree and so new, young plants find it hard to thrive because of the shade, the detritus from the bird feeders and the dogs. The Buddleja is sort of in the same place but I don't love it as much.

The point of this shrub in my garden is to provide a mass of bright yellow/green foliage colour in the hot bed throughout the season - which it does. Its tiny small, starry flowers have a lovely scent for the 3-4 weeks they are out in late Spring.

In 2012 I cut it hard back (to 20 cms above ground) based on seeing some in a park being treated this severely and coming back well. It had been taking over about a third of the hot bed. It has responded very well and is already covered in leaf and about 1 m x 75 cms. It's the one that attracted a Red Admiral butterfly in February 2013.

This is supposedly a rare form of the tree and I am very sorry that it failed with me and I had to remove it but it did very little. It had dark purple leaves that went caramel coloured and smelled of caramel if you crushed them but it just looked like a spindly nothing in the red bed. I don't have enough space for plants that won't thrive. I gave it four years which I think is enough. Its best performance was on the fire keeping me warm one night this winter. RIP. I think the more basic Cercis are a better choice and one may appear in the garden soon.

These have been very reliable since planted and I really appreciate the late summer and autumn flowering and autumn leaf colours. I have one in a bed and one in a pot and they work equally well.

I find that the height, colours and fabulous foliage colours and shapes add hot majesty to the Hot bed. Sometimes I lift my Cannas, often I don't because they take up so much room in the greenhouse - I just replace them if they fail over the winter.