Tulip

Gerbera jamesonii, the Barberton daisy (also Transvaal daisy), is a tufted evergreen perennial herb in the daisy family (Asteraceae) native to the summer-rainfall grasslands and rocky woodland of north-eastern South Africa and Eswatini. It forms a basal rosette of lobed leaves from which leafless flowering scapes rise, each topped by a single large daisy-style flowerhead in orange-red, yellow, pink, or white. It is the wild ancestor of the thousands of florist gerbera cultivars and earns its place as a long-blooming focal point in borders and patio containers, attractive to bees and other insects. The load-bearing caution is frost-tenderness: RHS rates it H1C, meaning it survives outdoors only in summer or the very mildest, frost-free spots and must be overwintered under glass elsewhere (roughly USDA 9-11). It is non-toxic, with no reported poisoning hazard to people or pets, making it a safe choice where toxicity is a concern.

A small, choice, winter-growing Cape bulb (Lachenalia aloides) that throws up a pair of fleshy, often maroon-spotted strap leaves and a slender stem of pendent, tubular flowers shading from yellow through orange and green to red - a living jewel for a pot or a frost-free rockery. Native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa - the winter-rainfall Western Cape of the Cape Floristic Region (POWO, Kew) - it follows the rhythm of that Mediterranean climate: it is winter-growing and summer-dormant, the opposite of most bulbs, so it is watered from autumn through spring while it is in leaf and flower and then kept dry and at rest through summer. It is frost-tender (RHS H2): outside warm, frost-free climates grow it in a pot in a cool greenhouse or a bright, frost-free room, or in a sheltered, sharply drained spot. In its native fynbos the nodding tubular flowers are pollinated by sunbirds, with bees also visiting. The bulbs are toxic if eaten - it is grown strictly as an ornamental.

A spring-flowering bulb grown for dense upright spikes of waxy, star-shaped florets in blue, purple, pink, red, or white - famous for an intense, sometimes overpowering fragrance. Plant bulbs in mid-fall for an April bloom; flower quality typically declines after the first year, so the densest spikes often need replanting every couple of seasons. Every part of the bulb is mildly toxic and the sap can cause contact dermatitis, so gloves are advised when planting.

Persian buttercup is a tuberous herbaceous perennial native to the eastern Mediterranean - from Cyprus, Crete, and Turkey across to Iran, Iraq, and the Levant - where it blooms in rocky scrub and meadows in late winter through spring. In gardens it is prized for its luminous, poppy-like flowers in red, orange, pink, yellow, and white (wild single forms) or the dense, multi-layered doubles of commercial 'Tecolote' and 'Bloomingdale' strains beloved by florists. The honest catch is its frost-tenderness: the tubers are killed below roughly 14°F, so gardeners in USDA zones 7 and colder must lift and store them after foliage dies down each summer, and the whole plant contains protoanemonin, a skin and gut irritant toxic to humans and livestock on contact or ingestion.

Aloe maculata (soap aloe, also called zebra aloe; long sold as Aloe saponaria) is a clumping, stemless succulent from southern Africa with broad, triangular leaves marked by distinctive "H-shaped" pale spots. It is grown for its flat-topped racemes of tubular flowers in shades of orange-red to coral and yellow, held on tall branched stalks that draw sunbirds, bees, and other insects. A tough, drought- and salt-tolerant groundcover that spreads by suckers, it suits rock gardens, dry borders, coastal plantings, and containers in warm climates. It is frost-tender: the RHS rates it H1C (roughly USDA 9b-11), so leaves are damaged below freezing and it needs protection or indoor wintering where frosts occur. The leaf gel is used traditionally for skin and other ailments, but the plant is recorded as harmful if eaten (handle with care; seeds are reputedly poisonous), so treat it as not for casual consumption around people and pets.

Gentiana acaulis is a low, mat-forming alpine perennial native to the mountains of central and southern Europe - the Alps, Pyrenees, and Balkans - where it grows in short turf and rocky meadows from 2,625 to 9,843 feet elevation. In gardens it is prized for its astonishing, deep-blue trumpet flowers in late spring, and it has received the RHS Award of Garden Merit. The honest catch is its notorious habit of "sulking": well-established plants can refuse to flower for years with no apparent cause, and the gardener's only remedy is to dig and replant the mat a few inches away - a maddening behaviour that makes it a reliable showpiece in some gardens and a frustrating non-bloomer in others.