The unusual plants to champion in your garden this year | House & Garden

The less common Allium ‘Mount Everest’

Much like anything else, the plant world has its stars. The plants that get the most attention, are perennially popular — and clog up your Instagram feed whenever they’re in bloom. From the first spring cherry blossom to alliums, peonies, roses and dahlias, these are the first plants my clients mention when we start talking about planting design in a project.

But if you want something a little different, you really don’t have to look very far. Even within each of these popular species there are varieties that are more unusual; the best way to find these out of the ordinary plants is to speak to specialist nurseries, do seed swaps and get cuttings from friends with good taste.

Here are 6 slightly more unusual plants that will bring a mix of height, food for wildlife, ground cover and most importantly — fun — to your garden this summer.

This tall and fantastic beast of a plant can be quite divisive, tending to be favoured by plant lovers but not so much by people with more of a traditional view of what a garden should look like, due to their very unusual shape and the sheer size of them.

Tree echiums can grow rather large (four metres or so) but are only biennial or short living perennials so you’ll only get flowers from them once. The best time to sow seeds is between February and April (indoors) and if yours does then flower and you like it you can collect seed from it and keep growing offsprings year on year for a truly rambunctious collection.

So you’ll notice a bit of a trend here, but I love any plant that grows tall with minimal input and commitment. Herb fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is similar to the bulb that you’re used to eating.A ll of its delightful fronds tasting exactly the