June: Flowers in the Physic Garden

Herbs are ornamental too! Below is a visual list of the herbs that were in flower in our Suffolk physic garden on the 1st June 2020. This is an exciting month, as herbaceous perennials and many annual seedlings seem to leap into life, and put on extraordinary amounts of growth by the day. I love the clash of vivid colours, and the diversity of textures that a herb garden brings. Edible flowers such as Heartsease, Chive, Borage and Calendula bring joyous colour to salad dishes, whilst the ethereal quality of the emerging Californian poppy petals against structural spires of Wild clary never fail to catch the eye, reminding me of the importance of herbal plants within any garden, regardless of their medicinal potentials. I am particularly excited to harvest my first batch of homegrown elderflowers this year, from a Sambucus seedling that brought itself happily into my little herbal collection, apparently keen to join in! Cordials and wines are traditional summer treat, all the more rewarding when homemade and hand-collected.