Regions: East India

Orange jessamine — flushes of scented white flowers after every rain.

Bulbs planted in March give heavily scented white spikes through the monsoon.

A monsoon annual of verandah pots, with seed pods children cannot leave alone.

Velvet crested heads that hold colour for weeks, in sun or half shade.

Flowers every day of the year and asks for nothing. Indigenous to the deccan.

Orange flower clusters straight off the trunk — a sacred tree, now threatened.

Flame of the forest — bare branches and orange flowers through the dry spring.

Compact evergreen with flower heads butterflies work all morning.

Regrows from the root end of a shop-bought bunch — the cheapest crop there is.

Companion-planting workhorse: keeps nematodes down and feeds bees all season.