Woodland

Meadows

Waste places - grow them hard

The Woodlanders
Native woodlanders whether in their natural or selected forms are worth considering for shady garden areas.

Once we took Bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scriptus for granted, now they are protected by law. As a child I remember lying on my stomach in a wood surrounded by Bluebells and revelling in the delicious scent and picking big bunches to take home. Some references suggest the sap is toxic! It is now illegal to pick or dig up Bluebells and many other wild plants. Another woodland favourite is the Wood Anemone, Anenome nemorosa, gentle washes unfold delicately from the leafmould in spring in woods and shaded banks.

Not a favourite exactly but you have to admire the extensive carpets of the wide leaved pom-pom headed Ramsons, Allium ursinum which scent the air all around with the rich smell of garlic in May - especially pungent towards the end of flowering.

A rarity - I remember seeing Butterfly Orchids, Platanthera chlorantha on the edge of a wood in Norway, the white spidery flowers slightly ghostly in the shade and having the pleasure of bending and sniffing their scent. In Norwegian they are called 'Nattfiol' or Night Violet. I recall reading H.E Bates' autobiography where he writes that as a boy he would visit a wood close to home in Northamptonshire awash with these glorious beings. I bet the wood is no longer there!

I have been seduced by some of the quieter weeds of woods such as Moschatel, Adoxa moschatellina, a very small green plant with a tiny green 5 sided blob of a head. It also has the colloquial name of Town Hall Clock, I may rue the day I planted it in my garden though as it is running happily. Its pretty scalloped leaves are early and a sign of spring coming and it does die down completely once it has finished flowering. Another rampant carpeting woodlander one should plant with caution is Woodruff, Galium odoratum, whorls of green leaves are topped in May by white cross stitch flowers. It does have two plus points, one, it romps away in dry shade given a bit of leafmould or light soil to run through, and two, when dried has a glorious new mown hay scent - I use it amongst my sheets and pillowcases as many generations have done before me.

In the UK in the 1980's there was a huge resurgence in interest in 'old fashioned' flowers, many had been deemed missing perhaps never to be seen again. Parkinson's 'Paradisi in sole Paradisus terrestris' published in 1629 was [and is] often used as a reference to identify plants as they are re-discovered or to ascertain those which may no longer be in cultivation. Many of the disappeared [and found] were forms of our native weeds. Rarities included Primroses, Primula vulgaris - hose-in-hose, where one flower nests in another flower, or jack-in-the-green each flower having a green ruff, and gallygaskins which have a swollen calyx and a ruff said to look like an Elizabethan gentleman's knee length breeches!

Spotting the first wild violets in flower each year is always a quiet pleasure although not all are scented. From wild violets very scented cultivars have been bred in the past. At the peak of their popularity special trains would speed up to London from Devon and Cornwall with their cargos of violets for the flower markets. Remember the scene in 'My Fair Lady' with Eliza selling her violet posies? Now there are very few suppliers in the UK still growing them as a commercial crop. I saw them being offered at a flower stall in Bath recently [February], each posy nestled in a ruff of ivy leaves. Cultivars such as The Czar, Princess of Wales and Coeur d'Alsace had languished since their Victorian heyday but started to re-appear on nursery lists in the 1980's and are now available from a few specialist suppliers.

Wood Anenomes, Anenome nemorosa have also had their share of hybridisation. The oddest must be Viridiflora which as its name suggests is all green, the petals replaced with leafy bracts that feather out from the centre and counterpoint the sturdier form of the leaves, the heads last far longer than its petalled counterparts. The violet/blues are delectable including Robinsoniana and Allenii. Vestal is white with a very doubled centre. I am not entirely convinced by the pink forms en masse in a more natural planting.

We have some lovely native [and naturalised] 'weeds' which in both their simple and selected forms are worth considering for both formal and more natural plantings - some with provisos!

References and links
The Vanishing Garden [1986] Christopher Brickell and Fay Sharman
The Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe [1974] Richard Fitter, Alastair Fitter, Marjorie Blamey [reprint 2003]

Buy
Barnhaven Primulas - for seeds of hose-in-hose, jack in the green and laced primulas

Bernwode Plants in Buckinghamshire - has a comprehensive range of selected native and cottage garden plants

Long Acre Plants - selection of many woodland plants [native and non-native]

The Devon Violet Company - Sweet Violet and Parma Violet cultivars and posies by post

Chiltern Seeds - including Linaria, Wild Carrot, Anenome and Sweet Violet

Really Wild Flowers - sell plug plants of a wide range of native species

@Kari's garden 2002 - 2006 Updated January 2006