Towers of colour

WHEN tall mulleins (verbascums) are at their best in summer, they form incredible spires of yellow. Resembling huge candelabras of flowers, these architectural biennials produce vertical accents in the border. Anyone lucky enough to have visited the gardens in July or August at Great Dixter, East Sussex, or Beth Chatto and RHS Hyde Hall in Essex, will be familiar with these dazzling giants.

“We have Verbascum bombyciferum and V. olympicum in the Dry Garden,’ says Ian Bull, garden manager at RHS Hyde Hall. “Both have beautiful, large, grey, basal leaves that are woolly and hairy. They throw up huge candle-like flowering spikes to 6ft (1.8m) tall, bearing golden-yellow flowers. They give wonderful height and vertical interest, and the bright-yellow flowers look fantastic against a clear-blue sky.”

Tall and slender

Although very tall, these biennial verbascums are slender and can be grown anywhere in the border because they don’t obscure the