10 best architectural plants for your garden

Here are some of our favourite plants to add architectural interest to your outdoor space.

Stipa tenuissima

Best for: full sun

Grasses work really well as architectural plants, dotted through a border or as part of a pot display. Stipa tenuissima is best suited to smaller borders, reaching up to 60cm. But with its thread-like stems forming a strong horizontal shape and, in summer, masses of elegant pale feathery seed-heads above the foliage, this grass can pack a punch.

How to grow Stipa tenuissima

• Buy Stipa tenuissima from Crocus

Yucca elata

Best for: full sun

The spectacular evergreen foliage of Yucca elata makes an eye-catching addition to borders. It's spiky, silvery foliage will work really well in a colourful, sunny bed or a gravel garden, adding an architectural focus.

Find out more about growing yucca.

• Buy Yuca elata from The Palm Tree Company

Cordyline australis 'Red Star'

Best for: growing in containers

Cordyline australis 'Red Star' is a great choice for adding an architectural statement. It bears spiky, long, thin, bronze-red leaves leaves, and would be well suited to a sunny border or is also ideal for growing in pots. Mature plants produce branches of sweet-smelling, ivory-white flowers in the summer and berries in autumn.

• Buy Cordyline australis 'Red Star' from Crocus

Dicksonia antarctica

Best for: shade

For a dramatic statement in your garden, a tree fern is an excellent choice. Dicksonia antarctica is one of the hardier options, just requiring protection to the crown in winter. It has a thick mass of roots that form the trunk, from which large, structural fronds will appear.

• Buy Dicksonia antartica from Thompson & Morgan

Acanthus mollis

Best for: partial shade

With evergreen architectural foliage and tall flower spikes in summer, acanthus can make a bold addition to your borders. Acanthus mollis has large, glossy, deeply lobed leaves and tall flower spikes covered in white flowers in the summer. Grow at the back of a herbaceous border to create a focal point.

• Buy Acanthus mollis from Crocus

Euonymus europaeus

Best for: autumn colour

This large shrub produces dense hard wood that has traditionally been used for making spindles, hence its common name, the spindle tree. Euonymus europaeus is at its most striking in autumn, when the foliage turns a dramatic shade of red, and produces orange-pink winged fruit which stay on the tree after the leaves have fallen. It works particularly well as a focal point in a winter border.

• Buy Euonymus europaeus from Thompson & Morgan

Eryngium x zabelii 'Jos Eijking'

Best for: dry borders or gravel gardens

For a striking, architectural addition to dry, sunny borders and gravel gardens, eryngiums make a fantastic choice. Eryngium x zabelii ‘Jos Eijking’ is a hybrid sea holly with architectural, blue, long-lasting flowers.

• Buy Eryngium zabelii 'Jos Eijking' from Crocus

Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’

Best for: winter interest

Dogwoods inject a burst of colour and structure to the winter garden, with their colourful, leafless stems. Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ works really well when planted with evergreen shrubs, contrasting with its dark red stems. In spring and summer it has greyish green, white-margined leaves and creamy-white flowers, with white berries appearing in the autumn. For the brightest winter bark, grow in full sun.

• Buy Cornus alba 'Sibirica' from Crocus

Phormium tenax ‘Joker’

Best for: growing in containers

Phormiums are popular choices to add a focal point to a planting scheme, they have elegant long leaves that are evergreen so provide interest all year round. Phormium tenax 'Joker' has striking blades of dark green foliage edged in pink, and will work will as a feature in a container or within a border.

• Buy Phormium tenax 'Joker' from Jackson Nurseries