Colquhounia coccinea "Scarlet Mint Shrub"

Meet the Scarlet Mint Shrub, a rare beauty from the Himalayas that combines show-stopping flowers with aromatic foliage. Its tall, upright stems are clothed in soft, mint-scented leaves, and by late summer they’re crowned with spires of fiery scarlet-orange blooms. The flowers keep coming well into autumn, lighting up the garden just when you thought the show was over.

In UK gardens, Colquhounia is a half-hardy shrub, thriving in full sun and free-draining soil. Hardy to around –5 °C, it will usually regrow from the base after frost if cut down, especially with a good winter mulch. In sheltered southern gardens it can even remain evergreen, while in colder spots it’s best treated like a perennial and allowed to reshoot each spring. Either way, it’s a generous, long-flowering plant that’s as useful as it is beautiful.