Valerian, an herb mentioned by the ancient Greeks, is generally grown for the root part, but the Victorians knew that it smells amazing and used the flowers in their perfumes. These little, white flowers fill the entire garden with their fragrance! I know they’re blooming just by stepping out the back door. If you are in the US, make sure you clip them before the seeds form to prevent them spreading where you don’t want them, as they’re not a native plant.
They’re growing stronger on the vine! These little plants will stay on the vine until they grow tiny root buds, then I’ll place them in a glass of water to encourage roots for half a day. After that, I’ll plant them in their own pots and the spider plants will grow!
This lovely rose has survived the benign neglect my flowers receive, and has rewarded me with lowly, repeat blooms.
These roses will fall off rather than produce a rose hip, and while a self-dead-heading rose is really cool, I’ve taken the blooms at their peak to harvest their petals and dry them for tea.
I grew these from mustard seeds just as an experiment. I wanted to see if I could get them to grow. They did! I’ll harvest more mustard seeds from them, and then use those in my cooking.
I’m not certain if it’s a Christmas Cactus or an Easter Cactus, but I repotted a rogue branch of it which got confused and decided to bloom out of season. It’s a lovely hot pink!
I love perennial walking onions. Mine are purple. I traded for some a while back, then planted a couple of the ping pong-sized onion-lets, and cultivated them. It took a few years, but it paid off! I can harvest the tiny onion-lets for seasoning meals. They’ll be ready soon!
I have several of these growing. Hopefully they withstand the neighborhood cats rolling on them and grow big!
Unfortunately, my special zloty lan chamomile (from Baker Creek) which I sowed last year but magically grew over winter fell prey to the bugs infesting my area. I bought a packet of german chamomile and planted it to hopefully get some chamomile for tea this year. I drink so much chamomile tea. This round is looking much better!
I’ve said many times that Angelique tulips are my favorite variety of tulip. They have beautiful, delicate and frilly pink flowers that get more intense the longer they bloom. Their leaves are also interesting, having a white stripe along the outer edge.
These photos are a bit old now, but taking the photos allows me to enjoy my bouquet of tulips longer than they perfumed the kitchen. The cut flowers lasted a long time in the vase with regular stem trimming and water changing, and the spent ones were composted to make more flowers.
The three survivors also survived a bout of mold. Now, they are displaying new growth! It will be a long time before I can use it for cooking, but I am happy to see them stronger.
