Gladiolus

Gladioli get an unfair reputation as a slightly old-fashioned, slightly municipal-park kind of flower. I blame the stiff, identical rows you see at flower shows — all those rigid spikes in primary colours standing to attention like soldiers who've been told off.

'Green Star' is the one that changed my mind. The colour is extraordinary — a soft, luminous chartreuse that seems to glow from within, like light through a new leaf. It's the kind of green that makes every other flower in the arrangement look better, which is a rare and generous quality in a stem.

They bring serious height and drama to a vase. A few stems of 'Green Star' with some garden roses and trailing foliage is one of my favourite summer arrangements — all that vertical energy balanced by something soft and rounded. They open gradually from the bottom of the spike upward, which gives you a good ten days of evolving interest.

I've started growing them in my cutting garden — you plant the corms in spring, stagger the planting over a few weeks, and by July you've got this succession of those luminous green spikes. They're surprisingly easy. And that colour — it works with absolutely everything. Peach, plum, white, navy. I haven't found a pairing it can't handle.