Floral rockstars

They may not be easy and they might not stick around for long, but rockstar plants are giving Toby a great show

-  Toby

AFTER decades of denial, I’ve woken up to the fact that I am an obsessive plant collector after all! But where most horticultural hoarders gather from a single group – say, colourful heuchera, roses for scent and cacti to, err, keep cats off the windowsill – I am a groupie for the flowering rockstars.

Rockstar plants are often a pain in the proverbial to grow, as they have so many peccadilloes. But if and when they do put on a show, it’s akin to witnessing Elvis in his pomp – unforgettable.

Centre stage right now in my garden is one of the greatest floral virtuosos of them all: a giant viper’s bugloss (aka