REMOTE regions are many and varied around mighty Mother Earth – and naming a handful of the most isolated spots would include Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland, the Tibetan Plateau, Devon Island in Canada and, nearer home, the Outer Hebrides.

But I would wager that, for sheer size and ultra-isolation, there’s nowhere on our planet to beat Kamchatka.

So where exactly is this place? Take an atlas, turn to Russia and see an enormous peninsula sticking out into the Bering Sea north of Japan and looking rather like a swollen arm.

The stats are mind-boggling – it is 500 miles long which makes it more than twice the size of England, is home to towns rejoicing in the names of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Ozernovkiy and Uka and contains scenery that’s almost unrivalled for beauty.

Back in the early 90s I taped a TV nature programme – remember those video recorders? – about this previously secretive hideaway that’s more than 4,000 miles from Moscow and, incredibly, has no roads leading to it, effectively cutting it off from mainland Russia. Yet it is home to 300,000 people.

It’s so far-flung it must make Vladivostok seem like Vegas!

Occasionally I play back the video – yes, I’ve still got the Panasonic recorder! – and marvel at the snow-capped volcanic peaks, the geysers, numerous volcanoes – there are more than 300, many still active –  the crystal-clear waters, big brown bears at play . . . and the stunning colours of the flowers.

And that’s my big interest here, notably a hardy perennial called Achillea Love Parade, an improved selection from Achillea alpina subspecies camtschatica, otherwise and more simply known as Siberian yarrow or Kamchatka yarrow.

What I am leading to is to say you can grow a little piece of Kamchatka in your own garden. This lovely plant, which bears the familiar flat-topped plates on 2ft stems in clusters of numerous large and soft lilac-pink flowers with pale yellow stamens from June to September, grows wild in this Siberian wilderness, battling against often ferocious winds and dense fog.

Its seeds – hailed as a best seller – are listed in the Chiltern Seed catalogue (http://www.chilternseeds.co.uk) at £2.95 a pack and should bloom in the first year from a January or February sowing.

Interestingly, its lance-shaped, saw-edged, bright green, vaguely fern-like leaves are quite unlike any other in the genus – a quirk of horticulture which adds an extra layer of interest to sowing and growing. 

Elsewhere, there’s more to achillea than meets the eye. There are no fewer than 500 species of this flower arranger’s favourite, from 6in high to towering five-footers like the ubiquitous Cloth of Gold with 5in wide corymbs.

► Flowers from the wilderness: Top – Achillea Love Parade in soft lilac-pink; centre – another native of Kamchatka is Daphne jezoensis which, bizarrely, loses its leaves in summer and starts to “re-clothe” in autumn amid its golden trumpets. For this, try Junker’s Nursery at http://www.junker.co.uk; above – a map showing the huge peninsula that is Kamchatka which lies north of the Koreas and Japan.

If you fancy something closer to home than far-off Siberia, you could try a small selection of Chiltern’s dozen varieties listed in their 2024 catalogue, reviewed here in December.

Many have sweet, aromatic foliage and originating anywhere from America to the Alps.

Here’s a taster – Colorado (2ft), a best-seller said to boast all the colours of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado river, Flowerburst Fruitbowl (2½ft) in a mix of apricot, wine red and dusky pink shades, Summer Pastels, an All America Selections winner, a superb strain in numerous pastel shades but also including purple and grey, and Achillea ptarmica The Pearl, with large sprays of pure white double and semi-double flowers which are perfect for cutting and tolerant of just about any soil.

As for Kamchatka itself, if anyone is planning an achillea adventure among the brown bears I’d be happy with first refusal!

► Chiltern Seeds: http://www.chilternseeds.co.uk / 01491 824675.