Salvia nemerosa Blue Marvel

If you're after colour from May until late summer then this generous, easy to grow plant is one for your list!

Deep violet blue flowers open from darker spikes of wine coloured buds to 50cm tall and wide above deep green aromatic leaves. Hums with bees and drought tolerant once established too

Salvia nemerosa Caradonna

Upright clumps of slender beetroot coloured stems carry deepest violet blue flowers from May to late summer up to 80cm tall. Nice, neat deep green leaves. Drought tolerant and good bee plant

Salvia nemerosa Lubecca

Fresh green foliage sets of purple tinted spikes that open to deep violet blue flowers from May until late summer with a little bit of dead heading to help it along. Drought tolerant and great bee plant too. Up to 50cm

Salvia nemerosa Rose Marvel

If you're after colour from May until late summer then this generous, easy to grow plant is one for your list!

Pink flowers open from darker spikes of wine coloured buds to 50cm tall and wide above deep green aromatic leaves. Hums with bees and drought tolerant once established too

Salvia uliginosa

Salvia verticilata Endless Love

Large mounds, up to 60cm x 1.2 across with hairy lyre-shaped leaves and small, reddish-purple flowers borne in long, dense, interrupted spikes on reddish stems in summer. Always packed with bumble bees.
Grow in sun on well drained soil, will cope with some drought

Sanguisorba obtusa

Low, bushy clumps of grey green serrated foliage throw up wiry stems with drooping pink bottlebrush flowers throughout late summer. Sun or light shade on a reasonably retentive soil. Hardy, easy and hoverflies love it

Sanguisorba officinalis Chocolate Tip

Low basal rossetes of toothy foliage throw up masses of branching stems that terminate in flowers that resemble a a mass of chocolate maroon thimbles from July, fading gradually in colour to become seed heads worthy of a place in the winter border. Likes a sunny spot on any reasonable soil that doesn't get overly dry 1.4 metre tall

Sanguisorba officinalis Tanna

40cm. Low mounds of dark green foliage produce a masses of slender stems topped by small burgundy flower heads, each resembling a small raspberry.
Grow in sun on a retentive soil

Sanguisorba tenuifolia Pink Elephant

A tall perennial to 1.8m, with rosettes of dark green, pinnate leaves and short spikes of bottlebrush-like flowers in summer and early autumn. Flowers open deep pink and soften to pale pink.
Grow in sun on retentive soil

Saxifraga fortunei Wada

Useful late interest in a lightly shaded border. Nice, neat rosettes of rounded slightly succlent leaves are deep green on top and coloured deep red underneath. Sept - October a froth of creamy white flowers is produced 30cm above leaves, sometimes ruined by an early frost. Likes well drained, humous rich soil that doesn't bake dry out of direct sun

Saxifraga urbium Miss Chambers

Carpets of evergreen rosettes make excellent ground cover in light shade. Apr - Jun a cloud of starry white flowers open from pink buds and, on closer inspection, have prominent pink stamens and divine pink freckles. Light shade, any reasonable soil

Selenium walichianum

Gorgeous perennial umbellifer with fine ferny leaves foliage and red tinted stems to 1.2 metres topped by flat heads of lacey white flowers July-August. Easy to accommodate in sun or part shade on any reasonable soil

Sesli gummniferum

Moon Carrot. Neat rosettes of ferny glaucus green foliage may take several years to produce other worldly flat flower heads with a pink flush, opening to white flowers. Dead head beofore seed sets to prolong life of plant or save seed to sow a new generation.

From rocky, mountainous areas in Eastern Europe, likes full sun on well drained soil

Silphium mohrii

Clumps of fuzzy sheild shaped basal leaves send up fuzzy stems to 1.5m that produce masses of pale lemon outward facing daisies in late summer. Grow in sun on well drained soil, keeps the local bees happy

Sisyrinchium Quaint n Queer

Worth growing for the name alone! Compact clumps of narrow grey green foliage to only 20cm. Narrow stems open to upward facing star like flowers in the strangest shade of beige and purple with a bright yellow eye. The flowers only open when light levels are good - if they get caught in a shower they fill with water!

Likes full sun on well drained soil

Sisyrinchium striatum

Evergreen clumps of narrow sword shaped foliage arranged in flat fans. Late spring / early summer stout verticle stems are studded with small creamy yellow flowers to around 70cm.

An easy cottage garden perennial that thrives in sun or light shade on any reasonable soil, drought tolerant once established. Self seeds where happy

Soliadago Fireworks

A different and much improved form of Golden Rod that produces clumps that start upright but terminate in narrow flower spikes that lay horizontally and criss cross with each other. Bright yellow flowers slowly open from the bottom to the top of the spike and do a very good impression of a firework exploding in the border.
Likes sun or light shade on any reasonable soil to around 1.2 metres high

Stachys macrantha Hummelo

Low basal clumps of textured deep green foliage send up stiff vertical stems, usually around 60cm ( although I have seen it twice that height on a very fertile retentive soil) topped by deep pink flowers in late summer, followed by useful seed heads. Likes sun or light shade on a reasonable soil

Stachys Summer Crush

Bushy, clump forming perennial to 60cm. Low rosettes of textured green leaves send up branching stems topped by dense spikes of pale pink flowers from July-Sept.

Likes sun or light shade on a well drained but retentive soil

Stipa gigantea

1.8m. Low, evergreen mounds of linear green leaves send up tall stems topped by panicles of oat like flowers from early summer, drying to last into the following winter. Great specimen plant and despite height of fowers, can be used near the front of a border as flowers have a see through, veil like quality. Likes full sun on well drained soil

Stipa ichu

Fabulous grass with slender, whispy cream flower plumes to around 1m high that are in perpetual motion, dancing in the breeze from August up to mid winter.
Grow in sunny border on well drained soil, tolerates drought

Stipa tenuissima

Pony Tail Grass. Makes upright clumps of thread-like leaves, with narrow, arching, feathery flowering panicles from early summer.
Constantly swaying in the slightest breeze. Grow in full sun on well drained soil, copes with poor soils and drought

Succisella inflexa Blue Pearl

Low mounds of foliage turn into bushy clumps up to 85cm in late summer that produce branching wiry stems each topped by a small spherical composite flower heads in palest pearly blue. Nice seed heads follow
Does best in sun on any reasonable soil

Symphyotrichum laevis Calliope

Tall clumps to 1.5 metres of purple black stems, clad in purple black leaves make a nice contrasting feature throughout the season. Come Sept-Oct masses of violet mauve daisies join the party with nicely contrasting gold eyes. Good in sun or light shade on any reasonable soil. May need some support or the 'Chelsea Chop'.