Honesty

It’s easy to see why Honesty is given the botanic name Lunaria annua, the papery, moonlike remnants of the seed pod shine silvery bright.

This plant has been given various names over its very long history of being commonly cultivated; Dollar plant and Money-in-the-pocket are just two. These too are easily explained by the shape of the remnants of their seed pod.

While mostly it has been given positive connotations in folklore, there are some negative ones too. This link is quite comprehensive: https://bugwomanlondon.com/2016/04/20/wednesday-weed-honesty/?amp

After flowering in Springtime, the long stems produce the seed heads which should be left to ‘ripen’ by becoming dry and brown if you want to harvest them for decorative purposes. If you’ve just enjoyed the flowers you can cut the stems down to avoid them self seeding (which they do quite readily).

If you do want the decorative seed heads they are easy enough to prepare by gently rubbing them and removing the two outer layers leaving the silvery centre.

Growing Honesty is very easy, they are very hardy and grow in most positions as long as they’re not allowed to get wet feet too often. Seeds can be sown over summer to flower in Spring. Flowers can be a lovely purple colour or white, as mine are.

Surprising to me is they are in the same family as the brassicas and as such, all parts are edible! I just love the seed heads and every year I harvest them for use in floral art.

The cold, wet, dreary days are well and truly over, the holiday season has turned out to be bright, sunny, and warm to hot. The late sunsets have also been great for me to get out into the garden and get it back under control. I’ve discovered the weed situation is worse than what I initially thought, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Dead heading roses and other perennials, watering, and keeping the lawns down are the major concerns at the moment, along with battling the flies in the daytime and the mozzies at night!

Til next time!