Cutting from the garden in spring - Part 1: Woad, scabious, hesperis and cerinthe

Cutting from the Garden in Spring

Part 1: Woad, Scabious, Hesperis and Cerinthe

It's the end of April and we are in Cornwall choosing the best early flowers to pick from our cutting garden. Below are the plants we have selected.

Isatis tinctoria

Common names: woad, common dyer's weed, ash of Jerusalem

We grow this wild, bright yellow-flowered plant to add colour to the garden and to pick from June onwards for flower arrangements. Woad self-seeds freely and attracts bees, and its leaves can be used to produce blue dye. As this plant spreads very fast, it needs to be kept in check by thinning it out.

Scabiosa

Common name: scabious

Our real spring favourite, scabious does well in dry soil and can grow in long grass. It adds interest in orchards and informal gardens but also works well in more formal areas and in mixed herbaceous borders. It is available in blue and white.

Hesperis matronalis

Common name: dame's-violet, dame's rocket

This is a very useful plant for floral arrangements in late April/May, when the choice of flowers for picking is rather limited. Hesperis can be white or lavender-coloured. It grows to considerable heights and is highly scented.

Note: Being a biennial, Hesperis requires some forward planning; our advice is to collect the seeds just after the flowers are over in the spring and then sow them in the summer to produce new plants the following year.

Planting Your Garden in Rows

Although we have planted parts of the Cornish garden in formal rows of roses and peonies, we have also created informal areas where nature takes over and allows the self-seeding plants to thrive. These areas produce yellow woad, low-growing cerinthe and ox-eyed daisies as well as Verbena bonariensis and Valeriana officinalis. As Verbena and Valeriana can grow to well above 1m tall, they are excellent flowers for large arrangements.

We also grow herbs, such as rosemary and chives, in our plant garden for use in the kitchen and for their value as garden pest repellents.

Picking Flowers

The best flower-picking time - especially in high summer - is before 8am or after 6pm. This morning we are picking woad and little scabious and are sharing tips on how to keep these plants fresh for making flower arrangements later.

First we shorten the stems of woad and submerge them in buckets of water. We have also discovered that the best way to keep woad fresh until it's needed is to leave it for several hours in a cool, dark place during the day or keep it in deep water overnight.

Top Tips

• When planning your garden, leave space to create wilder, informal areas to allow self-seeding plants to develop.
• Plant herbs. Rosemary and chives repel pests - plant them among roses.
• Help yourself learn plant names by a liberal use of garden plant labels; Wells & Winter and Nutley's Copper Plant are two of the companies making attractive copper plant labels.
• Don't pick flowers in the summer between 8am and 6pm.
• Don't discard plants with crooked stems; they can add shape to arrangements.
• If you want to avoid excessive self-seeding, cut woad heads off before the seeds form in May.
• Control the spread of woad. If it has taken over your garden, clear out some areas and replant with cosmos, dahlias or salvias.
• If you grow a row of woad you can cut the stems close to the ground after flowering and plant cosmos seedlings straight into the stubble.

Plant Directory

Allium schoenoprasum

common name: chives

Cerinthe

common name: honeywort

Cosmos

common name: cosmos

Dahlia

common name: dahlia

Hesperis matronalis

common names: dame's-violet or dame's rocket

Isatis tinctoria

common names: woad, dyer's weed, ash of Jerusalem

Leucanthemum vulgare

common name: ox-eyed daisy

Rosmarinus

common name: rosemary

Salvia

common name: sage

Scabiosa

common name: scabious

Suppliers of Copper Plant Labels

• Nutley's Copper Plant Labels
• Wells & Winter