Stocking a garden is a bit like furnishing a house. If you've got a limited budget you've got to work out some priorities and shop around. So it is with the flower borders I've talked about a good deal recently.

More than one reader has worked out that planting an instant bed of perennials could cost a lot of money.

To be fair, I did say that perennials may be bought in as ready-made plants or be raised from seed. It isn't any harder to raise perennials from seed than it is to raise any other kind of flower.

But let me turn to the other side of the coin this week and look to raising perennials from seed. It doesn't have to take years to build up a bed. There are many perennials that will flower in their first year.

Some of the seed catalogues make a feature of first year flowering perennials. Johnsons Seeds have put together a range of 21 varieties which can be expected to flower within months of sowing and they draw attention to them in eye-catching red packets. I have picked out three of them to recommend for starters, all hardy, easy to grow from an early start, and with a long season of bloom.

First is a new and exclusive mix of achilleas, the Summer Berries. Most people regard yarrows as rather vigorous weeds but cultivated forms such as this are becoming extremely popular.

They stand 60-70cms high and will attract butterflies from June to September.

Delphinium Magic Fountains at 75-90cms is a dwarf delph, a delightful sort with dark blue spires punctuated by central "bees" of white.

Gaillardia Goblin is another for containers as well as borders, a spectacular daisy-like flower with bright red petals edged in gold on bushy plants about 35cms high. These are the kind of plants that give structure to a border and which will improve over the years.

By Jim Roberts