This year, more than ever before, I've come to appreciate the incredible contribution of Euphorbia rigida. For way too many years I dismissed it, and that may simply have been due to my preference for tall perennials, amongst which it's meaningless. But in low, drought tolerant planting, it's a revelation. It's stiff, blue grey foliage twists around the stem in a perfect gesture of some Fibonacci-like mathematical sequence, and gives rise to screaming lime flowers in late winter that then, if in full sun and poorish soil, age to coral, and eventually to a eye-rubbingly implausible bricky-burgundy. Very few plants can claim to be without a downtime, and fewer still combine this with an unmissable floral climax.

How about you? What plants have you come to a belated appreciation of?