Call of the wildflower
plot. Marney was an awardwinning garden expert who did much to bring wildflowers to the forefront. Her interest in them developed from her work as an ecologist, researching ways to improve the management of nature reserves, in particular for rare species of butterflies.
She won many gold medals for her gardens at Chelsea and was a lover of life who deserves more recognition.
One of the many pretty plants in the wildflower turf was Viola ‘Heartsease’. Also known as the wild pansy, Heartsease is a charming flower, bearing lots of small blooms with purple, yellow and white petals throughout summer. It’s a native perennial and will self-seed freely so could be a good option to allow to run native through a border or wild garden.
Equally it is a lovely choice for hanging baskets and containers. It’s quite subtle compared to the bigger and bolder pansies that we rely so heavily on for our winter and spring containers.
You can direct sow it now and throughout the summer, and keep deadheading to encourage continuous flowering.
I stumbled upon another wild violet when walking in the woods – Viola odorata. This is a sweet little beauty, all the petals are pale mauve and it was peeping out from underneath the flowering wild garlic.
Its demure qualities inspired the term “shrinking violet” to describe a shy, retiring person. It’s also scented and is a good ground cover possibility for under deciduous trees.
Marney Hall was ahead of her time, as now more and more people are becoming aware of the beauty and importance of wildflowers. As pollinator plants they provide valuable nectar to the insect population such as bees.
You don’t even need to plant wildflowers – by adopting a more relaxed attitude and leaving a little bit of your garden uncultivated, the weeds (or wildflowers!) will colonise quickly. For example, nettles are a wonderful breeding ground for the larvae of butterflies, as are thistles, docks, sorrel weed and meadow grasses.
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Just adopt a relaxed attitude and wildflowers will colonise quickly