Regions: East India

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

Compact evergreen with flower heads butterflies work all morning.

Neat glossy shrub with pinwheel white flowers; the easiest good hedge there is.

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.

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.