I’ve always been interested in flowers for cutting that are new, or a little out of the ordinary. So every now and then I turn up at Foxtail Lilly (the home-grown cut flower shop with its vintage home accessories, run by my friend Tracey Mathieson) with a few plants for her to try. Sometimes she looks at me a little doubtfully, sometimes she’s instantly enthused.

Plants of the all-green Dianthus ‘Green Trick’ were very favorably received last spring and later in the year I was pleased to pass on a few plants of that lovely new hybrid foxglove Digitalis ‘Illumination Pink’ for her to try as cut flowers – and see if they got through the winter.

First, the good news. Three groups of Digitalis ‘Illumination Pink’, in different parts of her garden, all came through the winter with no losses and they were just coming into flower for her very successful National Gardens Scheme open day in June (right, click to enlarge).

Later, Tracey made up some hand tied bouquets (above, click to enlarge) and they lasted well through five of the hottest days of the summer (no air conditioning) “Well, in this heat they lasted five days!! So, possibly much longer, if cooler! They stayed quite upright too!!” So many exclamation marks – she really liked them.

I also took her a few plants of the recently introduced all-green coneflower, Echinacea ‘Green Jewel’ (below, click to enlarge). Unfortunately, they were a big disappointment. They looked great when I took them round, in flower, last summer but none of the three plants survived the winter in her cutting garden. So that was that. Perhaps with extra crisp drainage…? We’ve had the same problem with ‘Green Envy’, with its green-tipped petals – gone. Good drainage in winter is definitely the key.

British gardeners can order a collection of all three Illumination foxgloves - ‘Illumination Pink’ and ‘Illumination Chelsea Gold’ and ‘Illumination Raspberry’ - from QVC. They will be available in North America soon. If anyone spots a US mail order supplier, please let me know.

British gardeners can order plants of Dianthus ‘Green Trick’ from Thompson & Morgan, the similar ‘Green Ball’ should be available in North America soon.

American gardeners can order plants of Echinacea ‘Green Jewel’ and Echinacea ‘Green Envy’ from Great Garden Plants. British gardeners can order from The Walled Garden Nursery.

For more on Foxtail Lilly take a look at their website or their Facebook page.