I love to see the frothy white blooms of this dark leaved variety of the wild cow parsley. They sway and swoon in the breeze, one metre high, forming a layer like a billowing cloud below the mountain tops of larger shrubs, shadowing the lower growth of late summer perennials.
When they finish flowering in a few weeks their seed heads continue to provide this textural layer, until late summer when I cut them down. By then, late summer blooms of Actea simplex ‘Brunette’ are about to emerge.
In winter they die back into the ground, to re-emerge in Spring, along with hundreds of seedlings, the next generation attempting to colonize bare earth patches.
I grab away handfuls of the small seedlings, leaving only a few to provide the early summer floral display. It usually requires a second weeding in early April to remove more seedlings and cull any green leaves plants.
It is a bit of work, but totally worth it, to see the wonderful airy display of blooms in late Spring and early summer.
Ciaran The Gardener 