Thursdays favorite plant

See told you I'd be back


Right this gorgeous chap is Astrantia major also known as masterwort.

This is a real star performer for the herbaceous border. Its flowers last for ages and are really good for cutting. It likes a nice rich moisture retentive soil and performs really well in heavy clay. I have a huge clump in my main border and some at the edge of my wild (messy) pond. Its happy in full sun or a little light shade.
You can often find these growing wild, (I've seen some on the edges of a near by wood) were they have naturalised from nearby gardens. They are really really easy to grow from seed and will happily self seed all over the place.

I love the shape of the flower heads, like little pin cushions with spiky little bracts around the edges. They look beautiful when the sun shines through them and seem to glow when it gets dusk.
There are a few different varieties of varying shades of pink and plumy reds, I have another one called Ruby wedding which is stunning.

I'm going to get round to uploading tons and tons of pictures to flickr soon (I need a rainy day)and will talk some more about my veg patch and post some pics of it (I picked my first pea today.

Enjoy the sunshine

love jess x