The joy of visiting a large garden like the gardens at Paxton House is the space available for all manner of plants. A garden on a large scale also throws up some challenges – a scattering of bedding plants just won’t cut it, you need architecture to pull together the varied leaf shapes and forms of smaller plants, especially at the back of the border.  Even in a small garden, you may find the addition of one or two grand architectural plants will provide just the focus you are looking for to stop your border looking dull. Paxton House’s garden volunteers have a few favourites to recommend.

In the borders, you can really feel the presence of the purple spikes of Echium pininana adding height from early in the summer. Bees love it, it is, after all, a relative of wild Viper’s Bugloss, already a pollinators’ favourite. Another early summer flowerer with added impact is Chinese Rhubarb Rheum palmatum, Like many big plants, the spiky leaves are almost more dramatic than the flower spikes.

Another spectacular giant for the early summer is Summer Asphodel Asphodel aestivus. Its clumps of  long leathery leaves send up spiky flowers almost a metre tall. It does well in the cooler Spring climate at Paxton.

Sea kale Crambe cordifolia will produce a froth of white flowers for much of the summer and fills the back of a border with the buzzing of bees drawn to its scented flowers.

You need a big garden to play host to the cardoon Cynara cardunculus, not a thistle but actually an artichoke which can grow over a metre tall but its giant purple blooms as the summer matures are a popular feature of our borders and its massive spiny leaves give perspective long before the flower spikes appear.

Late summer is the time for thistle flowers, we are in Scotland after all.  Most decorative of all the thistles, Cotton thistle Onopordum acanthium, is a tall upright plant with serrated leaves in a silvery grey, which can be a relief from the brilliant greens that surround it.  Once the purple flowers emerge they can reach around 5 cm across.

In the woodland garden, the deep shade of summer provides ideal habitat for plants that thrive in the understory.  These conditions suit the Umbrella Plant Damera peltata perfectly. It is a native of cool American woodlands and, while its large leaves discourage weeds in summer, in autumn they turn a stunning scarlet. There is something ancient about our tree ferns, Dicksonia antartica, which can grow up to 4 metres in height but take an inordinately long time about it. They recall a landscape suitable for dinosaurs who would definitely have been familiar with the tree ferns with their spreading feathery branches but they were at home on earth even before dinosaurs ruled the world and long before flowering plants evolved.

If it is horizontal emphasis that your garden lacks, there are few plants more suited than Japanese snowball Viburnum plicatum which makes a spectacular display in June. They will fit into even a small shrubbery and repay your care with plentiful white flowers and good autumn colour.

A few tips if you do opt for one of these giants.  It goes without saying that you must have the right conditions for them, be it shade or sun.  It pays to take good care of them, deadheading in good time and trimming back as necessary.  This is a focal point, after all!  Meanwhile, if you want some inspiration for your own garden or just to admire the scale of our gardens, we look forward to welcoming you at Paxton House this summer.