Dierama

Wandflowers, angels fishing rods, are appropriately names as there is arguably nothing more utterly beguiling than dieramas in full flower. Slender, arching stems, with bell-shaped flowers, dangling and moving in a gentle breeze. Most colours are mauve, lilac and pink, but also, includes, white, yellow to red, flowering during summer. They need an open position, on a free-draining soil, but good amounts of water during the growing season. The evergreen leaves will last for many years, so clumps can start looking a little untidy. In their native Southern Africa, this would be remedied by occasional burning!

The flowers are very attractive to bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects, while the overwintering tussocks of leaves provide important, sheltered hibernation sites for many beneficial predatory invertebrates such as ladybirds.