Seasons: Monsoon

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.

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.

Opens at four in the afternoon and self-sows itself around the garden.

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.

The most reliable cut flower for an Indian summer terrace.