At Leigh House Pudsey, our gardens and grounds are a constant source of joy — a living, changing tapestry that shifts week by week as one flower fades and another takes its place. We wanted to share a tour of what's currently blooming around the garden: where each plant originally comes from, whether it's a fleeting annual or a returning perennial, how long we can expect to enjoy its colour, and how much it does for the bees, birds, and butterflies who visit us too.

Spring Showstoppers

Some of our earliest and most fleeting beauties have already put on their show this year:

Bluebells (Hyacinthoides) — native to Western Europe, and the UK is home to around half the world's population — a real British treasure. They grow from bulbs and are perennial, returning each spring for many years. They carpet shady corners with nodding violet-blue bells for around 3–4 weeks in April and May, before dying back until next year. They're also an important early nectar source for our honey bees waking from winter — one of our top wildlife picks.

Alliums — native to Central Asia, are perennial bulbs that come back reliably year after year. Their striking purple "firework" globes gave us around 3–4 weeks of drama in late spring, and even once the flowers faded, their dried seed heads stay attractive for weeks afterwards. Bees and butterflies are strongly drawn to them.

Cotoneaster — originally from Asia (China and the Himalayas), is a woody, evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial shrub that live for many years. It has brought delicate white blossom with pink buds and cheerful yellow centres in late spring, and both bees (for the flowers) and birds like thrushes and waxwings (for the berries come autumn) benefit from it.

Peonies — native to Asia, Southern Europe, and Western North America, are herbaceous perennials — they die back to the ground each winter and regrow from the same rootstock every spring, often for 50 years or more. Each individual flower lasts only 7–10 days, but a well-established plant produces a steady succession of buds, giving us 2–3 weeks of peony season in late spring and early summer. They're a good early nectar source for bees, though it's worth noting that double-flowered forms like ours offer less accessible pollen than single peonies.

Rhododendrons — native to Asia with some species from North America, are long-lived woody evergreen shrubs that can survive for decades. They provide bold purple blooms freckled with orange nectar guides for 2–4 weeks, with glossy foliage holding interest all year round. Bees visit the flowers, though in large quantities the nectar can be mildly toxic to honeybees.

Double buttercups (Trollius) — native to the temperate meadows of Europe and Asia, are herbaceous perennials, dying back each winter and regrowing every year. They add pops of golden yellow for several weeks, rewarding a little deadheading with repeat blooms. Worth noting: the doubled petals on this variety mean it offers less pollen and nectar to insects than a wild single buttercup.

Long-Lasting Summer Colour

As the season has moved on, a wonderful cast of long-flowering plants has taken centre stage — these are the ones that will keep our beds looking vibrant right through the summer:

Roses — whose wild ancestors mostly hail from Asia with some from Europe and North America, are woody perennial shrubs that can live for many decades with good care. Each bloom lasts about a week, but a healthy bush flowers in flushes from June all the way through to autumn. Our red hybrid tea variety is a real showstopper, though it's worth knowing that double hybrid tea roses like this one offer much less accessible pollen and nectar than old-fashioned single roses — something to bear in mind if wildlife value is a priority.

Musk mallow (Malva moschata) — native to Europe (including the UK) and North Africa, is a herbaceous perennial, returning yearly. It offers soft pink saucer-shaped flowers from June to September and is popular with bees, also serving as a food plant for some moth caterpillars.

Yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata) — native to Europe and Western Asia, is a herbaceous perennial that spreads via underground rhizomes to form generous clumps over time. It sends up tall spikes of star-shaped yellow flowers from June through to August. It's particularly valuable to specialist "loosestrife bees" (Macropis), which collect floral oils unique to this plant.

Bird's-foot trefoil — native to the UK and widespread across Europe and Asia, is a herbaceous perennial. Its cheerful yellow (and sometimes orange-tinged) pea flowers bloom from June right through to September. This is one of our very best wildlife plants — it's the main caterpillar food plant for the common blue butterfly, supports several moth species too, and is a great source of nectar for bees.

Shasta daisies — a garden hybrid (Leucanthemum × superbum) bred in the late 1800s/early 1900s from European and Japanese parent species, are herbaceous perennials that die back and return each year. They bring classic white and yellow charm from June to September, especially with regular deadheading. Their open, flat flowers make pollen and nectar easy for bees, hoverflies, and butterflies to access.

Spiraea — we're lucky to have two types on show. Steeplebush spiraea, native to the Pacific Northwest of North America, brings fuzzy pink pyramidal plumes, while Japanese spiraea, native to Japan, Korea, and China, gives flatter pink clusters (sometimes flowering a second time if trimmed back). Both are woody perennial shrubs, flowering June to August, and both attract bees and butterflies well.

Veronicastrum — native to Eastern North America, is a herbaceous perennial. Its elegant white and lilac bottlebrush spikes flower from July through to September and are a real magnet for bees and butterflies — especially valuable for pollinators later in the season.

Hebe — shrubs, native to New Zealand, are evergreen woody perennials that quietly do their bit too, with dense spikes of small tubular flowers (we have both white and pale lilac varieties) blooming for many weeks over summer. They're particularly useful for wildlife because many varieties flower later in the season, when other nectar sources are starting to dwindle.

Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum) — native to Western Europe (including the UK) and North Africa, is a semi-evergreen woody perennial shrub. It's a lovely two for one plant: cheerful yellow star-shaped flowers from June to August, attracting bees, followed by berries that ripen through green, orange, red, and finally black, providing food for birds well into autumn.

Periwinkle (Vinca) — native to Europe, is an evergreen, spreading perennial groundcover that carpets the ground with violet-blue pinwheel flowers. Its main flush is in spring, but it often surprises us with sporadic blooms through summer and autumn too. It's a useful early nectar source for bees.

Lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina) — native to Turkey, Armenia, and Iran, is a herbaceous perennial with semi-evergreen, silvery foliage. It sends up woolly grey flower spikes dotted with small pink-purple blooms from June to August. It has a lovely wildlife quirk: wool carder bees famously strip the fuzzy hairs from the leaves to line their nests.

A Garden That Keeps Giving

Every plant in our gardens and grounds at Leigh House is a perennial that returns year after year, or a self-seeding annual — nothing here is a one and done bloom, which means the display keeps building in richness as the plants mature. What we love most is the succession of interest: spring bulbs and blossom give way to a long parade of summer perennials and shrubs, many of which — like the roses, mallow, and tutsan — will keep flowering for months if we look after them well.

Our top picks for wildlife

If you're planning a pollinator-friendly patch of your own, here's where to start:

●          Bird's-foot trefoil — caterpillar food plant for the common blue butterfly, plus a great bee plant

●          Bluebells — vital early spring nectar for waking bees

●          Allium — a strong pollinator draw when in flower

●          Veronicastrum — bee and butterfly magnet, especially valuable late in the season

●          Lamb's ears — nesting material for wool carder bees

●          Hebe — reliable late-season nectar when other flowers are fading

A gentle note: double flowered varieties — our peonies, double buttercups, and hybrid tea rose — are less useful to pollinators than their single-flowered cousins, since the extra petals often crowd out or replace the pollen and nectar bearing parts of the flower. It's a good reminder that the showiest blooms aren't always the most generous to wildlife!

We hope you've enjoyed this little tour of what's currently in bloom at Leigh House Pudsey, Leeds, and a bit about where it all comes from. Do come and see it all in person!