Aster - Goldenrod - Black-eyed Susan - Russian Sage - Day Lily - Yarrow - Little Bluestem - Fountain Grass - Switchgrass - Ironweed - Canna - Bluestar - Baptisia - Coreopsis (my fav) - Purple Coneflower - Sea Holly - Perennial Geranium - False Sunflower - Coral Bells - Blazing Star (Liatris) - Bee Balm (nice one) - Sedum - Yucca - Miscanthus -

No idea what some of those are, can I make a plea to use the scientific name when recommending a plant? Many of these names are ambiguous (coneflower is applied to several plants, for example). Sorry to be pedantic and I'm sure they are lovely plants!

Landgirl: Bathgate's in the USA - they generally don't use the Latin names there, although Baptisia, Sedum, Canna, Yucca, Miscanthus and Coreopsis are, of course, all 'scientific' names anyway.

The critical bit of info you haven't supplied, Agi, is whether we're talking about plants for sun or shade... or both.

wow!

Old fashioned Michaelmas daises,(sorry Landgirl) especially the dwarf ones. And roses. And loads and loads of whatever humus material you can lay your hands on.

Landgirl100: I'm not going to name specific cultivars for you. Agi can decide which ones he/she likes. I'm just suggesting certain families of plants that do well in clay soils; e.g. sedums in general prefer it, etc, not to tell you the difference between coreopsis and day lilies.

Bathgate: I felt driven to look up Little Blue Stem (never heard of it, not too good with common names) - proper name is Schizachyrium scoparium, or rather was - its now changed to the much more easily spelt Andropogon, and its an American prairie grass, not one I knew about, quite like that. That's what Landgirl means - the use of Andropogon rather than a common name. No offence, by the way, when I said Americans tend not to use the Latin names - it's just something I've noticed on American sites. The worst one I've come across is 'Rose of Sharon' which appears to mean any of at least three different plants... whereas here, it usually means Hypericum.

I am very grateful for all your suggetions, i have been looking at the plants and i am looking foward to getting some nice colour and style introduced to the garden, thank you all for your kindness to trainee lady gardener who is learning all the time. Agi.