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Height and spread: To 25cm × 25cm (10in × 10in)
Companion plants: Usually bedded when grown as biennials and excellent with tulips or with wall flowers. Yellow or red series look fine with blue forget-me-nots.
Verbascum bombyciferum
Giant Mullein Hardy biennial
Huge rosettes of downy, pale grey leaves develop in the first year, followed in the second summer by towering, white felted flower spikes which are furnished for months with chrome yellow flowers. Food plant of the Mullein moth caterpillar; flowers attractive to bees.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Year round
Height and spread: 2.5m × 1.5m (7ft 6in × 4ft 6in)
Companion plants: One for bringing drama to a dry border. Try with airy grasses, or with other large, drought tolerant perennials such as Crambe cordifolia or Colquhounia coccinea.
Echium pininana
Tower of Jewels, Pride of Tenerife, Tree Echium Tender biennial
A bizarre giant bugloss from the Canary islands. Bristling, thick stems with narrow leaves extend during summer and carry thousands of small, violet blue or pinkish-tinged flowers. May take more than a year to reach flowering size, but always dies after flowering. Loved by bees.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: 3m × 1m (10ft 9in × 3ft 3in)
Companion plants: Grown as a curio, but handsome when the flower stem begins to rear up amongst plants in a Mediterranean style border.
Salvia argentea
Hardy biennial or short-lived perennial
Large, oval, densely felted foliage forms large, flat rosettes from early summer. The small, greenish white, lipped flowers are held on branched stems which are square in section. A free self-seeder but young plants are susceptible to water logging, especially in winter. Loved by bees, butterflies and adult hoverflies.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: 45cm × 45cm (1ft 6in × 1ft 6in)
Companion plants: The broad leaves contrast sharply with the small, spiky stems and foliage of rosemary, lavender and Russian sage (Perovskia)
Rudbeckia hirta
Half hardy biennial or short-lived perennial
Oval, pointed leaves and somewhat hairy, branched stems bear, during late summer and autumn, big daisy flowers whose prominent central cones are usually dark and whose outer ray florets are broad, long and richly coloured in yellow, orange, mahogany or combinations of these hues.
Soil preference: Fertile, well-drained but moisture retentive
Aspect: Sun or part shade
Season of interest: Late summer and autumn
Height and spread: Variable to 1m × 45cm (3ft 3in × 1ft 6in)
Companion plants: Bright companions for red salvias or among cooler blues and mauves of autumn-flowering asters. Also useful for late bedding schemes.
Biennials for scent
Dianthus barbatus
Sweet William Hardy annual or short-lived perennial
Member of the pink family, its branching stems furnished with broad or narrow dark green or purple-bronze leaves, are topped with clusters of flowers. The sepals are narrow and extended like little green beards. The fragrant blooms are maroon, red, pink, white or bicoloured and last for several weeks.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Early to midsummer
Height and spread: To 60cm × 45cm (2ft × 1ft 6in)
Companion plants: Great favourite for cottage planting and good company for annuals such as larkspurs and cornflowers, or to grow at the feet of climbing or bush roses. Also prized as a cut flower.
Viola x williamsii ‘Bedding Supreme’
Miniature pansy Hardy biennials or short-lived perennials
Seed-raised selections of small-flowered pansies or violas with honey-scented, five-petalled flowers produced above lobed leaves. short-lived as perennials, but can be kept in flower for months by regular deadheading. Good series: ‘Bedding Supreme’ comes in a broad colour mix, ‘Singing in the Blues’ in shades of purple, violet and blue.
Soil preference: Any free-draining but not too dry
Aspect: Sun, part shade
Season of interest: Winter, spring, summer
Height and spread: 20cm × 30cm (8in × 12in)
Companion plants: Like all pansies and violas, these plants fit anywhere with anything. Lovely in a cottage border, seeding among pinks, antirrhinums or in semi-shade with small dicentras or between polyanthus.
Matthiola incana
Stock, Brompton Stock Biennial
Glaucous, slightly downy, grey-green foliage which produces multiple short stems, or long single stems bearing highly fragrant single or double blooms in white or shades of violet, mauve or pink. Cutting varieties include Ten Week stocks, but the wild species is attractive for cottage garden use. Excellent bee plant.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer.
Height and spread: Variable to 1m × 20cm (Variable to 3ft 3in × 10in)
Companion plants: Once popular for overwintered bedding, Brompton Stocks are more frequently used to dot among early summer mixed borders, preludes to pinks or border carnations, or to grow among bush roses.
Biennials with distinctive foliage
Onopordon nervosum
Scottish Thistle Hardy biennial
R. Coates
Metallic, silvery-grey leaves form dramatic rosettes in autumn and thick, winged, branched stems rear up during spring and summer, creating tree-like structures decorated in summer with purplish red thistle flowers. Viciously armed in all its parts. A prolific self-seeder.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Full sun
Season of interest: All year, mainly summer
Height and spread: Up to 3m × 1.5m (10ft 9in × 4ft 6in)
Companion plants: Their architectural shape make these ideal plants for providing dramatic summer statements, particularly among soft outline perennials such as cranesbills. Also excellent in sparse gravel planting.
Lychnis coronaria
Rose Campion Hardy biennial
Loose rosettes of oval, felty, grey leaves develop in the first year. Branched, erect stems develop during the second spring and in summer carry a long succession of bright cerise, disc-shaped flowers. The form ‘Alba’ has white flowers which age to pale pink, whereas the petals of ‘Atrosanguinea’ are blood red.
Soil preference: Well-drained
Aspect: Sun
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: 1m × 50cm (3ft 3in × 1ft 8in)
Companion plants: A free self-seeder, which is lovely dotted about among the more rigid spikes of lupins or to harmonize with lavenders and Perovskia.
Silybum marianum
Our Lady’s Milk Thistle, Blessed Thistle Hardy biennial
Heather Angel
Dark green, undulating, prickly leaves, each marbled with white streaks, form a loose-knit groundcover during spring. Flower spikes develop in summer producing deep purple thistle flowers, but the value is in the foliage. The name arises from the legend that the Blessed Virgin Mary dripped milk onto the leaves. Watch for slugs and snails.
Soil preference: Any well-drained
Aspect: Sun or part shade
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: 50cm × 1m (1ft 8in by 3ft 3in)
Companion plants: Valuable for linking spring with summer and lovely among early flowering perennials such as lupins, early poppies and perennial wallflowers.
Other good biennials
Trifolium rubens
Hardy biennial
Heather Angel
A compact, bushy clover with typical three-lobed leaves and, during summer, elongated, slightly furry buds which open to produce tight groups of crimson flowers. An excellent cut flower and extremely bee-friendly. Like all legumes, the plant fixes its own nitrogen from the atmosphere.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
Aspect: Sun or part shade
Season of interest: Summer
Height and spread: 45cm × 20cm (18in × 8in)
Companion plants: A plant to blend harmoniously with the annual hare’s foot grass, Lagurus ovatus, whose flowers are similar in shape, but contrast in colour. Also good in a mixed border, to fill gaps between later flowering perennials.
Trifolium incarnatum
Italian Clover, Crimson Clover Annual or biennial plant
A vigorous annual or biennial whose young foliage is vivid emerald green. The three-lobed leaves form a neat mound during autumn followed, in late spring, by a succession of waving stems topped with oblong clover flowers in bright claret red. Not suitable for autumn sowing where winters are hard.
Soil preference: Any free-draining
