You ought to grow Honesty partly for its fragrant bright purple or white flowers in spring and early summer, but also for its unique papery seed-heads, oval and translucent, gleaming with an eerie silver light in the autumn & winter sun. Hardy Biennial
Price for 50 seeds
Flowers April to June with seed pods forming and remaining over the winter.
Height up to 100cm
Biennial
SOW: in the open in August or in pots in September & November, cover the seeds lightly. Place the pots in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse. The natural cold over the winter will trigger the seeds to germinate in the spring.
GROW: plant out when large enough to handle. Some will flower that year; the rest will flower the following year. Plants that flower will die at the end of that season.
USES:
WILDLIFE
- The lovely Orange Tip butterfly – plant is food for its caterpillars – visited by other butterflies and moths
- Bees visit for the nectar and pick up pollen, attracts other beneficial insects too
- Seed pods are a winter food source for birds who then spread the seeds!
- Included by the RHS in their pollinators plant list
CUTTING
- The very decorative seed heads can be cut them for a display indoors
EDIBLE
- Flowers can be scattered on salads and eaten
HISTORICAL
- The seed heads were used as mini canvases for intricate paintings in the Victorian era
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