Cirsium rivulare purpureum

This plant featured in the Times Eureka garden and elsewhere is often a Chelsea favourite - and for good reason. Likes somewhere sunny but moist

Salvias

Visitors couldn't escape salvias this year, from the clary sage (Salvia sclarea) in Bunny Guinness's potager garden to the trio of ornamental salvias in the Laurent-Perrier garden

Nectaroscordum siculum

The bell-shaped blooms of this allium relative looked great in the Laurent-Perrier garden. Ideal for a gravel garden

Verbascum

It was their wonderfully silvery, felted leaves that were the star of the show rather than their spire-like flowers. I loved the combination of Verbascums and Pilosella aurantiaca (fox and cubs) at the Hesco Garden for Leeds City Council. Another gravel garden stalwart

Parsnips or Pastinaca sativa

These were the unexpected star of Cleve West's garden, their lime-green blooms looking like fabulous cow parsley against the warm colours of the stone

Centranthus ruber (valerian)

This classic cottage garden flower was embraced by so many show gardens this year: some chose just the pink form, while others mixed pink and white. Once in your garden, it's hard to eradicate and grows anywhere, including on top of walls

Chenopodium giganteum

Featured in Ann-Marie Powell's garden for the British Heart Foundation, Mexican tree spinach is an edible that looks great too. It self-seeds everywhere but it's worth the trouble

Digitalis x mertonensis

This strawberry-pink foxglove was everywhere at the show: Luciano Giubbilei's garden for Laurent-Perrier to match the shades of pink champagne, the Leeds City Council and in the Times Eureka garden