m a r g n I Candy Carrot, m i T © Spignel and Matthiasella Tim Ingram introduces some less familiar umbellifers which make distinctive garden plants. dramatic Giant Fennels of the Mediterranean, in the wetter maritime climate of northern Europe it grows tall through the summer and flowers in late summer and early autumn. Hog’s Fennel hasn’t been grown in gardens except as part of botanical or medicinal collections, but it can serve to introduce many Fig. 1 Hog’s Fennel ( Peucedanum officinale ) near Whitstable other umbels that are rarely n the north Kent coast, Hog’s Fennel or Sulphurweed grown but make fascinating Onot far from our home (Peucedanum officinale ) (fig. 1). and distinctive garden plants. in Faversham, grows one of A statuesque plant with The umbellifers are a rare the rarest British umbellifers, some of the presence of the group of perennials in which foliage and form are as Umbellifers important as the flowers, and Botanical family Apiaceae (or Umbelliferae ), commonly yet most gardeners think of known as the celery, carrot or parsley family them only as useful vegetables Named after the umbrella-shape arrangement of the and herbs – or as roadside flowers in umbels weeds. Of the eighty or so Perennial, biennial or annual plants, mostly aromatic with species that grow in the hollow stems British Isles, only a handful are Well-known umbellifers include angelica, caraway, coriander, grown in gardens: Sweet cumin, dill, fennel, hemlock, lovage & parsnip Cicely ( Myrrhis odorata ) Attractive to beneficial insects, gardeners and flower arrangers (fig. 2); Greater Burnet- saxifrage ( Pimpinella major , in 33 m its strongest red-pink form a r g n I ‘Rosea’) (fig. 3); and the m i T wonderful Sea Holly © (Eryngium maritimum ) (fig. 4). To these the connoisseur might add the exquisite little Spignel or Baldmoney ( Meum athamanticum ) (fig. 5), which grows in mountain meadows in the north, and what was once a common cornfield weed, Thorow-Wax or Hare’s Ear ( Bupleurum longifolium ), which can be extraordinarily striking with its bronze floral bracts. More recently, too, many gardeners have valued the dark-leaved form of cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravens Wing’ (please note the correct cultivar spelling for this well known plant, which was discovered and introduced by Prof. John Richards, better known to gardeners for his treatise in Primula ). Anthriscus , Pimpinella and, to a lesser Fig. 2 Sweet Cicely ( Myrrhis odorata ) extent, Sweet Cicely, all can m m self-sow extensively and are a a r r g g n n best in more natural plantings. I I m m i i Spignel and Sea Holly are T T © © more exacting in their requirements, and Bupleurum longifolium , although it will self-seed, generally doesn’t persist over many years without help from the gardener. They are just a beginning, when you consider that there are over 3500 species of umbels distributed across much of the temperate world. Quite a few will be familiar to Fig. 3 Greater Burnet-saxifrage Fig. 4 Sea Holly ( Eryngium and well loved by gardeners – (Pimpinella major ‘Rosea’) maritimum ) such as Astrantia, Eryngium 34 and the beautiful annuals because, like ‘Ravens Wing’, it m a r g n Ammi majus and Orlaya flowers at the time of the I m i grandiflora (fig. 6). But there Chelsea Flower Show and is T are very many more that are fashionably novel and © not so well known but garden ‘different’. In its own right it is worthy. very distinctive and associates well in our garden with Let me introduce you to a Mediterranean plants such as medley of the lesser-known, euphorbias, phlomis and the refined and the silver-foliaged Helichrysum downright weird that might ambiguum. Fig. 5 Spignel or Baldmoney Apart from Bupleurum (Meum athamanticum ) appeal to the adventurous longifolium (and for poor m gardener, especially those a r sandy soils the unusual shrub g n I who like to explore the B. fruticosum ), one of the first m i T botanical world in their bupleurums that caught my © gardens as much as to excite eye was the Pyrenean B. the eye . angulosum , growing at RHS Rosemoor. It’s diminutive, and Where better to start than none too easy in the garden, with the Mexican Mathiasella but its ‘green flowers’ stand bupleuroides (fig. 7), named out over narrow grassy leaves, after Mildred E. Mathias of making a good plant for a the University of California, scree or sand garden. Easier Fig. 6 Orlaya grandiflora who has made a close study of and more showy, and one of m a r the New World members of the loveliest of all umbels for g n I the family. The gardener a dry sunny place, is Candy m i T Athamanta turbith might not view it in quite the Carrot ( ) © same way as the botanist who (fig. 8) from the eastern Alps writes: ‘a showy involucre and and Balkans. It has the finest involucels recalling a of filigree leaves and its long malvaceous corolla set off succession of white lacy monoecious umbellets of flowerheads remain just as petalled staminate and attractive when they set achlamydeous pistillate small, silvery-grey seed. Candy Fig. 7 Mexican Matthiasella flowers’, which is to say there Carrot associates well with bupleuroides are separate male and female small early-flowering bulbs, flowers – the female without hiding the dying foliage of the mountain species, They are petals and calyx – on the same bulbs as they go over, and it’s generally very early flowering plant and within the same good between rocks or paving and well adapted to summer umbels, but only when you and on raised beds or walls. It drought. Though they were look closely at the flower- never grows more than 30–45 important plants for heads in detail, and they are cm in height. indigenous Americans, shown off by the green The largest genus of umbels Lomatium are virtually bupleurum-like bracts which in N. America is Lomatium , unknown in cultivation. Most surround them. This plant has which includes robust have the typical ferny leaves become quite well known perennials to small high- of the family and sometimes 35 m a of yellow flowers on stems r g n I only 60–70 cm high. Though m i T slow to establish and reach © flowering size, it’s a long-lived perennial and a real talking point. It needs an open, gravelly place in the garden and remains showy even in fruit with large, winged, golden seed. Finally, a couple of fine, robust and easy perennials with real presence which flower later into summer and autumn and have good foliage – like so many late-flowering plants – for much of the year. Fig. 8 Candy Carrot ( Athamanta turbith ) here with the small North African stock, Matthiola scapifera , and a small daphne. Laserpitium siler (fig. 12) comes from the colder, more m a r the deepest of purple-black continental climate of central g n I flower-heads. Like so many and eastern France and m i T umbels, many of the genus Germany. It is very distinctive © resemble bulbs in their amongst umbels as its foliage growing habit, dying down to is pinnate but with quite tuberous roots through the broad, sparse leaflets and hot and dry summer and markedly grey-green in autumn, so they need colour. The Belgian landscape excellent drainage and careful architect Denis Dujardin and Fig. 9 Lomatium columbianum. placement where they will be English plantsman and undisturbed. nurseryman Graham Gough m a r Closer to home and with a both value it highly in g n I similar climatic adaptation are planting schemes. Compared m i T the Giant Fennels from with many other umbels, the © around the Mediterranean – flowerheads are wide and difficult to place except in quite open, held on tall stems expansive gardens – and to about 1.5m. Although Thapsia maxima (fig. 11) rarely grown or often from the Iberian Peninsula, recognised, this is probably one of the most eye-catching one of the best garden plants Fig. 10 Lomatium dissectum. and probably most in the genus for its form sport quite colourful flowers. interesting, but least known throughout the year, but it Two examples in our garden for the garden. Unlike the takes time to establish, so illustrate these characteristics fennels, it has broad and gardeners need to be patient. – the silver-grey-leaved deeply cut and pleated leaves, The ‘Queen of L. columbianum (fig. 9) with extremely striking in Umbellifers’, E A Bowles’s good pink flowers, and a form themselves, and in early description of the Himalayan of L. dissectum (fig. 10) with summer large rounded heads Selinum wallichianum (fig. 13), 36 m is far better known and rightly m a a r r g g n n prized in gardens. It needs a I I m m i i rich soil, moist throughout T T © summer, to allow it to © develop fully and flower, often late into the autumn. With the finest of ferny foliage of any umbellifer, its flowerheads are full, white, and surrounded by small greenish-white bracts. Some forms have strong reddish stems which contrast Fig. 11 Thapsia maxima . Fig. 12 Laserpitium siler . beautifully with the foliage. A fitting and fine perennial, easy East Sussex. It is hardly Once you have them in to grow anywhere that’s not known, but a good example the garden, these are all too dry through the summer, of one of the most neglected plants which you would it steadily clumps up to make of plant families in the not want to be without, good stands, again to about ornamental garden, and surely simply because they are so 1.5m high in flower.