Queen Anne's Lace

During May and June the English countryside effervesces with clouds of Queen Anne's lace; it's everywhere.

Such a wonderfully descriptive name!



 Hundreds of dainty flowers make up each flower head.

Without fail every year I tell myself I'd like to grow it in our garden. But its a prolific spreader and I know it would quickly take over. So each year I resist the temptation to scatter a few seeds.

Recently I found this magazine illustrating pretty pink varieties and of course had to buy it in order to read more. Needless to say I found temptation on every page.

For example.....imagine living in this country cottage fronted by a wild flower meadow awash with Queen Anne's lace. Wouldn't it be wonderful?

We'll never have our own wild flower meadow but do have a small patch of lawn that is left to grow a bit wild.

We have a sprawling sort of lawn that is fairly damp and gets cut throughout the season. About 15 years ago we discovered a couple of wild orchids growing there and they are slowly spreading. And so we now delay mowing the orchid area until they have died down in August. The longer grass on the right is where they grow and it is here that we have decided to create our 'little meadow'.

Here is one of the orchids, a 'heath spotted'.
 

In one of my garden books is this picture of a lovely 'managed' meadow that is part wild and part mown and that seems to me to be the perfect solution. A mown area for walking on and a pretty wild flower meadow area for bees and other insects to enjoy.

And so I have bought some seeds (English meadow mix) which I will scatter in the orchid area later in the season. Of course my little meadow won't look anything like the picture on the packet, nor will it resemble the beautifully managed meadow pictured in the book, but it will be fun to see what grows there and of course insects will love it. The seed mix doesn't contain any Queen Anne's lace which is perhaps just as well because it would probably take over.

I'll report back next year with a progress report!!

Until next time,
Eli

Comments

[Martha]

Wild Orchids?! Amazing!
My mother planted some Queen Anne's Lace one year and it was beautiful, but it never came back.
???
A mystery...

[Paula]

Dear Eli,

The Queen Anne's lace is so beautiful! I love your new magazine. I can see why it was so appealing.

Oh Eli, your garden is incredibly beautiful! I can imagine the hours of enjoyment you and your dear husband receive from it and all the love and hard work you have put into it as well.

The Wild Orchids are gorgeous! How wonderful to have discovered them growing in your garden! The 'managed meadow' is quite lovely and I know your meadow will be just as lovely! I look forward to seeing it next year!

Have a lovely weekend!
Love, Paula

[Carol (Wee Cute Treasures)]

Oh Eli, I had to laugh. What a beautiful name - Queen Anne's Lace. Here in Ireland we call this Cow Parsley!!! Not the same thing at all.

One of my friends decorated a large part of the rural church where she got married with this - because it is so pretty and also free! I wish we had known about its English name - rather than saying the church was decorated with Cow Parsley we could have boasted that it was adorned with Queen Anne's Lace.

LOVE your garden photos. Have a good weekend. Sheep still behaving well! Carol :) x

[Erin]

Oh I LOVE Queen Anne's lace! Oh that it would take over my yard. I'd love to see the pink but something tells me that there is something pretty special about the white! They look cool dead too!

http://fairiemoon.typepad.com/fairiemoon/2009/04/in-which-we-go-to-the-park-to-fly-a-kite.html

(Page down)

Erin :)

[Sharon Goemaere]

What a lovely blog you have!Your garden is amazing and I adore your knitted animals!So cute!Blessings from Oregon~Sharon

[clarice]

I love queen anne's lace, how beautiful. A meadow would be perfects. Clarice

[natalie jo]

I always learn so much from your blog writings and photos, and now from the comments as well.....Cow Parsley! Imagine that! To be honest I'm not sure which name I like better, but with either one it remains one of my all time favorites!

My love of flowers began while reading the numerous books by L.M. Montgomery. It was in one of her "Anne" stories where I first heard of Queen Anne's Lace more than twenty years ago. Try as I might I could never get it to take until we moved to our current home. We live right up the road from a small lake which has a beautiful field of Queen Anne's, albiet intermingled with a fair share of poison ivy! (not a good spot to pick from!) Finally two years ago a single rogue stem of it appeared amongst my lupines. It has multiplied somewhat since then but thanks to you I now know to keep it in check. I'm not sure, however, if I ever had axcess to the pink variety shown in your magazine if I'd be able to resist adding it in as well!

It's always a pleasure to visit here at Flutterby Patch!

Fondly, natalie jo

[Kate]

It grows everywhere here - and I do mean everywhere. I pull it out of my garden all the time. Maybe I should just let it take over, but then my neighbours would probably complain.

Kate from Canada