Just one seed of this angelica germinated out of a packet sown February 2024, and to be honest, one angelica is all I have room for, but a couple of backups for insurance would have taken off the pressure of losing it. I’ve read angelica seed needs to be sown as fresh as possible, so I should have sown it when purchased June 2023. After this bloom goes to seed, I’ll get a bunch more plants started by fall, hopefully, from its very fresh seed.
It’s a big biennial, easily 3′ across. What a looker! Snails weren’t interested, so it’s been a flawless study of finely cut compound leaves in moody purple. And enthralling to watch the flower sheath swell taut, growing as big as a fist the past several days until the crown of the lacy umbel broke through this morning. The ultimate height has been estimated to be as much as 6 feet. The flower will be lighter in color than the leaves. For a dark purple flower, Angelica gigas is what you want.
Biennials are a little tricky as far as timing, and unless they reseed for you, they can be one-off novelties. So remembering to sow biennials for next year now, in early summer, is the tricky part. Hesperis, lunaria, and Digitalis ferruginea are already established reseeders. I’m about to send off a seed order for a few more biennials including Verbascum phlomoides ‘Spica’ and some selections of Dianthus barbatus like ‘Sooty.’
I love the seed selection at Chilterns Seeds in the UK, which works if you obtain a Permit to Import Plants and Plant Products from the Dept. of Agriculture. My permit was issued in 2022 and is good until October 2025. Like everything else now, there’s uncertainty whether this permit will be honored and how easy it will be to obtain a new one. Getting this one online was a breeze, a matter of a few weeks until issuance — the old Talking Heads song “Don’t Worry About the Govt” comes to mind a lot these days (“Some civil servants are just like my loved ones…”)
A few more early July happenings.
It was an alternate from a local dahlia grower, but I keep it because it’s sturdy enough to deal with the fierce daily wind! Only just in the past few days of early July have the roaring afternoon winds failed to appear, and it was bliss working in the garden all day.
More soon, AGO
Angelica! I tried a plant from Annie’s once years ago but it didn’t care much for SoCal. Best wishes in getting hold of all the seeds you want. Happy sowing!
Love that dramatic Angelica. Ditto what Kris said. I had to laugh when you wrote that it could get 6′ tall! That’s fantastic. The Phlomis looks so soft, wonderful texture. I want to reach out and gently squish the Centaurea. *I’ve placed an order from Seeds of the World that requires the permit. Hopefully it’s as smooth of a process as you had.
@Kris, the order seems to have gone through, we’ll see how it does entering the U.S…
@Tracy, good luck with the permit. I’ve become a phlomis fanatic lately. Very few of them have bloomed, they might be too young, but that doesn’t stop the enthusiasm.
Be careful with the Centauria. Gorgeous especially the remaining gold cups after the petals fly. Unfortunately, it does love to reseed everywhere. It’s been declared a noxious week in Alberta. Interesting you need a permit to bring in seed from Chilterns. Is this something new?
@Elaine, I’ll keep an eye on the basket flower, thanks. In this small fenced town garden it should be ok, unless I read that birds are spreading it and that doesn’t seem to be the case, just “passing animals.” I used to order UK seeds all the time, from Derry Watkins and others, but was required to get a permit when I attempted to order in 2022. You can do a quick google under the U.S. Lacey Act, which has been recently amended to include seeds. The Act was designed to prevent illegal trade in animals and plants.
Yes, I used to order from Chilterns for many years, but stopped when I moved to Oregon because of the amazing selection of plants that our nurseries offer compared to other parts of the country. The permit thing is news, but it does make sense. That Centaurea macrocephala is a beauty – I’ve been inconsistently and half-heartedly looking for it in our local nurseries and haven’t found it – just too focused on other plants this year and have a backlog waiting to be planted this fall when the rains resume.