More (and mysterious) plants!
I've been to our local City Farm this morning, the animals are great for the kids to look at but my main motivation in going is to ogle the allotments! Today, having had a lovely chat with a lady gardener over the fence of her plot, I came down the hill to find the remnants of a plant sale (take what you want, leave the money in the postbox by the gate).
So, swayed by the lovely old-fashioned names, I've come home with 3 Sweet Cicely* (Myrrhis odorata) plants for £1 (£5.50 each at Jekka McVicar) and 2 Sweet Woodruff which was also labelled as Lady's Bedstraw.
Trouble is, having looked up the plants when I got home to see what I'd got, Sweet Woodruff is Galium odorata (white flowers through until snow, excellent spreading ground cover for shade, wonderful scent with dried flowers used in pot-pourri) and Lady's Bedstraw is Galium verum (sprawling stems up to 120cm, yellow flowers can be used as a flea deterrent and also used to curdle milk for cheese making). Yikes! I wonder which one I've just bought?
Views: 0
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Comment by Zoe on May 12, 2011 at 16:34 -
Sounds like loads of fun. I guess you'll work out what they are as they mature.
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Comment by Debbie on May 12, 2011 at 22:09 -
and the cheese will be great !!
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Comment by Zoe on May 13, 2011 at 7:53
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Maybe you could get a goat & start making your own cheese??
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Comment by Caro on May 13, 2011 at 10:29 -
I have visions of getting the sprawling type Galium and it spreading triffid like across my courgettes, etc! Having enough trouble finding space for my veg as it is without bringing wayward orphans into the veg patch! Going back today to shovel well rotted horse muck into bags destined for my raised beds so I think it might be worth asking about the plant's true identity! BTW Zoe, they have lots of goats at the farm, maybe I should mention the cheese making to them!
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Comment by Caro on May 16, 2011 at 15:38
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I've solved the mystery! I tracked down the education officer at the farm - a man who really knows his shallots from his onions - and asked. I think he was suitably impressed that I knew the difference between Galium odoratum and Galium verum and confirmed that the name plaque on the plants was a mistake. I have indeed bought Galium odoratum, aka Sweet Woodruff, and now I also know where to plant it ... in the shade!
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Comment by Zoe on May 16, 2011 at 16:13
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Always nice to find plant that enjoys shade. Plus this sounds like a really pretty & highly scented flower. What a good find!!!
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Comment by Caro on May 17, 2011 at 14:16
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I'm super-pleased about this Zoe because there's one brick-walled border between an overlarge shrub and the old gardener's shed where nothing grows because it's so shaded. That's where the Sweet Woodruff will go...
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