£9.00
9 in stock
Bugbane. An easily grown plant for cool moist shade, rewarding you with some of the last blooms of the year, later even than the purple leaved simplex varieties. The clean pure-white bottle-brush flower spikes are borne in late autumn on tall slender stems over foliage which is a fresh pale apple-green. Needs no staking and resists slug damage. 120cm
9 in stock
Bugbane. Actaea matsumerae ‘White Pearl’ (Cimicifuga) is an easily grown plant for cool moist shade, rewarding you with some of the last blooms of the year, later even than the purple leaved simplex varieties. The clean pure-white bottle-brush flower spikes are borne in late autumn on tall slender stems over foliage which is a fresh pale apple-green. Needs no staking and resists slug damage. 120cm
Actaea has now absorbed the Genus Cimicifuga, but I have retained the synonym to help those more familiar with the old name. The main difference that separates the two is the dry follicles of Cimicifuga and the fleshy berries in Actaea. They are easy going long-lived perennials for growing in moist shade. They flower form late Summer into Autumn at a time when flowers are getting scarce, they never need staking and they are just about pest free – the name Cimicifuga (‘cimex’ = bug, ‘fugere’ = drive away) and Bugbane deriving from this property. Russians use Cimicifuga europea (Cimicifuga foetida) as an insect repellent.
There are Cimicifugas present right across the Northern Temperate zone, but all are happy in the same moist leafy soil. The American species tend to be deeper rooting and a little more tolerant of drier conditions.
The flowers and dried seed heads of Cimicifuga are both good for flower arranging, but some find the smell of the flowers off-putting at close quarters.
Cimicifuga racemosa is known in North America as Black Snakeroot or Black Cohosh. Amongst Native Americans it is a much used herb and thought to have effect against the bite of a rattlesnake. They call it ‘Candle of the Woods’. North American settlers learnt this and used it extensively as a bed bug repellent in their mattress stuffings. The vernacular name of Cimiciguga dahurica, from Asia, is bug chaser dahurian, reinforcing the similar properties.
They are however moderately toxic and closely related to the Actaeas which are extremely toxic.
Actaea are members of the Buttercup Family, The Ranunculaceae
Actaea comes form the Greek ‘Aktea’ – The Elder Tree
