Walk in the woodland garden through the Hamamelis or in the Mediterranean garden and you will see the beautiful intense scarlet flowers of Tulipa sprengeri.

For many years the seed of this unusual annual, which can grow as a short- lived perennial, has lain dormant at the top of the Mixed Borders. Suddenly a large clump of the blue-grey fleshy foliage and drooping blue-green bracts around tubular purple flowers has reappeared.

In the Rock and Water Garden a unique sight is the little multi-stemmed tree, Cercis siliquastrum, every young twig smothered in rosy-pink flowers with some on the old stems too, before the pretty heart shaped leaves appear.

Lonicera syringantha (the lilac-flowered honeysuckle), in the family Caprifoliaceae, is a deciduous, rounded shrub with small, sea-green leaves borne in threes along the slender branches. From April it blooms prolifically for many weeks. The tubular rose-lilac flowers are very sweetly scented.

Even before the (Covid-19) closure of the Pavilions, few visitors to the Australian section would have noticed the extraordinary sight of the gymea lily in bloom - because the large cluster of bright red tubular flowers grows atop a 20 ft stem!

This beautiful shrub, a bramble relative, has long arching canes carrying 2-inch pure white flowers with golden stamens, along the entire length.

This upright, mostly evergreen shrub is one of two species in the pea (Leguminosae) family, subfamily Papilionoideae.