The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) issued by the Royal Hoticultural Society (RHS) helps gardeners find reliable, consistent plants that will provide particularly good value in the garden.The award is granted after trials at the RHS’ garden at Wisley in Surrey and/or assessment at specialist collections or discussion at meetings. There is a set list of criteria that plants have to meet to be deemed worthy of the AGM. For more information on the AGM please visit the RHS Website.
Nursery owner, Tim Fuller, has been involved with judging the trials at RHS Wisley since 2008.
Low growing clumps/patches of blue/green leaves with silvery margins. Short stems bearing clusters of apple green flowers which turn rusty-red from spring. 20cm.
AGM Very similar to the well known A. sphaerocephalon but this has light yellow flowers. Well behaved and very pretty mixed with grasses. Drained soil in sun. 60cm.
syn. Stipa arundinacea - New Zealand Wind Grass. Green foliage tinted orange and red in late summer and autumn. Wispy flowers form a cloud above the foliage in late summer. 1m. Not dry.
Popular form of Wood Anemone for its bright white flowers with a ruff of bright white petalloid stamens giving a near double look. Low growing spring flower for shade and ordinary soil. 15cm.
A fantastic native fern making neat clumps of pinnate, ladder like evergreen fronds. Separate fertile fronds will be produced that are more upright. Said to need acid soil but it doesn't seem that fussy! 40cm.
AGM TENDER winter flowering species for a cold greenhouse or conservatory, or possible a very warm, sheltered garden. A bushy shrub with grey-green downy leaves and big spikes of strongly scented mauve flowers. 2.4m.
Very pretty cream margined selection of Box. Grow it as a free standing shrub and don't clip it for the best effect - this also seems to reduce problems increasingly seen with box. 1.2m in 10 years if you're lucky.
Glowing greenish yellow winter stems are the main reason for growing this dogwood. Small clusters of white summer flowers followed by white berries. 2.4m if you don't cut back to a stump every year..
AGM. A neat, tidy, selection of the British native Male Fern. Attractively cristate, crisped fronds to 45cm. Relatively slow growing semi-evergreen for ordinary soil in shade.
A splendid form of the native Male Fern with fronds that beome very finely divided and thread-like as the plant matures. Excellent deep green foliage for a shady corner, semi-evergreen. 90cm.
Miss Willmott's Ghost. Very pretty biennial with rosettes of paddle shaped leaves and strong upright stems of spiny silvery flowers in summer. Drained soil in sun. 60cm.
AGM Reliable pale lemon yellow flared flowers in spring over clumps of light veined, bronze flushed leaves. Probably the easiest Erythronium if you have struggled! Shade, decent soil. 30cm.
AGM Very pretty silvery-cream variegated grey leaves and the typical elegant red and purple dangling flowers all summer and into autumn. Hardy in drained soil in a sheltered spot.
A really good bulbous plant for a sunny, well drained site. Funnels of broad greyish leaves and strong upright stems with spikes of large white bells in summer to 90cm.
From a compact root, flings out long flowering stems, which will scramble into adjacent shrubs, with black-eyed, magenta saucers. Golden leaves ageing to lime green. 1.5m across, 30cm high. Sun or light shade. May/June into autumn.
AGM A mound of large pale blue flowers veined crimson. 45cm. Flowering June-August onwards. Reasonable soil in open or sunny position. Unique colour for a long flowering plant.
AGM This brilliant hybrid from Cambridge Botanic Garden has intense blue flowers with white centres from May to July and September onwards. Open position in average soil. 60cm x 90cm. Named after a street in Cambridge.
(Geranium sanguineum x Geranium procurrens) AGM This Alan Bremner hybrid has intense reddish-pink flowers with bluish-purple shading over mounds of finely cut leaves from June to November. Average soil, sun or shade, 25cm. Brilliant.
A favourite of many gardeners. Evergreen rosettes overwinter become enlarged by flowering summer stems bearing masses of silvery-pink flowers till the frosts. 15cm by 1m spread. Any drained or dry soil in sun.
(Geranium clarkei ‘Kashmir Purple’ x Geranium collinum)
AGM A mound of finely cut leaves covered with large open flowers in light purple from May to November. Unsurpassed for effectiveness. For reasonable soil in sun. 50cm.
