Wildflowers Are Not Weeds

A native wildflower, sadly becoming increasingly rare, this biannual relative of the giant echium pininana makes an excellent garden plant. When planted in garden soil, it grows much larger than its wild siblings whose chosen habitat is coastal shingle beaches and windswept cliffs. In a garden border it can grow prolifically to three feet or more with several flowering spires. It's a very pretty plant with stiff, hairy grey-blue stems which branch and flower continuously from late spring until autumn. As good as any salvia, its violet-blue flowers attract beneficial insects who are guided to the nectaries by five reddish purple protruding stamens looking for all the world like flickering snake's tongues, hence its common name. Viper's bugloss self-seeds prolifically, yet despite this, habitat loss has led to it becoming rare in the wild so growing it in your garden really will help to increase numbers as the seeds drift far and wide on the wind. It is an incredibly deep-rooted plant, and so it sulks after being transplanted from its pot. Like its cousin the giant echium, it will pick up with plenty of water and sunshine, and should then romp away. If this plant self-seeds in your garden, leave it where it is, if you can. It will always do better in its own chosen spot. This plant, together with centranthus ruber is beloved of the pretty hummingbird hawk moth, so for that reason alone, it is well worth planting in your garden.

Have you ever seen a charm of goldfinches feeding on the seed heads of teasel? If you have, then you'll know why they are a stalwart of our garden. A tall statuesque biennial with thistle-like flowers this beauty self-seeds prolifically, so once it is established in your garden you're likely to have it in perpetuity. In the first year the plant forms a basal plate of ovate slightly prickly leaves and if your soil is rich and moist these can be a foot or more in diameter. Even at this stage, I find the plant quite eye-catching, but in the following year it sends up tall flower spires, prickly and strong enough to withstand anything the weather conjures. Towards mid-summer the cone-shaped heads appear with multiple tiny purple flowers adorning them. These flowers attract an abundance of pollinating insects which assure that the seeds are set, ready for the autumnal charms of finches for whom it seems to be their favourite food. Teasel heads were once used in the textile industry to card and raise the nap of wool and in modern times is beloved of florists as it makes an excellent dried flower. Once the finches have finished with it, teasel heads and stems make good winter firelighters if you've run out of kindling, but it always seems a shame to burn them, so mostly we leave them standing all winter, a reminder of summer's beauty and the spring to come. Teasels are highly recommended for a wildflower or wildlife garden.