Cool Temperate - Herbaceous Plants

Herbaceous Plants

£2.00 unless priced otherwise

Birdsfoot Trefoil - Lotus corniculatus - native grassland and lawn perennial, excellent N-fixer, drought resistant, bee and butterfly plant, edible flowers -'Bacon and Eggs'.

Chilean Strawberry - makes an attractive shiny evergreen ground cover, but a shy flowerer.

Horseradish - plant in a spot where it can stay forever - its difficult to get rid off, but doesnt spread much. Peppery root for sauce and also very good grated over winter soups.

Ladies Bedstraw - Galium verum - native grassland wildflower, excellent as a living cushion for an outdoor seat. Drought resisting, attractive frothy yellow flowers.

Quamash - Camassia - edible bulbs that divide rather than grow to a useful size - but very attractive blue flowers and a tough little plant.

Camassia leichtlinii alba - a larger version of the above with egg-sized bulbs and white flower spikes to 90 cm. Readily seeds and will self sow. A natural prairie plant - give it an open site. Best cooked slow-baked. Supplied as single bulbs @ £1.50 each.

NEW! Climbing Spinach - Hablitzia tamnoides. Hardy perennial scrambling relative of spinach. Deciduous - old stems die down and new stems grow each spring - like hops. Seems to thrive in sun or in the shade on the north side of a wall. Flowers [tiny] and seeds freely. Tastes to me a bit like nettle. Will probably do very well next to a fertility source - the compost heap or tree bog. Seems to be largely pest and disease free. £4 each, 3 for £10.

Ramsons - Allium ursinum - Wild Garlic - native woodland carpeting plant - young leaves delicious, awsome with cheese, white garlic-scented flowers in May.

Salad Burnet - Sanguisorba minor - native grassland wildflower with cucumber flavoured leaves.

Saffron - Crocus sativus - its the stigmas that are the spice - autumn flowering and needing full sun and good drainage.

Sweet Cicely - native perennial with sweetish mildly aniseed taste. The large young seeds are especially good to eat when still soft and green.

Tree Onion - perennial onion producing small pickling size onions instead of flowers.

Wild Marjoram - native wildflower, happy on rocks or soil, needs sun, good bee plant and insectary, not strongly flavoured so leaves are good in a salad. Self sows freely.

Wild Sorrel - native easy grassland plant with delicious acid, lemony leaves.

Wild Strawberry - easy native for open or shady sites. Fruits midsummer.

Woodruff - sold out

Tsi - Houttuynia cordata Creeping ground cover, best in moist soil, eaten in Asia raw/cooked. Medicinal qualities. Attractive white flowers. Sold as roots.

DAY LILLIES - Hemerocallis species. @ £4.00 each

All parts edible, usually interest is concentrated on the the flower buds or open flowers, which can be eaten raw or lightly cooked. Young spring leaves and larger roots edible also. Flowers once open last for a day but are produced in succession over a few weeks.

H. dumortieri – yellow flowers, late May

H. fulva flore pleno 'Kwanso'

Grown for its edible flower buds in China, but also a superb ornamental, spreading to make a wide clump, large orange/bronze flowers if you leave them to open. Early July.

H. middendorfii – yellow flowers – early May

H. thunbergii – yellow flowers late June, relatively large buds for its medium height and size.