Inula magnifica

Flowers are the least of its charms, with muscular architecture and huge leaves adding heavyweight swagger to the summer border. This is a tough plant for a rich, moist soil. You could use it in a meadow or as here – pictured in the high garden at Great Dixter in the UK – mingling with equally lofty plants such as drifts of summer-scented phlox and vast candelabras of verbascums.