£3.75
Out of stock
Lesser Celandine. Perfect heart-shaped shiny black leaves that show through green patches if you hold them up to the light. They are a perfect backing for the big, bold, blunt ended glossy celandine flowers that shine out so brightly in the cold late Winter. She is not called Brazen Hussy for nothing, but like her namesake she has plenty of brash charm to spare. Found by Christopher Lloyd’s mother whilst out on a walk in the woods one day.
Out of stock
Lesser Celandine. Perfect heart-shaped shiny black leaves that show through green patches if you hold them up to the light. They are a perfect backing for the big, bold, blunt ended glossy celandine flowers that shine out so brightly in the cold late Winter. She is not called Ficaria verna ‘Brazen Hussy’ (Ranunculus ficaria) for nothing, but like her namesake she has plenty of brash charm to spare. Found by Christopher Lloyd’s mother whilst out on a walk in the woods one day.
Wonderful ephemeral magic carpets for the Spring garden, slipping into dormancy by May. The double forms set little seed, but care should be taken to avoid digging through colonies in the dormant season as division of dormant crowns is a very effective means of vegetative propagation.
The raw leaves of Lesser celandine can be quite toxic if ingested, containing the toxin protoanemonin the same toxin as found in the baneberries. As such its planting in North America is prohibited on account of the possible effects on livestock. They are little trouble in the garden, only becoming so when people take the fresh leaves as a herbal remedy. Herbalists have long prescribed them as a cure for hemorrhoids – the common name is pilewort – on account of the supposed resemblance of the roots to piles. (It’s the old doctrine of signatures again). The use of any of the plant undried is not to be recommended.
They have along association with literature, Wordsworth having written poetry to them more than once.
