Is Allium ‘Universe’ your favourite plant of the last 20 years? Vote for your favourite plant from our list of the Top 10 Plants of the Past 20 Years as chosen by experts and be in with the chance of winning a Garden Store from the Posh Shed Company worth £1,450.

British gardeners have been treated to a wide range of new plant introductions in the last 20 years. Of course, ‘new’ doesn’t always mean better than what has gone before. Allium ‘Universe’ is the favourite of Richard Wilford, but is it yours?

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of The English Garden magazine, we have selected ten respected gardeners and plantspeople and asked them what they consider to be the best new plant of the past 20 years.

The result is a diverse mix of plants. From these Top 10 plants of the last twenty years some instantly recognisable while some ripe for belated discovery and wider appeal. From an allium with an extraordinary-sized flowerhead, to a drought-tolerant Verbena that shimmers in summer, there is a plant to suit many tastes and colour palettes.

But is Allium ‘Universe’ your favourite plant? Find out more about it here:

Allium ‘Universe’ chosen by Richard Wilford – Manager of Garden Design at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and bulb expert

This allium has a really big flowerhead, up to 18cm across, yet the flower stems are not very tall, just 60-70cm in height. The flowers are deep violet, and the flowerhead aren’t too tightly packed, so the individual flowers look like stars. It starts to flower in May and blooms for four weeks. It is perfect for a smaller garden where it could grow near the front of a border. It is the proportion of the size of the flowerhead to the length of the stem that so impressed when I assessed it in a recent RHS trial. Alliums have become so popular over the last twenty years. I think it is because they mix so well with other plants because you can grow them through others. And their seedheads are also decorative, so their season of interest is a lot longer than that of other bulbs, which can be rather fleeting.

To find out more about the Top 10 Plants of the Past 20 Years, click here.

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