Which plant reputedly

Unusually, this mint has a slight ginger flavour. French sorrel or oseille ronde, is less acid in flavour than common sorrel Rumex acetosa , having a distinct tang of apple and lemon. This hardy perennial prefers a sunny spot, where it will grow to 30cm in height. Use the young leaves in mixed leaf salads, and bring the plant indoors for winter use.

This Central and South American shrubby marigold has been used as a culinary and medicinal herb for centuries. Grow it to use as a bright-flowered substitute for Russian or French tarragon, and protect it from severe frosts in winter with fleece.

Winter savour is a hardy perennial, that grows into a small, shrubby clump. Small white flowers appear in late summer. After this, trim it up to a tighter shape. The leaves and tips can be used fresh or dried, to add a spicy flavour to herb mixes, stuffings, pulses and pates. Performs best in full sun, in well-drained soil. This charming hardy climber creates a canopy of glossy green foliage, which in summer is strewn with flat white panicles of flowers on long stems.

Add colour to your garden this winter, select from pansy 'Colourburst', 'Grande Fragrance', wallflower 'Wizard' and viola 'Valentino'. A superb evergreen bearing delicate, waxy, bell-shaped flowers in the depths of winter, with lush green foliage for year-round interest.

Home Plants 10 unusual herbs to grow. Tree onion with sprouting bulblets. Interplanting with geraniums significantly increased numbers of Japanese beetles on roses. Similarly, roses surrounded by sachets with fennel seeds, cedar shavings, crushed red pepper, or osage orange fruits had significantly more beetles than the control plants on two or more sample dates. Our results suggest that the use of companion or reputedly repellent plants or plant odors probably will be ineffective for protecting roses or other highly-susceptible ornamentals from P.

Use of such tactics in an effort to discourage other garden pests might even increase Japanese beetle damage in those plantings. On his way, he escaped local bandits, he was imprisoned on suspicion of spying, survived an epidemic of deadly fever and nearly drowned when his boat overturned in a rocky river. Bitterly disappointed after everything he had been through, Wilson turned to collecting other plants and stumbled across a clump of the Handkerchief trees by accident.

But it was still not straightforward. They were in flower and with the threat of the anti-foreigner Boxer rebellion brewing around him, he had to wait weeks for the seeds to develop. At long last he had them and was able to send them back to England. He went on to spend many years in China and became one of the best-known plant hunters of his generation. The biggest and baddest of them was Marianne North, who single-handedly documented plant species.

She simply painted what she saw with a scientific accuracy that would make her paintings vital botanical records. Painting was an acceptable pastime for the Victorian upper-class woman and so started the extraordinary life of Marianne, the eldest daughter of an English member of parliament.

Born in into a wealthy family she was not satisfied with the tame life of painting flowers in her garden. At the sprightly age of 40 she set off to travel the world alone and relished a rough and simple life.

In only 14 years, she documented plants with her immeasurable talent. This would have been impossible without her wealth, family connections and the fact that she never married.

She then moved on to Brazil where she bushwhacked through the Amazon for eight months to paint its as yet undiscovered flora. Over the next 13 years of travel her odyssey took her around the world twice over. Marianne North knew how to live, wherever she was in the world, her days would begin at dawn when she would take her tea outside to watch the morning unfold.

Rainy afternoons were spent painting indoors, while evenings were given over to exploring outdoors and returning home well after dark. Begin now by observing as much as you can of what nature teaches, and you will find a new happiness in life. With her health failing, probably as a result of the harsh conditions of her travels, North died at home in Gloucestershire in She was The Marianne North Gallery is also one of the most important collections of botanical art in the world.

Another famous Victorian plant hunter and colourful character was David Douglas. His namesake is one of his best-known introductions, the magnificent Douglas fir. He was known as an explorer and adventurer as well as a plant hunter. Reputedly he wrestled with grizzly bears and lived like the indigenous people in America. All very shocking behaviour for the times!