Last week saw the second of the series of Gather & Grow workshops that I have held in collaboration with Brigitte from Moss & Stone. I have started to prepare a post to the share photos from that day with you, but thought that tonight I would show you the huge statuesque arrangement of ammi majus that Brigitte made to welcome our guests.
This ammi self seeded in my Cutting Garden last autumn, survived the winter and is now standing at least 6 feet tall – perfect for cutting with very long stems.
The flower heads started to bloom only a week or so ago, so the long stems are full of a combination of lovely pure white flowers and pale green heads that have yet to open. As these plants are so tall I have been worrying that a heavy downpour or strong wind might knock them over, but the roots do seem very firmly in the ground and so far they have withstood the few storms we have had (including a short but heavy downpour on the day of the course!).
In Gather & Grow for Spring we filled this mason jar with newly emerging cow parsley, so it was lovely to create almost the same arrangement with a different flower a season later. Ammi is most often used as a filler in mixed arrangements, but I love to see it like this grabbing the limelight for itself. This arrangement was cut on Wednesday last week and photographed this morning, so you can see how well it is lasting.
Although this ammi self seeded, I also have a batch growing in the garden that was sown in the greenhouse in February and another batch that was sown in May that is ready to plant out. These later batches will not grow as tall – maybe half the height – but they will be just as pretty and useful to have in the garden. If you would like to have ammi in your garden next June I suggest ordering some seed now and direct sowing some in the garden in September and sowing a tray or two under cover in late September in case the direct sown seeds do not germinate or fail to make it through the colder months. Seed sown under cover should be pricked out into individual pots when the plants are a couple of inches tall and overwintered in a cold frame. The young plants can then be planted outside in mid to late March and should be in flower in June. Autumn direct sown or self seeded plants will be the tallest, strongest and earliest plants.
Although I didn’t actually make this arrangement they are flowers from my garden, so I hope that Cathy will forgive me for including them in a Monday post – do pop over to Cathy’s blog Rambling In The Garden to see what she and the others have found in their gardens this week.
I have almost finished the post about Gather & Grow so will share that later this week. In the meantime may I wish you all a happy gardening week!
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It is a lovely specimen all by itself. Umbels are great in the garden and wild field alike. We have cow parsley, golden Alexander and Queen Anne’s lace, which I like to use in arrangements.
Oh I hope that the workshops went well Julie and look forward to hearing more about them. The vase of frothy ammi majus is an absolute delight.
A statuesque arrangement indeed! What an amazing height those plants have reached, and interesting to read about the relative heights of self seeded and sown ammi. I haven’t grown it for a few years after deciding I preferred A visnaga better although my sowing of that failed this year – perhaps I will try both next year. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to hearing more about the course. Are the courses proving to be a worthwhile venture?
Good morning Julie,
Thank you so much for sharing the beauty of the ammi majus. 3 weeks ago I visited a beautiful garden. So many beautiful plants to see but this one stole my hart. In that garden it was a huge one. Surching on google I came on your beautiful blog. I am going to order seeds from it now. Thanks you so much again. I am gardening on fat clay so I think I have to do something about the soil first.
Have a wonderful day.
Flowergreatings Marijke
It’s very beautiful and I’m very impressed that it has self seeded. The green heads do look lovely with the white open ones and it’s so airy and delicate. Mine are just coming into flower and I have erected nets for them to grow through. That’s a first for me. Not exactly pretty but they are soon covering it. See my halo!
Simplicity is so elegant. I’m amazed by the height, mine don’t reach half that height, but I will sow in autumn next year.