Property News · June 18, 2016

Why I fell for the bombproof buttercup | Alys Fowler


Meadow rue are lovely – tall or short, they produce fine sprays of tiny flowers and slugs don’t like themThere is a piece of Kazakhstan that is seared into my memory. In 2014, I turned a corner there to a bit of the world that is perfectly gardened. We were looking for old stands of protected wild apples and as the hills became mountains, the landscape turned into a giant perennial border. Fat peonies with seed heads splitting forth, wild roses, echinops bobbing, foxtail lilies waving tall seedheads and a sea of thalictrum running from the sun into the shade of the forest. After a long hot summer the smell of fermenting apples gave everything a nostalgic air. Oh, to see this in full flower.I’d sort of forgotten about thalictrum, or meadow rue, as they are commonly known, until that moment. Thalictrum are lovely: tall or short but always decidedly airy. They produce a fine spray of tiny flowers that often resemble pompoms, because the petals are either absent or fall off leaving a numerous showy stamens. Despite being commonly called a rue, thalictrum are in the buttercup family and so are pretty much bombproof when it comes to pests; slugs don’t touch them, making them useful in this year of the slug apocalypse. And they are good in shade. There are tall ones for the back of a border and much smaller ones for pockets of shade under trees and bushes. They are a useful, easy-going bunch. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Why I fell for the bombproof buttercup | Alys Fowler

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