Three guesses……no, it’s Lovage! So many herbs and vegetables have wonderful flowers, it’s a wonder more gardeners don’t grow them as ornamentals.

This is the business end, the leaves that are used to flavour soups and stews, but a bit dull compared to the flowers!

A rather odd view of Buddleia ‘Pink Delight’ reaching up to the sky to attract passing bees and butterflies. One of the better buddleias with big, fat flowers full of nectar.

Francoa sonchifolia or Bridal Wreath as it is commonly known. This one is the deeper pink of ‘Rogerson’s Form’ acquired from a Plant Heritage plant sale many years ago and, as you can see, loved by bees at this time of year. Not grown as much as it should be, it is a bombproof perennial, totally hardy and well behaved.

Despite it’s weird appearance and bizarre colour scheme, this is apparently a ‘choice’ form of clematis called ‘Alba Luxurians’ which is white with green tips or splashes. I discovered it growing up an old apple tree in the garden when we moved here 14 years ago and each year I tear it out of the tree and hack it back to the ground. It is obviously a Viticella type but I don’t see it grown in the many gardens I visit, which is either because it is unusual and hard to come by or, probably, because people don’t like it! I can’t make up my mind. I don’t think I would go out and buy it but, as it was here before we were, it deserves its place.

If there was ever a plant which divides opinion, this is it. Lysimachia cilliata ‘Firecracker’, part of the broad family of Lysimachias which cover every size, shape and colour of flower and leaf. This one, however, is probably the most ‘Marmite’ of them all due to its tendency to spread into unwanted spaces and for its unexpected bright yellow flowers aboard coppery leaves. It just doesn’t look right! The small patch I now tolerate sits beneath tall flowering daisies and sunflowers and helps to fill a gap in the border before they come into flower.

If you don’t already have it, I urge you to acquire some Ivy Leaved Toadflax, Cymbalaria muralis, which can literally be grown anywhere. I have a friend who grows it in an old watering can! It’s edible too apparently tasting like watercress, although I can’t confirm that having never tried it, nor intending to! A little joy in a pot, a gift from a friend, a cheery smile as I walk past, undemanding, unpretentious and reliable which is more than can be said for a lot of plants in my garden, and some of my friends!

Have a great weekend

David