I was only introduced to the Astrantia a couple of years ago. I won this plant in the raffle at our local Gardening Club and knew very little about it. Members advised me that it was a cottage garden plant and that it would like light shade. I planted it carefully and waited. It grew very well and expanded well beyond its space so last autumn, I lifted the clump, split it and spread it around the garden.
It seems to do well in both sunshine and light shade. It is a pretty, understated flower but I don’t know the name of the variety. I have since been told that people have difficulty growing this plant from seed and yet it can seed itself around a garden. However, it does have one downside. I was down on my knees weeding (my foot is still a problem) and there was an awful smell. With a little investigation and suspecting that cats were the culprit, I discovered the source of the odour was actually the Astrantia! Still, it hasn’t put me off. I am planning to buy a pink or lilac one too.
This Vibernum or ‘snowball’ tree is a popular feature at Springfield – when it is in flower. For the rest of the year it looks uninspiring but is a healthy, old established shrub which has now grown into a medium sized tree. It does tolerate hard pruning but it did suffer last winter. The flowering has been relatively poor this year but in previous years it has been one huge snowball made up of lots of snowballs! The flowers are supposed to have a nice scent but like the Astrantia, I find them rather unpleasant. However, we like having this tree in the garden and try to make a point of admiring it when it is in flower. This photo was taken the week and it was just finishing flowering and interestingly, the final flowers were all on the same part of the tree.
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