Amaranthus Red (Love-Lies-Bleeding)

Long velvet crimson tassels hanging from tall upright plants, some of them 60cm from top to tip. Nothing else in a British garden does this, and once you have grown it a border feels short of something without it.

It is a plant of the high Andes and it wants warmth at every stage. This is the one thing that goes wrong for people. Put it out into cold soil and it sulks, and any check to growth early on shows up in August as a smaller plant with stubby tassels. Wait until late May or June, when the ground has actually warmed, and you get the full 90 to 120cm with tassels that reach the ground. Grow it lean, too. Rich ground gives you a big leafy plant and disappointing flowers.

Its best use is drying. The colour holds for years rather than months, and the velvet texture is the thing that makes an autumn wreath look expensive. We grow it here at Salle Moor Hall Farm for exactly that. It self-seeds freely once it is happy, so expect volunteers, and a plant in full tassel is heavy enough to lean in a wet September.