Achillea Cerise Queen

Wide flat plates of deep cherry-pink over feathery aromatic foliage, from June through to September, at 60 to 70cm. The flat heads are the point: dozens of tiny florets making one landing pad, which is why bees, hoverflies and butterflies work them so hard.

The colour does not stay put. It opens saturated cerise and fades through the season to smoky rose and dusty antique pink, so a mature clump carries three or four shades at once. Some growers love that. If you want one flat block of pink that holds all summer, this is the wrong plant. For cutting and drying it is a gift, because you can harvest across the range and the dried colour is better than the fresh.

Grow it hard. Rich, damp ground gives you tall soft stems that flop by midsummer and fewer flowers. Lean, well-drained soil in full sun gives you a plant that shrugs off a dry August. It spreads by rhizome into generous clumps and wants dividing every three years, otherwise the centre goes bare and the flowering drops off.