Chervil

Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium) is a pretty little culinary herb, an annual with white lacy flowers ~ it is, after all an umbellifer. It looks like a small version of cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) & it is indeed a close relation of that beautiful hedgerow plant. Chervil is not much grown, but it is particularly nice with egg dishes.

Chervil, Anthriscus cerefolium

Also flowering now at the Annecy Garden is lamb's lettuce, Valerianella locusta. This has been growing all through the winter, forming little rosettes of leaves with a delicious nutty flavour, a fine addition to a winter salad. The plant is a winter-growing annual & the flowers are now here, very unspectacular, the pale blue of skimmed milk, but charming nonetheless.

Lamb's lettuce, Valerianella locusta

Another salad plant now flowering is land cress, Barbarea verna. This is recommended as a substitute for watercress in sites that are too dry for watercress to thrive & while the plant grows easily, the flavour of the leaves is rather strong & peppery. But the flowers are pretty now:

Land cress, Barbarea verna

Also looking pretty in the beds & an unexpected over-wintering survivor are the Virginian stocks, Malcolmia maritima. This plant comes from Greece & seems very happy in the warm, dry, sunny conditions of the Annecy Gardens & there are many self-sown seedlings:

Virginian stock, Malcolmia maritima

This is the third year of Transition Town Cheltenham's Growing Group working the Annecy Gardens & some of the perennials are now forming very substantial clumps, not least the globe artichokes, Cynara scolymus.

Lorraine standing next to monster clump of globe artichoke, Cynara scolymus

Artichokes are upon us!

Last year we planted two artichoke plants (Cynara scolymus) at the Annecy Gardens, they grew a little & one, I seem to recall, flowered. This year both plants have grown & both will flower, but whereas one is a vision of spiky grey luxuriance, the other is not so magnificent. The reason for this is not apparent.

Cynara scolymus, globe artichoke, producing its first head at the Annecy Gardens

We grew sunflowers at the Gardens last year, a multi-headed variety called 'Earthwalker' with reddish-brown heads. At the end of the season we left the heads, these are a good food source for finches & the like. However the birds don't eat all the seeds & this year we have quite a number of self-sown seedlings.

Self-sown sunflower seedlings, Helianthus annuus from 'Earthwalker', already 12" tall & looking far better than the plants I have been nurturing in pots

A number of other plants have also self-sown, including Californian poppy, Eschscholzia californica, and snapdragons, Antirrhinum majus. We planted Californian poppies in the garden last year, but the snapdragons must have come from seed buried in the gardens at least three years ago, as that was the last time the Council had bedding plants in the area prior to grassing it all over.

Antirrhinum majus, snapdragon, a dwarf, but very floriferous variety

Eschscholzia californica, Californian poppy, a self-sown plant

The Phacelia tanacetifolia, borage, Borago officinalis and rocket, Eruca sativa, are flowering beautifully at the moment

Phacelia tanacetifolia, Borago officinalis & also, in the cente, a single red poppy, Papavery rhoeas

The flowers were buzzing with bees

However, in order to ensure a continuous supply of flowers for the bees, we have removed some of the phacelia & have planted some more sunflowers, which we hope will flower into August & September.

One of the carrot plants has survived from last year & it is now coming into flower & it is very fine:

Daucus carota (carrot), coming into flower with the white head towards the top of the picture, in the middle

Also appearing this week are the first flowers on the Tagetes 'Linnaeus'; we saved the seed from last year & sowed it indoors in March. It's very pretty, grows to about 18" tall & unlike many varieties of Tagetes currently available, has single flowers, which we hope are of greater benefit to insects than the more showy double varieties that are generally available.

Tagetes 'Linnaeus', a beautiful tall-growing variety which did well in the garden last year.