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From the beautiful parrot tulip to the elegant delphinium.
Whether you're drawn to romantic roses or the cheerful charm of sunflowers, impress your neighbours with a planting display that features some of the most beautiful flowers in the world.
Tulips, lilies and dahlias are among the prettiest blooms, as well as lesser-known varieties like the unique batflower. Rare or common, vivid or soft, simple or complex, these beautiful flowers are certainly showstoppers – and some of them make brilliant cut flowers for the home too. Keep reading to discover the most beautiful flowers to brighten up your outdoor space...
Dahlias are a gardener's favourite. In delightful bright colours, this pom-pom-shaped variety with honeycomb petals is a must for the summer garden.
This beautiful flower sits just above the water, while its stalk and roots reach deep into the mud in the dark waters below. Hinduism and Buddhism both feature the lotus as a symbol of divinity, immortality and purity. Plus, it's often used in cooking and traditional medicine.
Cala lilies are classy perennials, providing interest to garden borders and pots. They are relatively easy to care for but need regular watering and protection from pests and diseases.
Named after the heroine of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, this beautiful, classic apricot-coloured rose is utterly graceful and features the most gorgeous medium-sized rosettes. Created by David Austin after 15 years of intensive breeding, it's sometimes referred to as the '£3 million rose' because that's how much it cost to make.
With striking golden-yellow blooms, the Teddy Bear Sunflower is a real eye-catcher. Lasting from mid to late summer, it can grow to around three feet tall.
The tropical white batflower is a sight to behold, but you'll have to stay up late to see it. Once the stalk rises about three feet above its huge leaves, it blooms at night, opening its white and dark purple petals. It looks a little like a bat, but the flower gets its name because bats are its pollinators.
This much-loved deciduous shrub is a common sight in warmer countries, but growing them in the UK is also possible. Memorable for their large flowers, they are famed for their strong, sweet scent.
No list of beautiful flowers is complete without a mention of the rarest flower on earth. This small, red camellia may look simple, but only two original live plants of its kind exist—one in New Zealand and one in the UK.
Delphiniums are the perfect summer flower, adding height and colour to any garden. They are short-lived perennials (lasting around two or three years) but delight instantly with their pyramidal shape and tall spires of single flowers in early summer.
Fuchsia can grow as shrubs, small trees or on vines, producing eye-catching pink and purple flowers.
Native to Australia, this evergreen tree bears large clusters of flame-coloured flowers towards the end of its branches. According to the RHS, they grow well in conservatories, greenhouses, and coastal areas.
The tropical Bird of Paradise is so colourful it's easy to see why people keep planting it. Although it's not a rare flower, it's actually unique because only five varieties of it exist in the world.
A go-to for Valentine's Day, roses have always been the unsung narrators of love. This beautiful variety is named after President Abraham Lincoln and produces deep velvet crimson blooms, perfect for a border display.
Parrot tulips are among the most striking and dramatic tulip flowers, beloved for their ruffled petals and pretty colours. Bulbs should be planted in the autumn, between September and November before the ground freezes.
A passionflower tends to appear as if it's inside out. All the parts are on display, pointing every which way. Even the vine it grows on is beautiful –full of curling tendrils that hold on tight as it grows as tall as 30ft.
Each spring, blossom covers the UK in beautiful swathes of pink and white. April is the most vibrant month for these displays, but you'll find them in bloom from March to May.
The most popular varieties to plant in your garden include Cherry blossom of Prunus 'Pink Shell', Prunus avium 'Regina', and Prunus incisa 'Kojo-no-mai'. Plant bare-root trees between November and March, and container-grown ones any time of year but not winter.
This glorious, exotic-looking flower can set your garden on fire with its dazzling colour. It requires warm growing conditions and needs to be planted in pots first.
Peonies, with their enormous frilly blooms, are among the most exquisite flowers in the world. Plant them in the autumn for those outrageously pretty flowers that dazzle from spring to summer.
Most flowers that grow on a vine are eventually considered invasive, but when you consider the huge, dangling, lavender-coloured cluster flowers that wisteria produces, you take your chances. Sadly, they only bloom once a year — but what a show.
Okra is a flowering vegetable that opens into a near-perfect circle with a spot of burgundy in its center. One day after blooming, it falls off, and in its place will grow a green vegetable that can be used for cooking.
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