Thursdays favourite plant

This ones a cracker

Pulmonaria Lungwort or blue cowslip.


Image via flickr (and its a gorgeous photostream)

If you're looking for a beautiful early spring perennial, that's adored by big fat bumblebees looking for a yummy treat after a long cold winter, then I absolutely recommend Pulmonaria. A woodland edge native of mainland Europe its perfect for shady gardens or growing under trees or hedges. Its a really low maintenance plant, fairly low growing, and self seeding. Its fully hardy, disease resistant although it can be prone to powdery mildew in dry hot areas but this is easily dealt with by removing the dying leaves in autumn and disposing of them (never compost) and slugs have no interest in it neither do rabbits or deer. It will grow on all soils and is particularly happy on heavy clay soils.
There are many different varieties with different flower colour such as redstart (red flowered) and sissinghurst white (white flowered funnily enough) It also has lovely foliage which give it it's common name of lungwort (more on that later), There's a gorgeous one with metallic silver leaves which I've been hunting for for ages.

They produce masses and masses of flowers from the end of January (only if its mild) through to the end of April. I find a bit of deadheading helps prolong them.
One of the things I love most about the flowers is how they change colour, starting pink in bud opening to bright blue and fading to purple.

The reason Pulmonaria has the common name of lungwort is to do with the mottling on the leaves. Centuries ago doctors/herbalists saw features in plants that bore resemblance to Human body parts and aliments. These plants were then used to treat aliments and conditions. This philosophy became the doctrine of signitures. So lungwort resembling diseased lungs was used to treat pulmonary disorders. The Botanical name even represents this (I have an almost nerdish love of Latin names and their meanings and descriptions but I shan't bore you with that). Another good example of this is with the flower eyebright Lungwort was used during the bubonic plague to try and cure the black death.
Like most medicinal herbs it has a host of folkloric stories like being the herb of the virgin Mary with the spots on the leaves representing her tears and the changing of the flower colour the colour of crying eyes, and being able to ward of and reveal witch's. But nearly all plants in medieval times could do that except the ones that were used by witch's (I also have a nerdish love of plant history and folklore).

Jess xx

P.S how flipping fast do baby chicks grow, they are all sprouting wing feathers and leaping about like nobodies business, will get some photos up soon.

All bases covered.

I came across this article of the best 100 plants yesterday via Help save bees on twitter. I love the fact that it covers all the seasons, as during the autumn and winter my patch seems to fall short of interest.

Hmmm I can see a shopping list coming on......

Thursdays favourite Plant

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)



This is one of my favourite herbs. I have a huge pot of it my the kitchen door and I love rubbing the leaves to get a hit of that yummy lemon scent. It just smells so summery and makes you feel all happy. In aromatherapy and herbal medicine its used to help ease stress, and reduce anxiety and create a feeling of calmness. It also is supposed to help improve your memory. I love to make a tea from a few leaves crushed and steeped in boiling water. I also add a few leaves when I make lemonade to give it and additional lemony kick.

Lemon balm is in the same family as mint and is as easy to grow. Its happy grown in a container (add lots of gravel/grit for drainage) or in the ground. Lemon balm is a really good plant to grow for bees as they love the delicate little white flowers. I prefer it to lemon verbena that I also grow as I find the lemon verbena has a bit of a sugary sherbet taste to it and lemon verbena doesn't like the cold and can be vulnerable to frost damage whereas lemon balm is fully hardy and comes back year after year.

Thursdays favourite plants

This is Hemerocallis "summer wine"

Isn't is gorgeous. They're commonly called day lilies because each flower lasts for a single day, although don't let that put you off because they produce lots of beautiful flowers, so you get a new one each day in late June/July. These perennials can happily grow in borders or large containers and come back year after year and get bigger and bigger, so they can be divided in spring or autumn and give you more plants. You can also eat the flower buds I'm told, but I've never tried. I wouldn't want to miss out on the flowers.
They are best grown in a sunny spot but are quite happy in heavy clay soils or moist soil.




Allium sphaerocephalon (round headed leek or drumstick allium)

Now I know there are some spectacular alliums out there like christophii or the huge giganteum and in comparsion this one might seem a bit small and humble, but I would always pick it over its more showy brothers and sisters. Firstly its really inexpensive compared to most alliums and you get more bang for your buck, a pack of 20 costs less than a single giant variety. Secondly they look amazing planted on mass and because the flowers are more lightweight the don't need supporting. Thirdly bees and butterflies love them.
I love the way when the flower first forms its totally green and the purple colour starts at the top and kind of bleeds down and you get a two tone effect.
These are so easy to grow, plant them in the autumn about as deep as the bulb is big. once in the ground they will come back year after year. They look stunning planted with grasses or just drifting through herbaceous plants. If your a fan of Prairie style gardens this bulb is essential.

Lastly (and I should have posted this earlier because they've gone over now)

Digitalis (Foxgloves)

To me no cottage or wildlife garden is complete with a few foxgloves (or hedge, bank, roadside verge and woodland) They're wonderful they add height stature and a dash of the English countryside. They are a biennial plant so now is about the right time to sow seeds for next years flowers. You can either scatter a packet in a seed tray and prick out and pot on the seedlings when they are big enough to handle or just throw a handful of seeds in your flower bed.
there are so many different varieties and colours to choose from, I love white ones and the native purple one (Digitalis purperea). I've just sown Pams choice to have next year, but this year I had this creamy yellow one



I think it might be called primrose carousel but I can't remember.

Right I'm off out to the garden to will some lily buds to open and see how many potatoes have grown in my potato filled compost bag.

Enjoy the sunshine

jess x