Horticultural highlight of the week (2014 week 12) - Honesty (Lunaria annua)

The silvery seed pods of honesty remind me of secondary school art lessons - still life drawing in particular. Drape a cloth over some boxes on a table, add one violin, a sheeps skull, some other random objects 'acquired' from the biology room and garnish with some dead stems of honesty. Also known as 'silver dollar' the seed pods are silvery and papery, you probably know them even if you can't put that name to them.

Much as I loved still life drawing, I now prefer honesty flowers and they are now one of the earliest splashes of colour in the garden. They are incredibly good at self-seeding - they now exist in all the places where I didn't originally plant them (including growing out of cracks between the house and paving. If you get enough of them they create an amazing purple mist that attracts bees and butterflies.

Honesty (lunaria annua)

Honesty (Lunaria annua) - self-seeded in a dry patch by the greenhouse

They can start to look a bit scraggy one the flowering is over - which is a matter of weeks. It takes some time for the seed pods to mature - so there's a long period where they don't look their best.

I grew mine from seed, bought from Thompson & Morgan. They are perennial, and don't flower in the first year but they are super-easy to grow and once you have them, you've got them for life.

And here's the gratuitous close-up (of course taken with my squidcam macro lens)...

Honesty (lunaria annua) - close up taken with squidcam macro lens