John
Shipton & Daughters, Y Felin, Henllan Amgoed, Whitland, Carmarthenshire ,
SA34 0SL
Tel: 01994 240125
WOOD SORREL
Oxalis
acetosella
Suran y Coed
A delightful dainty woodland plant, with delicate
white flowers in spring, and light green 'shamrock' leaves, that can be
eaten in salads as sorrel. It
needs shade, and to be free of
aggressive competition, so ideally planted
at the base of trees, or in clear patches on shady banks. Plant the
slender rhizomes about 1" deep in leaf mouldy soil.
Price
20/£8.50
PIGNUT
Conopodium majus
Cnau'r Ddaear
The tubers of what the Irish know as fairies potatoes
are well known to country children everywhere for they that are good to eat,
with a flavour and texture of hazelnuts.
Although caution should be used in Scotland, where over consumption
can apparently lead to hair lice. A member of the carrot family, its fine
leaves and white flowers grow in most open or shaded ground.
Price
10/£8.50
PENNYWORT
Umbilicus rupestris
Dail Ceiniog
Growing on moist banks
and walls, particularly here in Wales and the West it is easy to picture the
round, succulent "penny leaves" of the Welsh name being used for toy coins.
The plant, a well-known member of the Sedum family, grows from a
tuber rather similar to an inedible pignut
Price
5/£8.50
VALERIAN
Valeriana officinalis
Triaglog
The dormant crown of
Valerian has a remarkable pungent smell, making it easy to believe that it
is important in medicine, being used for stress relief and painkilling (not
recommended without full advice). It is also a striking plant 3' tall with
its umbels of white flowers and pinnate leaves.
It grows well in moist woodland, but also does well in open ground.
Price
5/£5.50
10/£9.50
MOSCHATEL
Adoxa moschatellina
Mysglys
To some a symbol of Christian watchfulness because the
five tiny white green flowers (April) face the four cardinal points and one
to heaven. A small plant with
fumitory like leaves growing in the shade of large leafed deciduous trees in
woods and banks where there is little competition it is interesting
botanically as the only species of its genus.
Price
10 rhizomes/£8.50
WOOD CRANESBILL
Geranium
sylvaticum Pig Aran y Goedwig
This is one of our native hardy geraniums, and in the
wild it ranges as far north as the Arctic.
It has violet purple flowers in June-July, the plant reaching 18" in
height. Developing a stout rhizome it is easy to establish in most
conditions, sun or shade.
Price
5/£7.50
MEADOW CRANESBILL
Geranium
pratense
Pig Aran y Weirglodd
A large flowered Cranesbill, well known on roadside
verges. Its bright blue flowers
add colour in June, while its foliage turns a rich foxy brown in autumn.
Price
5/£7.50
BLOODY CRANESBILL
Geranium
sanguineum Pig Aran Ryddgoch
Familiar
on limestone from the Yorkshire Dales to the Avon Gorge, and some seaside
dunes, this will do well on any dry bank in the sun.
The large flowers are not blood red but shining magenta pink.
Price
5/ £7.50
PRIMROSE Primula vulgaris Briallu
One of our
favourite spring flowers and one of the earliest. Some of ours begin
flowering in January continuing through to April and May.
It grows well in woodland, on hedge banks or in grass that is only
mown in late summer, in soil that does not dry out.
AGM
Price
5/£5.50 10/
£9.50
COWSLIP Primula veris Dagrau Mair
Nowadays this is
becoming a rare sight due to the widespread loss of traditional hay meadows.
The English name is a polite version of Cowslops, indicating that
they thrived in meadows where cows grazed.
The Welsh, translated, is the more poetic Mary’s Tears.
They prefer moist soil in either sun
or slight shade, and spreading happily in grass (mown in late summer).
Flowering April-May.
AGM
Price
5/£5.50
10/£9.50
OXLIP
Primula elatior
This is the true Oxlip not the coarser Cowslip/Primrose hybrid.
With clear primrose yellow flowers held in a gracefully drooping
cluster on one side of the stalk, this Primula thrives in light woodland and
relishes heavy clay, and although rare in the wild it will naturalise
easily.
AGM
Price
5/£5.50
10/£9.50
COLOMBINE
Aquilegia vulgaris
Blodau'r sipsi
This is also prosaically called Granny's bonnets, due
to the shape of its purple nodding flowers.
This is the beautiful wild species that sometimes thrives in our
hedgerows, and not an 'improved' modern cultivar. It prefers semi shade but
will grow in sun.
Price
5/£7.50
WILD STRAWBERRY
Fragaria
vesca
Sifi goch
This make an
excellent ground cover plant with shiny leaves, and dainty white flowers,
and produces delicious tiny fruit best eaten with lashings of cream, or set
in delicately flavoured jelly. Ideal for the hedge bank, it grows and can
spread in semi shade or full sun.
Price
5/£5.50
10/£9.50
RED CAMPION
Silene dioica
Blodyn Neidr
Known as snake's flower in Welsh for no clear reason, this has a long flowering season from spring through to summer,
and makes a stunning sight when growing with
Bluebells and Greater
Stitchwort. It flowers
freely, with male and female flowers on different plants, in all shades of
pink, in wood, hedge bank and meadow, and spreads in most soils.
Price
5/£5.50
10/£9.50
SWEET VIOLET
Viola odorata
Crinllys Aroglys
Grown for centuries for its glorious perfume - though
be warned, some people seem unable to smell it - it was considered to be a
flower of Aphrodite goddess of love!
Ours come in shades of violet to dark purple, sometimes white. Happy
in dappled shade.
Price
5/£7.50
COMMON DOG VIOLET
Viola riviniana
Gwiolydd Cyffredin
No-one seems to know the origin of the association with
dogs in the English name, but it may prosaically be its lack of scent to
humans at least. However, these violets are long flowering and make
excellent ground cover in light shade.
Price
5/£5.50
10/£9.50
SWEET WOODRUFF
Galium odoratum
Briwydden Ber
This little native with its
wiry creeping rhizomes and whorls of bright green leaves makes excellent
groundcover in shade. In early summer it is dotted with starry white
flowers. From medieval times the dried leaves with their scent of new-mown
hay were used to scent clothes. It thrives in any rich shaded soils that are
not too acid.
Price
5 Rhizomes/£5.50
10/£9.50
GREATER STITCHWORT Stellaria holostea
Serenllys mawr
Also called satin flower because of the shining quality
of its pure white flowers. This
is an invaluable plant for semi shade, and growing with
Bluebells and Red Campion,
it provides the perfect foil for those rich colours.
The name stitchwort is ancient and
refers to its use for curing sudden pains or stitches, believed to be caused
by elf arrows.
Price
5
Rhizomes/£5.50 10/£9.50
BUGLE
Ajuga reptans
Glesyn y Coed
Providing useful ground cover in sun or shade with its
glossy rounded dark green leaves, bugle is easy and undemanding.
It sends up spikes of blue flowers all summer, which contrast
delightfully with the dark stems and leaves.
The English name for this wound herb is obscure, but the Welsh
translates rather charmingly as something like Blue of the Woods
Price
5/£5.50
10/£9.50
Malva moschata alba
The equally attractive white flowered form of Musk mallow.
Price
5/£7.50
BETONY
Stachys officinalis
Cribau
San Ffraid A member of the
mint family this has rich red-purple heads of flowers from June through to
early autumn, and brightens hedgerows and woodland edges all over England
and Wales. Betony was much praised by
ancient and medieval herbalists. The Emperor Augustus’ physician used it as
a certain cure for 47 illnesses. Our age is somewhat more sceptical, but
Geoffrey Grigson does claim it makes a good imitation Chinese green tea.
Price 5/£7.50
FOX AND CUBS
Pilosella aurantiaca
With a running
rootstock which makes it more suitable as a meadow
ingredient than in a border, this charmingly named plant, naturalised in
Britain for many centuries, produces wonderful burnt-orange daisy flowers in
June. Although they prefer damp
meadow conditions, they cheerfully grow on the banks next to the chapel in
our village, making bright patches of colour.
Price
5/£5.50
10/£9.50
PASQUE FLOWER
Pulsatilla vulgaris
The common name of this beautiful native refers to its flowering time
at Easter. The rich purple flowers are offset by the silvery ferny foliage
which glistens with water droplets
after rain as the leaves are also furry.
The
flowers are followed by the feathery globes of the seed heads.
In the wild it is a plant of chalk
and limestone grassland, so in the garden it needs a place in the sun, with
good drainage.
AGM
Price £2.50 each
FIELD SCABIOUS
Knautia arvensis
Clafrllys
An essential meadow plant with its lilac pincushion flowers which are an
invaluable nectar source for butterflies in June. The name scabious refers
to its early use as a herbal remedy for various skin disorders including the
French pox.
Price
5/£7.50
GREATER KNAPWEED Centaurea
scabiosa
Pengaled Fawr
This is a most
attractive wildflower for naturalising in grass.
In July and August the plant is covered with showy purplish crimson
flowers that are usually smothered in butterflies and bees. After the
flowers have faded the seed heads are loved by goldfinches.
Price 5/£7.50
DAMES VIOLET
Hesperis matronalis
Introduced to Britain in the 14th Century, this has spread and gained
naturalised status. With its stock like flowers of pale lilac in summer,
this is a plant to enjoy especially in the evening when the gorgeous
fragrance is most pronounced, and the flowers seem to glow in the
half-light. Sweet Rocket, its
other name, will self sow and naturalise happily in poorer soils.
Price
5/£7.50
Hesperis matronalis
var albiflora
The white flowered form of Dames Violet is equally eye catching.
Price 5/£7.50
FOXGLOVE
Digitalis purpurea
Bysedd y Cwn
Tall and stately, with its hanging purple
spotted bells, this is a plant loved not only by bees but also fairies.
They were said to give the flowers to foxes to enable them to sneak
magically into hen houses and away with their spoils.
We have plenty of foxgloves and foxes and keep our hens securely
penned. A biennial plant that
will self seed freely.
Price
5/£5.50
10/£9.50
ELECAMPANE
Inula helenium
Marchalan
Since Anglo Saxon times and beyond
Elecampane with its yellow sunflowers
in summer above broad foliage, was
deeply revered as a magical plant as well extremely important medicinally.
Though a naturalised alien, one comes across stands in all kinds of
wild places, such as the coast of Pembrokeshire or the Scottish Islands
where it must have been for centuries if not millennia.
Price
5/£7.50
ASARABACCA
Asarum europaeum Carn Ebol y Gerrddi
Long believed
to be native, although rare in the wild, this relative of the mostly
tropical ginger family has been grown in gardens for centuries as ground
cover in woodland and as a remedy for drunkenness amongst other complaints.
It makes a slowly spreading mat of evergreen foliage, invaluable in autumn
and winter when the curious rounded leaves reflect the light.
Price
5/ £7.50
GREAT WOOD RUSH
Luzula sylvatica
Coedfrwynen Fawr Found in well drained areas of woods all over the British Isles.
With tussocks of glossy long narrow
leaves and thin stems of tiny chestnut-brown flowers, this makes a fine
feature in a woodland area.
Using stolons it spreads well, liking more acid conditions.
Price
5/ £7.50
STINKING IRIS Iris foetidissima
Iris Ddrewllyd
Also known as Gladdon or Gladwyn, this is one of the two native
British Irises. (The other being the well known Yellow Flag see below) The
Stinking refers to the pungency of the leaves when bruised.
Mauve flowers in summer are followed by brilliant scarlet seeds in
autumn. It enjoys a variety of
conditions being found in quite deep shade as well as open sites.
AGM
Price
Rhizomes
£2 each
5/£8.50