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Whether used for bold accents, as in Simon Hobson’s parterre, or planted en masse, these wonderful flowers bring structure, colour and beauty to the garden year after year

Whether playing a starring or supporting role, herbaceous perennials bring colour, structure and beauty to every garden.

Using herbaceous perennials is one of the simplest ways to guarantee a unique personality for your garden. The growth habits of these deciduous and evergreen plants mean they require much less e≠ort than annuals, and their extensive range of colours, shapes and textures makes it possible to create a di≠erent plant list for every garden style, even the most avant-garde.

There is a hardy perennial for light and shade, and for every soil type, and many will provide years of interest without much more than an application of plant food during the growing months. The dying foliage of one year protects next year’s crown and it can be removed when the first shoots appear.

Choosing which perennials to grow is a path to adventure and discovery. Here, we have followed the example of Matt Keightley, designer of Simon Hobson’s Berkshire garden, and selected ten purpleand yellow-hued plants to start you on your way.

With canary-yellow flowers and lovely bluey-green ferny foliage,

‘Moonshine’ works well towards the back of a border and is an excellent partner for blue salvias, the coppery tones of sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and echinops. It also complements feathery grasses, is long flowering and drought tolerant, and thrives in a position of full sun.

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or globe flower, flowers twice in a season if deadheaded and is great for cutting. It can be propagated by division in early spring and likes a neutral soil in sun or part-shade. Plant with contrasting achilleas and echinaceas, or through grasses such as molinia. ‘Veitch’s Blue’, Echinops ritro

Used cleverly with achilleas and grasses, chrysanthemums will give a surprisingly modern look to a border. The compact, free-flowering grows to 3ft and blooms from early autumn. It likes moist but well-drained soil in full sun. Chrysanthemum ‘Nantyderry Sunshine’

prefers a well-drained soil and is happy in dappled shade, flowering from later summer into October, and making a good companion to grasses such as pennisetum. Growing to a height of 3ft, this aster is drought tolerant and can be divided in the spring. Aster x frikartii ‘Mönch’

A favourite of butterflies, has aromatic leaves and spikes of flowers, up to 3ft high through into autumn. It will grow in clay, if the drainage is good and it is in full sun. Protect in winter in frost-prone areas. Plant with achilleas and heleniums for contrast. Fortune’ Agastache ‘Blue

The giant scabious, is attractive to bees. Stake at the back of a hedge-, wall- or fence-backed border, behind the likes of salvias, echinops and nepeta, as it grows to a height of 8ft. Happy in most soils, it will also accept a north-facing position. Cephalaria gigantea,

Tall and semi-transparent, earns its place anywhere in the border. It will seed itself beautifully, thrives in a dry soil or in gravel and flowers best in full sun. Better still, it is very low maintenance and just needs chopping back in early spring. Verbena bonariensis

a clumpforming perennial, which grows to a height of 3ft, so is best planted mid-border. It copes with all soils and partial shade, and is an adaptable team-mate for ‘Hadspen’, dark cosmos and, for contrast, white ‘Honorine Jobert’ anemones. Salvia involucrata ‘Goldquelle’, Rudbeckia laciniata

a shrub-like, semi-evergreen perennial, likes a gentle crop in early autumn then a prune of dead wood once the first shoots show. At 2ft, it’s a reliable mid-border plant, and a good foil for sedums such as ‘Matrona’. It is robust, but flowers more vigorously in sun. ‘Sour Grapes’, Penstemon

is a late summer, adaptable, clump-forming perennial that grows in most soils in a sunny position. It is ideal mid-border with grasses such as or golden ‘All Gold’, or with spiky kniphofias in oranges and yellow. Helenium autumnale Hakonechloa macra Stipa tenuissima