There are some plants that are really great performers in the garden that you can sow now in June for the best ever display next summer. These plants are called biennials, unlike the annuals that flower the same year they are sown, biennials flower the year after. But what that means is that your seedlings get a chance to establish and thrive so that they grow into bigger and better flowering plants next summer. Here are five great biennials to grow from seed.
Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
It doesn’t matter what style of garden you have; spires of foxglove flowers add a truly spectacular layer to the garden. Either mid border or even along the garden paths and boundaries, these fabulous biennials actually seed themselves for you, once you’ve got them established. And they are a magnet for the huge Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) that works the flowers from the bottom to the top pollinating them as she goes. Choose the purple pink spires or the striking white rockets for dramatic border presence.
Viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare)
If you want to support pollinators of all sorts, grow this fabulous biennial. It’s native, hardy and has the most beautiful azure blue flowers from June to September. The flowers are ridiculously rich in nectar making this plant an all-day nectar bar for butterflies, bees, hoverflies and other pollinators. It self-seeds readily once established and will grow in sunny impoverished soil as well as the garden border.
Korean Angelica (Angelica gigas)
Most of the flat umbrella like flowers (previously called umbellifers and now part of the apiaceae family) are biennials. Many of the herbs in this family such as fennel, dill, parsley, lovage and chervil are biennials too. But it is the magnificent angelica plant that makes a very bold statement in a herb garden or border, especially the red/purple tinged Angelica gigas. It is grown as a biennial but is sometimes a short-lived perennial. The spectacular leaves, stems, flowers and seed heads are not only good looking but can also be used to reduce acidity when cooking rhubarb and gooseberries. The flowers make interesting cut flowers, pollinators love the flowers and birds eat the seeds.
Honesty (Lunaria annua)
As a child, I used to love the papery, moon shaped (hence its name) seedheads of the honesty plant, I still do. But since then, I’ve discovered the most fabulous form of this amazingly easy to grow plant called Lunaria ‘Chedglow’, not only are the flowers a bright magenta purple, but the foliage is almost purple black. It’s easy to grow from seed and is a biennial too. The flowers are rich in nectar and a magnet for adult pollinators looking for energy rich nectar to sustain their activity. Then after flowering the seedheads adorn the winter garden, glistening in the pure winter sun.
Wild Carrot (Daucus carota)
We don’t really think about carrots being biennial, because we normally dig their roots after the first season of growth, discarding the top growth and starting again each year. But what if you leave a few carrots to grow instead of eating the roots, or indeed grow some carrot tops. Well …. I’ll let you into a secret. They flower and it’s an attractive flower too, a lacy landing pad of pretty white flowers that are just lovely in a floral arrangement or posy and look beautiful in the garden too. So, if there are a few straggly carrot plants or even a crop that has been decimated by the carrot root fly, try leaving them in the ground to flower.
