B

KEY

*                Plants with nectar- and/or pollen-rich flowers for insects.

(S)             Plants of which seed is either currently available or expected in 2008 (@ £2.70/pack)

Click on plant names in green for photos.  All photos are the copyright of Rosemary Castle. 

Prices include first class postage and packing within the UK as at 1 January 2008.

BARBAREA    WINTER-CRESSES

Barbarea vulgaris 'Variegata'*

Ornamental variegated form of winter-cress.  The plant makes overwintering rosettes of deeply-lobed, dark green leaves, handsomely variegated with creamy yellow. The leaves are edible, with a peppery taste like watercress, best eaten young in early spring.  Heads of small yellow flowers in early summer.  True from seed. Biennial/perennial.  £4.50

BELLIS   DAISY 

Bellis perennis.  Common Daisy.  Stocks of the following cultivars are very limited and prices may be per single rosette:

Bellis perennis 'Changeling' - NEW

From Alan Bremner's garden in Orkney comes this most eccentric daisy with proliferous tendencies (see 'Prolifera' below for the more classic version).  The flower heads may vary greatly, even on the same plant and from one plant to another.  On a single plant I have seen flower heads looking more like miniature heads of broccoli with tightly packed green florets, as well as very double flower heads with profuse white ray florets, green in the very centre.  I have also seen relatively normal flower heads with white ray florets and yellow discs; however, but most of these had green centres from which emerged a cluster of white ray florets also having green/yellow florets in the centre, suggesting one flower head within another.  The plant may also produce mini-flower heads, ('single' or 'double') on short stems around the main flower head as per ‘Prolifera’ below.  A fascinating plant.  £5.00

Bellis perennis 'Prolifera' single-flowered*

The celebrated ‘hen and chickens’ or ‘childing daisy', a form probably known since Elizabethan times or earlier. When ‘performing’ the plant produces small green swellings among leafier than usual green bracts at the back of the flower head.  These develop into perfect miniature flower heads, some on long stalks, some sessile, surrounding the main flower head. These mini-flower heads vary in number, but I have often counted double figures. Sometimes one will emerge (or try to) amongst the yellow disc florets of the main flower head or in the axils of leaves growing from the main stem. However, please note this plant is as unpredictable as it is variable and may not show the aberration from one season to the next.  Plants are supplied as divisions of stock that is either currently showing or has recently shown signs of the aberration, but no guarantee about future proliferation can be given.  The character is inheritable and seedlings may also be proliferous.  Found locally.  £5.00.  Note: confusingly, a double-flowered form of proliferous daisy has long been in cultivation under the name Bellis perennis 'Prolifera' and the RHS Plant Finder have now invoked a clause of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plant (ICNCP) adding the device 'single-flowered' or 'double-flowered' after the name in order to distinguish between the two forms. Certain forms of proliferous daisy may also be capable of producing both 'single' and 'double' flower-heads, whether normal-sized or small, (see Bellis perennis 'Changeling' above). 

Bellis perennis 'Upper Seagry'

A very pretty, not-quite-fully-double pinkish white daisy found by Martin Cragg-Barber.  Flourishing in our lawn in a partly shaded spot.  A Wiltshire find from Martin Cragg-Barber. £5.00

Note:

In the wild daisies thrive in short grass but they can be strangely tricky in the garden.  I have most success with growing them in pots or in the lawn.  Here are a few tips for keeping daisies healthy:

- never let them dry out.

- grow them in a lightly-shaded spot, ideally one that is cool and moist at the roots (e.g. between stones or     paving).   

- if grown in pots, divide and repot in fresh compost regularly.  

- make sure their leaves are not smothered by the stems/foliage of neighbouring plants.

- check them regularly, removing any unhealthy or flaccid-looking leaves as soon as they are noticed. Pick or wash off any aphids.  In the growing season treat the plants to a seaweed extract tonic (such as Maxicrop) now and again in the recommended dose.