West-facing gardens: pick the best plants

If your garden faces west, the sun's rays might not reach you in the morning, but by lunchtime, this area starts to warm up, allowing a wide range of plants to enjoy the sunshine without having to worry too much about parched soil.

Smart solutions: A west-facing garden is the ideal place to sit and enjoy aromatic plants. Planted in urns beside your back door, bay trees mark a fragrant entrance to the garden, and are available clipped into a variety of shapes.

Try these: Scattered among French lavender (Lavandula stoechas) and in front of a wall-trained wisteria (Wisteria floribunda ‘Rosea' is an unusual pink variety), drifts of Allium ‘Purple Sensation' will mark the coming of summer. Verbena bonariensis will fill late-summer borders with a generous sprinkle of purple - a striking combination with fiery red-hot pokers. With its maroon-streaked white blooms, Lilium regale can be enjoyed in pots or in the border, where it will enjoy its roots in the shade and head in the sun, scenting the air with sumptuous perfume.

Magnolias (deciduous and evergreen varieties) and camellias grow well in west-facing borders, receiving their optimum sunshine levels without risk of early morning sunshine damaging their flower buds. Favourites include Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel', with its abundance of tousled pale pink blooms, and Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Alba', producing pure white flower in spring. As for camellias, Camellia japonica ‘Alba Plena' produces a beautiful white double flower, C. japonica ‘Jupiter' is fiery red and C. japonica x lutchuensis ‘Quintessence' is a scented double blush pink.

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As all of your outside space might not face the same way...

...plants for north-facing gardens

...plants for south-facing gardens

...plants for east-facing gardens