{"title":"Seeds \u0026 Bulbs","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"anchusa-blue-angel","title":"Anchusa Blue Angel","description":"\u003cp\u003eReal blue is the rarest colour in a garden. Most of what gets sold as blue is violet, lavender or purple-blue. 'Blue Angel' is an actual saturated ultramarine, carried in airy sprays of forget-me-not flowers above a tidy 30 to 45cm mound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt comes from the South African Cape and it behaves like it. Lean, dry, free-draining ground in full sun gives the best plants and the strongest colour; rich moist soil gives soft growth and washed-out flowers. It is one of the few annuals that genuinely prefers the hot dry awkward corner nobody knows what to do with.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe one thing it will not forgive is being left to set seed. After the first flush it decides its job is done and stops, sometimes by the end of July. Keep the old flowers picked off and it will run from June to the first frosts instead. The foliage is bristly and not much to look at, so it sits better in the middle of a planting than on show at the front. Bees, hoverflies and butterflies work it constantly.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195295261005,"sku":"ANC-BLU","price":2.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Anchusa_Blue_Angel_1.jpg?v=1775753613"},{"product_id":"delphinium-pacific-giant-summer-skies","title":"Delphinium Pacific Giant Summer Skies","description":"\u003cp\u003eSix-foot spikes packed with clear azure flowers, each with a small white eye at the centre that growers call the bee. It is the plant most people picture when they picture an English cottage border, and the Pacific Giant series was bred in 1930s California precisely to out-do the older European delphiniums for height and flower size.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnderstand what you are taking on. From seed, year one is establishment and the flowering is modest; the real display arrives in year two and improves after that. \u003cstrong\u003eAt 1.8m it must be staked, and the stakes go in early in spring.\u003c\/strong\u003e By the time a spike is tall enough to look as though it needs support, the stem is too brittle to tie in without snapping it. Cut back hard after the June and July flush and you will often get a second, shorter flush in late summer. Slugs are the other enemy and they go for the new growth in spring, before there is anything to admire, so protect the crowns as they break.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery part of a delphinium is toxic if eaten. Wear gloves to handle it and keep it well away from grazing animals.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195295392077,"sku":"DEL-SSS","price":3.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_9idbze9idbze9idb.png?v=1771669447"},{"product_id":"echinops-ritro-veitchs-blue","title":"Echinops ritro Veitch's Blue","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe selected form of the globe thistle, and the one carrying an RHS Award of Garden Merit. Deeper globes in a genuine indigo rather than steel-blue, larger heads, and a more compact habit than the straight species.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhether the extra depth of colour matters depends on what you want it for. In a border, at a distance, the difference between this and 'Metallic Blue' is modest. In a vase, and particularly dried, it is obvious: the indigo reads as a solid colour where the paler form can look grey. If you are growing globe thistle mainly for cutting and drying, this is the one to take.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEverything else is as for the family. Rigid self-supporting stems at 90 to 120cm, thriving on poor dry sun-baked ground and sulking on anything rich or wet, hardy well below anything Britain produces, and mobbed by bumblebees for the whole of its flowering. It takes two or three seasons from seed to make a full clump.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLike all globe thistles, the leaves and heads are sharply prickled. Wear gloves.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195295457613,"sku":"ECH-VEB","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/E4EB39E1-F32A-4ED7-8019-B6DED907AC08.jpg?v=1768592225"},{"product_id":"corncockle-bianca-agrostemma-githago","title":"Corncockle Bianca","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe pure white form of Britain's lost cornfield flower. Large silky trumpets on slender silver-grey stems, weaving up through whatever grows beside them and swaying in the slightest breeze.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe white has a luminous quality in low light that the magenta species does not, which makes 'Bianca' the one for a moon garden, an all-white border, or a seat you use in the evening. It self-seeds reliably and the offspring stay white if kept away from coloured corncockle.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery part of this plant is poisonous if eaten, particularly the seed.\u003c\/strong\u003e That is worth knowing before you plant it somewhere children forage. Wear gloves when handling, and site it accordingly. Like most of its relatives it has a sensitive taproot and does best sown direct on poor, well-drained ground.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195295523149,"sku":"CRN-BIA","price":2.35,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/2048800e99dda128976c41e_upscale.jpg?v=1768592226"},{"product_id":"hesperis-matronalis-purple-sweet-rocket","title":"Hesperis Purple (Sweet Rocket)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe classic violet-purple sweet rocket, the form that has been filling English cottage gardens with evening scent for centuries. Loose clusters of four-petalled flowers on branching stems at 75 to 90cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is worth understanding what it is for. As a daytime plant it is unremarkable and slightly coarse. As an evening plant it is one of the best things there is; the fragrance of violets and cloves comes up as the air cools and carries a surprising distance. If you have a seat you use after supper, put this behind it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBiennial, so a rosette in year one and flowers in May and June of year two, then it dies having seeded generously. It will hold a colony indefinitely without further help, and it will also wander, so pull the seedlings you do not want.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a brassica, and that matters twice over. The orange tip butterfly lays on the flower buds and seed pods and its caterpillars feed there, so leave some standing rather than tidying it all away. And it gets mildew and flea beetle like any other brassica, particularly in a dry summer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195295654221,"sku":"HSP-PRP","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/B138F5F6-664C-40BF-8F88-2A84644FDB88_7a1e8ad6-30ae-4834-a15a-00f4e7bfaed5.jpg?v=1772916002"},{"product_id":"verbena-bonariensis","title":"Verbena bonariensis","description":"\u003cp\u003eTall wiry stems at 1.2 to 1.5m carrying tight clusters of small electric-purple flowers, and the stems are so thin and so sparsely leafed that you can plant it at the front of a border and still see everything behind it. That see-through quality is why designers use it constantly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor butterflies it is one of the two or three most important plants in a late-summer British garden. The flat flower heads make a landing platform, and it goes on from midsummer to the frosts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a short-lived perennial and a hard winter will kill it, particularly on heavy wet ground. What saves it is prolific self-seeding: dozens of seedlings appear in spring and replace the parents without your doing anything. That is also the honest warning, because in a garden it likes it will come up everywhere, in gravel, in paving, in the middle of other plants. Pull what you do not want while it is small. Leave the dried stems standing over winter for structure, and cut back in spring once the new growth shows.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195295949133,"sku":"VER-BON","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/20488008b0a38e64a3e0a52_upscale_1a1917b7-aad3-421f-8395-a20d262ecae4.jpg?v=1773497390"},{"product_id":"wallflower-cloth-of-gold","title":"Wallflower Cloth of Gold","description":"\u003cp\u003eDense spikes of small four-petalled flowers in a rich deep golden-yellow over compact mounds of dark green leaves, in March, April and May.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe scent is the point. It is a heavy honey, clove and spice perfume that hangs in still spring air, and on a warm March day it carries a surprising distance. Put it beside a path or a doorway rather than at the back of a border. It matters ecologically too: wallflowers are among the first substantial nectar sources of the year, at exactly the moment queen bumblebees come out of hibernation with nothing else to feed on.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is a biennial, so it needs sowing in summer for flowers the following spring, and nothing happens in year one.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sow a short row every year and there is always a crop coming.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWallflowers contain cardenolides, related to the compounds in foxgloves. All parts are toxic if eaten, so keep them from children and pets, and wear gloves if your skin is sensitive.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195295981901,"sku":"WAL-COG","price":2.05,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/2048800ccce4e8d0317d1c7_upscale.jpg?v=1768592229"},{"product_id":"wallflower-fire-king","title":"Wallflower Fire King","description":"\u003cp\u003eDense spikes in a vibrant deep fiery orange, and the strongest warm colour available in a spring garden. Very little else flowering in March and April can match it for intensity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe scent is the classic wallflower perfume, honey and clove and spice, and it is heavier on a warm still day than most spring flowers manage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOrange this strong needs handling. It is superb under near-black tulips, where the contrast is about as sharp as spring planting gets, and it works with cream and pale yellow for warm tonal layering. Put it next to pink and it fights. Compact and bushy at 30 to 40cm, flowering March through May.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is a biennial, so it wants sowing in summer for flowers the following spring.\u003c\/strong\u003e There is nothing to look at in the first year but a rosette of leaves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAll parts are poisonous if eaten, so keep it away from children and pets and wear gloves when handling it.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296080205,"sku":"WAL-FRK","price":2.05,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/2048800f0d044b737b1a746_upscale.jpg?v=1768592230"},{"product_id":"foxglove-alba-white","title":"Foxglove Alba White","description":"\u003cp\u003eSpires of pure white bells at 1.2 to 1.5m, faintly cream-speckled inside the throats. The pale colour gathers what light is left at dusk, which is why white foxgloves turn up in every evening border and moon garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a biennial. Leaves in year one, the display in year two, then it dies, having dropped enough seed to start the next colony. Left alone it wanders round a garden, coming up where it fancies rather than where you put it, which is most of the charm. Long-tongued bumblebees have co-evolved with that bell shape and work it obsessively.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne caution about the white: it does not stay white in a mixed population. Cross-pollinated by ordinary purple foxgloves nearby, seedlings revert to purple within a generation or two. Pull anything that comes up coloured if you want to keep an all-white drift.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery part of a foxglove is highly toxic and eating any of it can be fatal. Wear gloves to handle the plants, keep the seed packet away from small children, and do not plant it where pets or grazing animals can reach it.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296112973,"sku":"DIG-AWH","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/FullSizeRender_f4d86170-f8c6-408a-9535-9a6d26ed5779.jpg?v=1768592229"},{"product_id":"sweet-william-auricula-eyed-mixed","title":"Sweet William Auricula Eyed Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eDense flat-topped clusters of small florets in crimson, purple and pink, each one marked with a contrasting pale eye at the centre, after the elaborate eye markings of a Victorian auricula. On sturdy stems at 45 to 60cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe scent is the reason they have been grown in Britain since the 1500s. It is a rich clove perfume, and one small bunch will scent a room. In the vase they hold ten days to a fortnight, which is exceptional. They also fill an awkward gap: the spring biennials are finishing, wallflowers and forget-me-nots, and the summer annuals have not started, and this is what covers late May and June.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is a biennial, so nothing happens the first year.\u003c\/strong\u003e Leaves and a strong green rosette, then the display the following spring, then it sets seed and dies. Sow a short row every year and there is always a crop coming. It self-seeds freely once established, so a colony keeps itself going. The petals are edible, with a mild clove flavour.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296145741,"sku":"SWW-AUR","price":2.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/204880097561c2322302a8d_upscale_5e822574-b9ea-41ed-9039-5c0ae48bcdef.jpg?v=1780812798"},{"product_id":"viola-cornuta-large-flower-mix","title":"Viola Cornuta Large Flower Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eLarge pansy-like flowers in blues, purples, yellows, whites, oranges and bicolours, with the usual face markings, on neat mounds at 15 to 20cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe reason to choose Viola cornuta over an ordinary pansy is hardiness. Standard bedding pansies collapse in a cold wet British winter. This species is genuinely hardy enough to overwinter outdoors in most gardens, and it flowers from October through to April or May, sometimes right through a mild winter without stopping.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat makes it the workhorse of the cool months: for a window box or container that would otherwise sit empty from November, and for underplanting spring bulbs, where it carries the colour at ground level while the tulips come up through it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe one thing it needs is deadheading. Let it set seed and it decides its job is done and goes over quickly; keep the spent flowers picked off and it runs for months. The flowers are edible with a mild sweet flavour and are excellent on a cake.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296244045,"sku":"VIO-COR","price":2.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/2048800864ec3a41f7fcf7b_upscale.jpg?v=1768592230"},{"product_id":"wallflower-ivory-white","title":"Wallflower Ivory White","description":"\u003cp\u003eDense spikes of creamy white flowers over dark green foliage, closer to a miniature stock in appearance than to the fiery wallflowers most people picture. The colour is warm cream rather than cold white, which is why it glows rather than glares as the light fails on a spring evening.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe scent is different too. Where the gold and orange varieties are all clove and spice, this leans sweeter, honey and primrose, and it lingers in cool spring air.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIts practical use is lighting dark corners. Pale flowers reflect what light there is, so a group of these under a wall or a tree brightens a spot where most spring plants simply disappear. It is also one of the earliest substantial nectar sources of the year, which matters to queen bumblebees emerging from hibernation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is a biennial: sow in late spring or summer, grow the rosette through winter, flower it the following March to May. Nothing happens in year one. And all parts are poisonous if eaten.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296276813,"sku":"WAL-IVY","price":2.05,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/42D4030B-7746-4F78-9E94-6E16022775B1_d1d7f4e4-a755-4485-86d0-f9227989329d.jpg?v=1773497624"},{"product_id":"echinacea-purple-coneflower","title":"Echinacea Purple Coneflower","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe species, and the plant every named coneflower was bred from. Magenta-pink ray petals sweeping downwards from a prominent coppery-orange cone, at 80 to 100cm, flowering July through September.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe drooping petals are not a fault. That reflexed, swept-back shape is what the wild prairie plant does, and in a naturalistic or prairie-style planting it looks right in a way the flat-faced cultivars do not. It is a question of which effect you are after rather than which is better.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhere the species genuinely beats the named sorts is fertility. Many modern echinacea cultivars set little or no viable seed and a good few are sterile. This one self-seeds freely, so if you leave the cones standing through winter you will get volunteers, and over five or six years a single sowing turns into a self-renewing colony that flowers bigger every year and costs nothing further. The winter cones feed goldfinches too. Like all echinacea it emerges late in spring, so mark where it is before you plant over it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296342349,"sku":"ECH-PRP","price":2.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/42BC08A3-BC94-45E9-BD67-18D93D2414AF_bc9a9483-8879-446a-9f1e-c830ddb70d67.jpg?v=1772915290"},{"product_id":"cleome-cherry-queen","title":"Cleome Cherry Queen","description":"\u003cp\u003eGlobes of carmine-rose trumpets on 1.2m stems, each flower throwing stamens up to 10cm beyond the petals in a spiralling cluster that does genuinely look like a spider at rest. It is theatrical in a way very few annuals manage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIts real value is timing. August is when a border goes flat, the spring rush over and the autumn flowers not yet started, and cleome fills exactly that gap and runs on to the frosts. It works two shifts as well: bumblebees by day, and moths in the evening, when it gives off a sweet scent that makes it one of the better moth plants you can grow here.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo practical points. The lower stems go bare as the plant gains height, so put something bushy in front of its legs. And \u003cstrong\u003ethere are small sharp spines at the base of every leaf, much like rose thorns, so wear gloves when you cut or deadhead it.\u003c\/strong\u003e Those same spines make it thoroughly rabbit- and deer-proof. It is half-hardy and slow to start, wanting real warmth to germinate, so it is not a plant to rush out in a cold spring.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296407885,"sku":"CLE-PNK","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/FullSizeRender_7c086e78-6158-4717-8997-9c90de5db89f.jpg?v=1768592230"},{"product_id":"sweet-william-indian-carpet-mixed","title":"Sweet William Indian Carpet Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe dwarf form, at 15 to 25cm instead of 45 to 60, and bushy with it. Same dense bicolour clusters and the same clove scent, on a plant small enough for the front of a border, a rockery, a path edge or a window box.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bicolours in this strain are particularly vivid: red with white eyes, pink with crimson blotches, rose with pale centres, deep maroon edged in white. Nothing else easy to grow gives quite that palette of tightly packed two-tone clusters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe trade-off is on the stem. At this height it is not a cutting flower; you get the scent by walking past it rather than by having it in a jug. If you want sweet william for the vase, grow the tall one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is a biennial, so the first year is leaves only and the flowering comes the second spring.\u003c\/strong\u003e Sow a short row each year to keep it coming. It self-seeds reliably once you have it, and the dwarf habit largely holds in the offspring.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296440653,"sku":"SWW-IND","price":2.15,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/20488002b0b77b0b4e8da17_upscale.jpg?v=1768592229"},{"product_id":"aster-ostrich-plume","title":"Aster Ostrich Plume","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn heirloom China aster grown for well over a century, with long narrow petals that curl and twist outward in every direction to make a shaggy, feathered head. It looks like an expensive florist chrysanthemum and is a great deal easier to grow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe mix runs through shell pink, lavender, deep violet and crimson to white, on stems of 50 to 60cm. It is softer and less formal than the modern peony-flowered strains. Where those give you a tight rounded ball, this gives you something loose and slightly dishevelled, which suits a rustic arrangement far better than a wedding one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt flowers from August to October, half-hardy and sown fresh each spring, and holds up to a fortnight in a cool room. The usual China aster cautions apply. Being an older open strain rather than a modern F1, the plants are less uniform, so expect some variation in height and flowering date across a row. And aster wilt is the thing that will lose you a crop, so rotate the bed and do not grow them in the same ground two years running.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296637261,"sku":"AST-OST","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Aster_Ostrich_Plume_1.jpg?v=1775774526"},{"product_id":"basil-holy-thai","title":"Basil Holy Thai","description":"\u003cp\u003eNot the Thai basil sold in supermarkets — this is the genuine article. Holy Basil, Tulsi across South Asia and Kaprao in Thailand, is a different species with hairy stems, serrated leaves and an intensely peppery, clove-forward flavour quite unlike the sweet anise of Italian basil.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe heat comes from eugenol, the compound that gives cloves their warmth, and it intensifies rather than fades when cooked. That is exactly why it goes into a sizzling wok at the last moment for Pad Kra Pao rather than being stirred raw into a salad.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt carries real cultural weight too. In Hindu tradition Tulsi is the queen of herbs, grown at the heart of the home and tended as an act of devotion, and brewed as tea across South Asia for thousands of years. Being genuinely tropical, it wants more warmth and humidity than Italian basil — a greenhouse, a conservatory, or the sunniest windowsill you have.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296571725,"sku":"BSL-THA","price":2.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Basil_Holy_Thai_1.png?v=1775776337"},{"product_id":"calendula-art-shades-mixed","title":"Calendula Art Shades Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eMost pot marigolds are a flat carnival orange. Art Shades is deliberately softer: apricot, cream, pale peach and warm buff, on bushy plants at 60cm flowering from June to the first hard frosts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe mix gives you a range of flower forms as well as colours, from fully double through semi-double to plain single. That is worth knowing before you sow, because the singles are the ones the bees can actually use. A fully double calendula has petals where the nectar should be. A row of Art Shades will feed pollinators, but not as well as a row of singles would.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeing a mix, it also throws the occasional plain bright orange, and the more it self-seeds around your garden the more of those you will get. The soft shades are the selected end of a species that wants to be orange, and left alone it drifts back. Save seed only from the palest plants if you want to hold the palette. The petals are edible and it is one of the easiest things a beginner can grow.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296604493,"sku":"CAL-ASM","price":2.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/20488008f889f915f5f35f1_upscale.jpg?v=1768592231"},{"product_id":"cornflower-black-ball","title":"Cornflower Black Ball","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt is not black. It is a deep velvet maroon-chocolate, the colour of crushed blackberries, and only at a distance does it pass for black. Close up there is plum and burgundy in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat distance effect is worth thinking about before you plant a row. Very dark flowers absorb light and read as gaps rather than colour from more than a few paces, so a block of 'Black Ball' on its own tends to disappear into a border. It is at its best with something pale hard against it: white ammi, cream cosmos, lime bupleurum. The same rule applies in a vase, where the contrast is what makes the arrangement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe blooms are dense double Ball types, far more substantial than a wild cornflower, on silvery stems that cut well. It is the one to grow if the ordinary cobalt blue feels too obvious. Sow it in September rather than spring if the ground is workable. Autumn-sown cornflowers build a root system over winter and come up markedly bigger and more branched the following summer than anything sown in March.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296702797,"sku":"CRN-BLK","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/FullSizeRender_c3dba413-4e0d-4522-a4d5-6bd79505c25d.jpg?v=1768592230"},{"product_id":"clary-sage-oxford-blue","title":"Clary Sage Oxford Blue","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe single-colour selection from the annual clary family, and the soloist to the mixed varieties' carnival. Spikes of 60 to 75cm topped with deep, almost violet indigo bracts that look as though they have been varnished.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe colour lasts because it is not petal pigment at all — it is held in the bracts, which is why it survives summer rain, hot sun and eventually the vase far better than a true flower would. Weeks of display from one flush.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is nothing as useful as a saturated indigo for making warm-toned arrangements sing, and it dries exceptionally well provided you keep it out of direct sunlight, since UV degrades blue dried-flower pigments faster than any other colour. Pinch the growing tip at ten centimetres for more cutting stems.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296735565,"sku":"CLR-SAG","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/2AFDD0B3-A632-495E-A1A2-72A6CDE00C99.jpg?v=1772659271"},{"product_id":"chamomile","title":"Chamomile German","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe earth-apple herb, and if you grow one thing for the tea cupboard this is probably it. Small white daisies with high golden centres on slim ferny stems, and the sweet apple fragrance that gave chamomile its Greek name. One small patch produces more dried flowers in a summer than most households drink in a year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the chamomile of chamomile tea worldwide — the most drunk herbal infusion on earth. There is a particular pleasure in a cup made from flowers you picked and dried yourself that no teabag matches.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is also one of the most useful companion plants in a kitchen garden, sometimes called the plants' physician for the way it seems to improve the health of brassicas, onions and cucumbers growing nearby. Do not feed it — like most herbs it gives its best scent on lean ground.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296768333,"sku":"CHA-MIL","price":2.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_g4pi3pg4pi3pg4pi.png?v=1771613033"},{"product_id":"calendula-wintersun","title":"Calendula Wintersun","description":"\u003cp\u003eA calendula bred to flower in winter. Sown in late summer or early autumn, the plants bulk up while there is still warmth in the ground and then produce golden flowers through November, December, January and February, which is an unlikely thing to have in a British garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe sowing window is everything. \u003cstrong\u003eSow it in spring and you have an ordinary summer pot marigold. Miss the late-summer sowing and the whole point of the variety is lost.\u003c\/strong\u003e Get it in by early September and you have flowers when nothing else is doing anything at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBe realistic about what winter flowering means. The blooms are smaller than a summer calendula, around 5cm, and they come in flushes rather than continuously. A hard frost will knock them flat and they pick up again in the next mild spell. What matters is that there is something gold in the garden in January, and that bumblebee queens emerging on a mild winter day have somewhere to feed, which is genuinely scarce at that time of year. It cuts well too, and lasts a surprisingly long time in a cold room.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296866637,"sku":"CAL-WIN","price":2.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/78AB0449-ED3C-4BD5-BC02-FBC8058687F7.jpg?v=1779452958"},{"product_id":"aster-giants-of-california","title":"Aster Giants of California","description":"\u003cp\u003eHeads up to 12cm across, fully double and feathered like an ostrich plume, in deep purple, hot pink and clear violet on stems of 70 to 80cm. Where a standard peony-flowered aster gives you six to eight centimetres, this gives you double that.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was bred in the flower fields around Santa Maria in California for the commercial cut trade, and everything about it reflects that: stronger stems, longer vase life and bigger flowers than a garden strain. Two weeks in a cool room is normal. It carries the Fleuroselect Quality Mark for garden performance and uniformity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe size is also the catch. A head that big on a stem that tall is top-heavy, and one wet windy night in September will have them on the ground unless they are netted or staked. Give them an open sunny spot with room around them. Like all the China asters they are half-hardy annuals sown fresh each year, and they are susceptible to aster wilt, so keep them moving round the plot rather than growing them in the same ground season after season. Flowering runs August to October.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296964941,"sku":"AST-GOC","price":2.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/aster-giants-of-california-3982583.jpg?v=1768592231"},{"product_id":"ageratum-timeless-mix","title":"Ageratum Timeless Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlmost all the ageratum sold is the squat dwarf bedding sort, useful in a window box and no use at all for cutting. 'Timeless Mix' is the florist's form, with straight stems at 60 to 70cm that are long enough to harvest, carrying the same soft fluffy buttons from June through to October.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe flowers are why it earns its bed. They hold their shape in water and do not shatter, which is rare in anything this fluffy, and the powder blue is a genuinely difficult colour to find in a cut flower. The mix also gives pink, violet and white. If it is only the blue you are after, be aware you will be growing a fair few of the others alongside it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is half-hardy, so it needs a frost-free start and cannot go out until the risk has passed. Left alone a plant makes one central stem and stops. Pinch the tip out while it is young and you get the branching that turns it into a cutting crop. Keep cutting and it will run right into the autumn.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195297030477,"sku":"AGE-TML","price":2.15,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/ageratum-timeless-mix-1160933.jpg?v=1768592231"},{"product_id":"gaura-pink-bouquet","title":"Gaura 'Pink Bouquet'","description":"\u003cp\u003eSoft pink four-petalled flowers scattered along slender arching stems so fine that the plant seems to be all flower and no structure. The common name is whirling butterflies and it earns it; the smallest breeze sets the whole thing trembling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIts real job is softening. Put it in front of something blocky, echinacea, echinops or dahlias, and the airy stems throw a veil across the rigid shapes and make the whole planting look less arranged. Very few perennials do that, and fewer do it from June right through to October.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt comes from the prairies of Texas and Louisiana, and its requirements follow from that. It is thoroughly drought-tolerant once established and will grow happily in a pot that gets forgotten. What kills it is a wet winter in heavy ground. In a well-drained sunny spot it is reliably hardy here; in cold clay it rots at the crown and does not come back, so if that is your soil, grow it in a container. It also breaks dormancy very late in spring, so do not write it off in April.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195296997709,"sku":"GAU-PNK","price":3.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/F3CC8DBB-74FB-46C7-A6F3-15F4D9D3BA9D_ed7bad47-b9d4-4a14-9f9d-9c4776230a2e.jpg?v=1783286068"},{"product_id":"agastache-liquorice-blue","title":"Agastache Liquorice Blue","description":"\u003cp\u003eUpright violet-blue bottlebrush spikes from July to the first frosts, above foliage that smells strongly of aniseed and liquorice the moment you brush it. It reaches 70 to 90cm in its first summer and flowers the same year from a spring sowing, which is unusual for a perennial.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf you grow one plant for bees, grow this. The spikes carry nectar so freely that an established clump is audible on a warm August afternoon, and it keeps going through late summer when a lot of the border has finished. Rabbits and deer leave the aromatic leaves alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCall it short-lived and you will not be disappointed. In sharp-draining sunny ground it will give you three or four years. In heavy soil, or through a wet Norfolk winter, it will rot at the crown and you will be sowing again in spring. Drainage matters far more than feeding, and a plant on poor dry ground usually outlives a pampered one. Cut it for the vase and the scent comes indoors with it. It dries well too, spikes and all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195297063245,"sku":"AGA-LQR","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Untitleddesign_6f37c4e0-ad9c-49ba-a23c-c0b94a3d094a.jpg?v=1768592231"},{"product_id":"bupleurum-griffithii","title":"Bupleurum Griffithii","description":"\u003cp\u003eZesty lime-green starburst heads above oval blue-grey leaves that wrap right round the stem. If you have envied the bright green euphorbia stems that turn up in expensive florists' work, this gives you the same lift without the caustic sap.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGreen is the colour every florist wants more of and almost nothing supplies on a decent stem. Bupleurum supplies it in quantity at 60 to 90cm, it brightens dark colours and warms up pale ones, and it holds a long time in the vase. We grow it here in Norfolk specifically for the dried range.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo things worth knowing. It is in the same family as ammi and fennel and has the same objection to being moved, so it does best sown where it is to grow rather than raised in modules. And dried green is fragile in a way dried gold is not. Ultraviolet light bleaches it, so a bunch hung in a sunny window will be straw-coloured within a season. Dry it in the dark, keep the finished arrangement out of direct sun, and the colour holds for years.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195297620301,"sku":"BUP-GRF","price":1.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/bupleurum-griffiti-6293743.jpg?v=1768592233"},{"product_id":"malva-mystic-merlin","title":"Malva Mystic Merlin","description":"\u003cp\u003eTall sturdy spikes at 1.2 to 1.5m, loaded with silky saucers in deep violet-purple veined with darker maroon. The colour shifts about depending on temperature and soil, running between indigo-purple and richer magenta, so the plant looks slightly different from week to week.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is the sensible alternative to a hollyhock. You get the same height, the same architectural spike against a wall, and none of the rust that makes hollyhocks a two-year battle. It is a short-lived perennial, three or four years, gaining size each season.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe dark colour needs company. On its own at the back of a border it reads as a shadow; put it against gold or orange, rudbeckia or a warm calendula, and the complementary contrast is about as strong as cottage planting gets. Flowers and young leaves are edible. The midsummer chop applies here too: cut it back by half when the first flush tires, or the plant goes woody and unproductive for the rest of the season. It self-seeds prolifically, and the seedlings will not all come back this dark.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195297718605,"sku":"MAL-MST","price":3.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/FullSizeRender_0d47066e-7c21-4c5b-9ed3-caa8dbc5fdd0.jpg?v=1768592235"},{"product_id":"wallflower-fair-lady","title":"Wallflower Fair Lady","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe pastel mix, and the most versatile wallflower in the range. Cream, lemon, gold, dusky pink, salmon, apricot and soft lilac, with bicolours where two shades run across a single flower, on uniform compact plants at 30 to 40cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhere 'Cloth of Gold' and 'Fire King' are single strong colours that dictate a scheme, this blends. It sits under pastel tulips and beside soft spring perennials without taking anything over, which is why it suits a considered planting better than the bold solid varieties. It carries the full clove wallflower scent regardless of colour, which is not always true of pastel selections. It is also the same plant that used to be sold as 'Persian Carpet'; the selection has not changed, only the name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is a biennial. Sow it in summer, grow the rosette through winter, and flower it the following March to May.\u003c\/strong\u003e Nothing happens in the first year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAll parts are poisonous if eaten. Wear gloves to handle it.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195297947981,"sku":"WAL-FRL","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/wallflower-fair-lady-4166905.jpg?v=1768592234"},{"product_id":"cornflower-snowman","title":"Cornflower Snowman","description":"\u003cp\u003ePure white double Ball blooms with a faint blush at the centre, just enough warmth to stop the flower reading as cold. It has been the English wedding buttonhole for generations and it is hard to improve on for the job.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat white does in an arrangement is make everything near it look more saturated. A jug of mixed cornflowers with 'Snowman' in it reads brighter than the same jug without. That is the practical reason to grow it even if white was not what you thought you wanted.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe drawback of any white flower is that it shows everything. Heavy rain spots and browns the outer petals, mud splashes stay visible, and a bloom past its best looks tired rather than gracefully faded. Cut it young, cut it often, and cut ahead of rain if you have a use for it. It is otherwise as tough as the rest of the family, hardy well below anything Norfolk produces, and happy on lean dry ground where fussier things sulk.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195298210125,"sku":"CRN-SNW","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/cornflower-snowman-2540798_e72b7392-e7fe-4ad1-9611-b7cc2b152429.jpg?v=1771627928"},{"product_id":"oxeye-daisy","title":"Oxeye Daisy","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe native British daisy, the one in every unimproved meadow and on every roadside verge. Broad white petals round a yellow disc, 5 to 7cm across, on wiry stems at 40 to 60cm that bob and ripple in the wind.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is the plant to start a meadow with. It germinates readily, spreads by rhizome and by seed, and knits a patch of bare ground together while slower species establish. It is also excellent on a bank that needs stabilising.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThat vigour is the warning as much as the selling point. It will take over a small formal border and crowd out anything delicate near it, so give it room or keep it out of a fine composition. And do not feed it or sow it into improved soil.\u003c\/strong\u003e Rich ground gives you tall leggy floppy plants with fewer flowers, and it lets the daisy out-compete the smaller meadow species you were trying to grow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom seed, expect a rosette and no flowers in year one and the display from year two. Cut the whole planting down in late summer once the seed has dropped, and take the cuttings away, or you feed the soil and undo the point of it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195298275661,"sku":"OXY-DSY","price":2.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/F0C94B04-3D73-4B9D-92D2-87220C6B8CDA.jpg?v=1773349195"},{"product_id":"lemon-balm-1","title":"Lemon Balm","description":"\u003cp\u003eBrush past this and you get a cloud of pure sherbet lemon. Lemon balm looks unassuming — bright green and crinkled, rather like a mint — but it is a powerhouse of flavour, and it makes a fresh herbal tea far better than anything from a dried teabag.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Latin name tells you the other reason to grow it. Melissa is Greek for honeybee, and beekeepers once rubbed the leaves inside new hives to persuade a swarm to settle. Planted near fruit or vegetables it pulls pollinators in reliably.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnlike the Mediterranean herbs it actually prefers moisture-retentive ground, which makes it useful on clay and in the cooler corners where thyme and lavender sulk. It is in the mint family but does not run underground; it does self-seed enthusiastically, so remove the flower spikes if you want to keep it in one place. Shear the whole plant back after flowering and it comes again fresh for autumn.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195298111821,"sku":"LEM-BAL","price":1.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_m4imm4imm4imm4im.png?v=1771769232"},{"product_id":"marjoram-sweet","title":"Marjoram Sweet","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhere Greek oregano is spicy and peppery, sweet marjoram is floral and perfumed, with hints of pine and citrus. It is the defining flavour of a traditional English roast — good sausages, sage and onion stuffing, anything that wants warmth rather than heat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOften called knotted marjoram for the tight knot-like buds that form in late summer, it makes a neat bushy mound of soft grey-green velvet leaves. It dries better than almost any other herb, holding its scent for months.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGrow it hard. Poor soil and moderate water produce the concentrated oils that give the flavour; pamper it and you get fast soft growth that tastes of very little. Unlike its tough relative oregano it will not survive a British winter outdoors, so lift it in September if you want to keep it going.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195298373965,"sku":"MRJ-SWT","price":1.55,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_hq812chq812chq81.png?v=1776271264"},{"product_id":"linum-perenne-blue-flax","title":"Linum Blue Flax","description":"\u003cp\u003eSlender arching stems carrying hundreds of small clear sky-blue saucers, at 30 to 45cm, and the whole plant moves in the least breeze. In a drift it reads as a river of blue running through the border.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEach flower lasts one morning. They open with the sun, drop their petals by late afternoon and leave a scatter of blue confetti on the ground beneath, and a fresh flush opens the next day. That goes on from June through August. It is also one of the few perennials that flowers in its first year from seed, and though it is short-lived at three or four years a plant, it self-seeds reliably enough to hold its place indefinitely once settled.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat kills it is heavy wet clay in winter, not cold. It is hardy well below anything Britain produces and thoroughly drought-tolerant, and it wants sharp drainage above all else; on heavy ground add grit, use a raised bed, or grow it in rockery conditions. It also hates root disturbance, so sow it where it is to grow or raise it in modules. Shear it back by half after the first flush for a second.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195298341197,"sku":"LIN-PER","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/AF063C31-B8FE-4A26-ADAA-F5EA241AE94B_3d6df098-53c9-4fbb-b194-dcd33da92292.jpg?v=1773343538"},{"product_id":"coreopsis-early-sunrise","title":"Coreopsis Early Sunrise","description":"\u003cp\u003eA perennial that flowers in its first summer from seed, which is unusual enough to be the main reason to grow it. Semi-double ruffled golden daisies on bushy 45cm plants from June through to the frosts, out of a spring sowing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt holds both a Fleuroselect Gold Medal and an All-America Selections award, which between them are about as close as a seed strain gets to a guarantee of performance. In practice that means uniform plants, a long season and no sulking. It is drought-tolerant once away and it draws bees, butterflies and hoverflies in numbers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe honest part is the lifespan. It is a short-lived perennial and most of its energy goes into that first generous season. Expect two or three years before the clump thins and the flowering drops off, and treat it as a high-performing annual that sometimes comes back rather than a permanent fixture. Sow a fresh short row every couple of years and you will always have good plants. It cuts reasonably well, though the stems are shortish and it is more of a border plant than a cutting-patch one.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195298406733,"sku":"COR-SUN","price":2.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/2A41C092-BAF8-4B28-94F2-FE51B99D68D7.jpg?v=1773349532"},{"product_id":"alyssum-royal-carpet","title":"Alyssum Royal Carpet","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe purple counterpart to 'Carpet of Snow', and for most cottage schemes the more useful of the two. A dense mat 10 to 15cm high, smothered in tiny violet-purple flowers from late spring to autumn, with the same honey scent that seems far too big for the size of the flower.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat it does that the white cannot is act as a foil. A band of saturated violet at ground level makes warm colours above it sing, so it earns its place at the front of a border planted with calendula, nasturtium or anything in the orange and gold range. On its own it can read a little flat, particularly at a distance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike the white it goes tired and brown in the middle during a hot dry spell around midsummer. Shear it back by half and it comes again within a few weeks. Keep it lean and sunny; rich ground gives you leaf instead of flower, and the purple pales in soft growth. It self-seeds gently, though seedlings from a coloured strain tend to drift back towards paler mauve rather than coming true.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195298472269,"sku":"ALY-ROY","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Alyssum_Royal_Carpet_1.png?v=1775752961"},{"product_id":"foxglove-excelsior-mix","title":"Foxglove Excelsior Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe difference from a wild foxglove is where the bells sit. A wild plant hangs its flowers down one side of the stem. 'Excelsior' carries them all the way round, held out horizontally, so the spire is a dense even cylinder rather than a one-sided flag.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat gives you noticeably more flower per stem and a symmetrical, deliberate look at 1.2 to 1.5m, in cream, soft pink, deep rose and purple. It is the foxglove for a planting that is designed rather than allowed to happen, and for cutting, where a spire that looks the same from every side is worth having.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe flip side is that it loses some of the wild charm. If what you want is the plant that leans out of a hedge bank in June, the ordinary species does it better. The improved habit also softens over generations; self-sown offspring hold the colours reasonably well but drift back towards the one-sided wild arrangement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery part of a foxglove is highly toxic and eating any of it can be fatal. Wear gloves to handle the plants and keep the seed away from small children.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195298734413,"sku":"FOX-EXC","price":2.15,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Gemini_Generated_Image_4579634579634579.png?v=1776583095"},{"product_id":"platycodon-balloon-flower-mixed","title":"Platycodon Balloon Flower Mixed","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe bud is the show. Each one swells into a perfectly inflated balloon, geometric and taut, and holds that shape for days before splitting along its five seams into a wide cupped star of six or seven centimetres. Clear blue, soft pink and white all come on the same planting, from July to September at 60 to 80cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a slow investment that pays for a very long time. Establishment takes a couple of years, then it improves every season and a plant will sit happily in one spot for ten or fifteen years. Do not plan to move it. It makes a substantial taproot early and hates disturbance, so raise it in deep modules and drop the rootball in intact.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe one thing that loses people their platycodon is spring digging.\u003c\/strong\u003e It emerges very late, often not until May, long after everything around it is up, and a bare patch in April looks like empty ground. Put a permanent label or cane in before the foliage dies down in autumn. If you cut it, the stems bleed a milky sap that seals them and stops them drinking; sear the cut end with a match and the vase life improves enormously.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195298767181,"sku":"PLA-BAL","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Untitleddesign-4_904eb549-4fc7-4a1b-9dfe-e7e43816498c.jpg?v=1768592236"},{"product_id":"antirrhinum-doubleshot-peach","title":"Antirrhinum DoubleShot Peach","description":"\u003cp\u003eA double-flowered snapdragon, which means the dragon's mouth has gone entirely and been replaced by layers of ruffled peach petals closer to a miniature rose. On strong upright stems at 45 to 50cm, bred as a cut flower rather than a bedding plant.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe peach is the reason to grow it. It is a warm, slightly dusty shade that flatters almost everything it is put with, and it is a difficult colour to find in anything you can raise from a packet. The stems stand up to weather better than most doubles and the flowers hold their shape in water rather than dropping petals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo things to know. It is an F1 hybrid, so seed saved from your own plants will not come true and you will be buying again next year. And the doubling that makes the flower beautiful also closes it off, so it is of far less use to bumblebees than a single snapdragon; if the bees are the point, grow a single alongside it. The uniformity that comes with an F1 cuts both ways too. Plants flower together, which is ideal for a cutting row and a little regimented in a border.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195299094861,"sku":"ANT-DSP","price":3.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/Antirrhinum_DoubleShot_Peach_1.jpg?v=1775754783"},{"product_id":"pansy-swiss-giant-ullswater-deep-blue","title":"Pansy Swiss Giant Ullswater Deep Blue","description":"\u003cp\u003eLarge velvety pansies in a deep indigo-blue, 6 to 8cm across with the characteristic darker face markings, on neat mounds of 15 to 20cm. The Swiss Giant series is the benchmark for a big traditional garden pansy, and 'Ullswater' is the blue one, named for the lake.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIts real value is timing. It flowers when very little else does, either late spring from an autumn sowing or right through autumn and winter into spring from a spring sowing, and in a mild British winter it will keep going through January.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe seed needs total darkness to germinate, which catches people out constantly.\u003c\/strong\u003e Cover the tray with card or black plastic until the shoots appear, then bring it into the light, and keep it cool while germinating, because pansies dislike heat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo more things. It is a hungry plant, so work compost into the ground, unlike most of the cottage annuals that want it lean. And deadhead religiously: a pansy allowed to set seed decides it has finished and goes downhill fast.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195299225933,"sku":"PAN-SGU","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/pansy-swiss-giant-ullswater-deep-blue-5025749.jpg?v=1768592236"},{"product_id":"calendula-touch-of-red","title":"Calendula Touch of Red","description":"\u003cp\u003eGolden-orange on the face of each petal, deep mahogany-red on the back, so the flower flickers between two colours as it moves. Where Sherbet Fizz puts the same red behind a pale buff top, this puts it behind full orange, and the result is far warmer and a good deal louder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLow autumn light is when it earns its keep. Late afternoon sun comes through the petals from behind and lights the red up, and the whole plant takes on a smouldering quality a plain orange calendula never has. It is the obvious partner for chrysanthemums and dahlias in a harvest arrangement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe same caveat applies as to any two-tone calendula: the red is on the underside, so a flower looked at square on reads as orange with a dark rim. Plant it where you will see it side on or backlit. At 50 to 60cm the stems are long enough to cut, the petals are edible and will colour rice as a saffron substitute does, and it flowers from June to the frosts. Keep cutting and it keeps producing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195299520845,"sku":"CAL-TOR","price":2.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/20488000d7a9097938da852_upscale.jpg?v=1768592238"},{"product_id":"achillea-cloth-of-gold","title":"Achillea Cloth of Gold","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe giant of the yarrows. Where most top out at knee height, 'Cloth of Gold' goes to 1.2 or 1.5m and carries flat plates the size of a side plate in a deep mustard-gold. The stems are stiff enough that it rarely needs staking, which is unusual at that height.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a back-of-border plant and needs treating as one. The gold is strong and slightly brassy and it will fight with pink and lilac schemes; it sits far better with rudbeckia, warm roses, bronze grasses and the hot end of the border. The ferny foliage is spicy when crushed and rabbits and deer generally leave it alone, which matters here in rural Norfolk.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor drying it is one of the best things you can grow. Cut when the plates are fully open, hang somewhere warm, dark and dry, and the gold holds for months rather than weeks. It wants full sun and free drainage above all else. It will sit through a drought without complaint but rots in wet winter ground. Expect establishment in year one and the full display from year two.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195299553613,"sku":"ACH-COG","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/achillea-cloth-of-gold-1596260_13f5f592-1d4b-4a5b-9280-9fb4b68dcf23.jpg?v=1774622319"},{"product_id":"clarkia-crown-double-mix","title":"Clarkia Crown Double Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eTall slender spikes packed with intricate ruffled double flowers that look more like small orchids than a hardy annual has any right to, in soft rose, salmon, mauve and white. The flowers open progressively up the spike, so one stem gives weeks of display.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlmost nobody grows it, which is a shame and also a clue. Clarkia wants cool. It comes from the Pacific North-West, where it flowers as spring turns to summer, and the American name Farewell to Spring is a fair description of its season. In a hot dry British summer it goes over quickly, and on rich, well-fed ground it makes soft leafy growth and flops. Poor thin soil and a cool spring give the best plants, which is the opposite of most people's instincts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSown early and given lean ground it is one of the best cut flowers in the hardy annual range, at 60 to 75cm with good vase life and a genuinely old-fashioned character that suits a cottage bouquet. It self-seeds gently. Plant it in fives or sevens; the spikes are slender and a single one disappears.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195299586381,"sku":"CLA-CRW","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/2048800148df33f3f0bc5b2_upscale.jpg?v=1768592237"},{"product_id":"corncockle-agrostemma-githago","title":"Corncockle","description":"\u003cp\u003eLarge open magenta-pink trumpets with a pale centre marked by fine black lines, held airily on wiry stems at 75 to 90cm. The silky petals catch the light and the whole plant sways in the smallest breeze, which is most of its charm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt used to grow in every cornfield in Britain. Better seed cleaning and post-war herbicides had all but removed it from farmland by the 1950s, so what grows in cottage gardens and wildflower plots now is genuinely a survival rather than a decoration. The black lines on the petals are honey guides, pointing long-tongued bumblebees at the nectar at the bottom of the tube.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt weaves rather than competes, threading up through whatever is planted beside it, so it is better scattered through a border than grown in a block. It self-seeds reliably once you have it, and it has a sensitive taproot that does best sown where it is to grow, on poor, well-drained ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery part of this plant is poisonous if eaten, the seed most of all. Wear gloves when handling it, and think carefully before planting it where children forage or pets chew.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195299619149,"sku":"CRN-CKL","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/5EE24E24-A11F-411F-BCF2-B43E01193DAB.jpg?v=1772659412"},{"product_id":"calendula-pacific-beauty-cream","title":"Calendula Pacific Beauty Cream","description":"\u003cp\u003eSoft buttermilk-yellow daisies, semi-double rather than packed, many of them with a dark chocolate centre that gives the flower some weight. They come on tall upright stems at 50 to 60cm from the Pacific Beauty cutting series, so the stems are genuinely straight and long enough to use.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe pale yellow is the useful part. It sits with pinks, blues and whites in a way that orange never will, so it is the calendula for a border or a bouquet where the usual pot marigold would jar. Semi-double also means the centre stays open, so bees and hoverflies can still work it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNot every flower gets the chocolate eye. It is variable within the strain and a proportion come plain, which is worth knowing if the dark centre is the thing you are buying it for. As with all the pale calendulas, seedlings drift back towards yellow and then orange over a few generations, so this is one to re-sow from a packet rather than rely on self-seeding. It flowers from June to the frosts and asks very little.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195299684685,"sku":"CAL-PBC","price":2.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/2048800881daa2e3dd4ac64_upscale.jpg?v=1768592239"},{"product_id":"floriography-the-little-box-of-love","title":"Floriography: The Little Box of Love","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"product-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the Victorian era, people didn't send text messages — they sent flowers. Every bloom carried a specific meaning, allowing friends and lovers to communicate complex feelings without speaking a word. This was Floriography: the Language of Flowers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Little Box of Love revives that beautiful tradition. Twelve full-sized seed packets, each chosen not just for its beauty but for its sentiment — a gift that doesn't last a week like a fresh bouquet, but grows into a whole summer of meaningful colour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArrives in signature eco-friendly packaging — a thoughtful, sustainable gift for nature lovers and eco-conscious gardeners.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195300012365,"sku":"FLO-RIO","price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/2048800f4ab1c50ab872d26_upscale.jpg?v=1768592239"},{"product_id":"achillea-ptarmica-marshmallow","title":"Achillea Marshmallow","description":"\u003cp\u003eSoft double white pompoms on slender stems from midsummer to autumn, and a great many of them. An established clump will throw hundreds of cutting stems in a season, which is why it turns up in so many florists' patches.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a close relative of 'Ballerina' and the difference is worth knowing before you choose. 'Marshmallow' is looser, taller and considerably more vigorous. You get more stems, but the habit is relaxed rather than tidy and the stems are not as reliably self-supporting after rain. If you want a neat mound at the front of a border, take 'Ballerina'. If you want volume for the vase, take this.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe vigour comes at a cost. It runs on underground rhizomes and in rich, moist ground it will run enthusiastically into whatever is next to it, so divide it every couple of springs and keep an eye on its neighbours. Like all the sneezeworts it is happiest in ground that stays damp, so it will grow where a common yarrow gives up. It dries well and holds its white.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195300176205,"sku":"ACH-MSH","price":3.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/IMG-0123.jpg?v=1783122106"},{"product_id":"salvia-violet-queen","title":"Salvia Violet Queen","description":"\u003cp\u003eDense erect spikes of intense violet-purple on sturdy stems at 45 to 60cm, and about as strong a natural vertical as any perennial will give you. Unusually, it flowers in its first year from an early sowing rather than making you wait until year two.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a genuine long-term plant. Hardy well below anything Britain produces, the crown expands each year, and a clump gives more spikes and better structure for a decade or more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCold is not what kills it. Winter wet is.\u003c\/strong\u003e It needs free-draining ground, and on clay it wants generous grit in the planting hole, a slight slope or a raised bed. That single decision determines whether it lasts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo optional tricks. Cut the developing stems back by a third in late May and you get shorter, sturdier spikes that flower a little later, which is worth doing in an exposed garden. And shear the whole plant to the ground when the first flush finishes in August; it regrows and throws a second flush in September and October, when a good deal else is over.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195300241741,"sku":"SAL-VLQ","price":2.65,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/3FA5D848-E075-4A3A-BD5D-A664F471C019_6f628257-a1b6-4918-922f-3fe1c0cb08fc.jpg?v=1773344033"},{"product_id":"cosmos-purity","title":"Cosmos Purity","description":"\u003cp\u003eBroad silky white petals around a small gold disc, 8 to 10cm across, on airy stems at 90 to 120cm. If you grow one white flower for cutting, this is a strong candidate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhite is the most useful colour in a bouquet because it makes everything beside it read more strongly. A jug of mixed cottage flowers with 'Purity' through it looks brighter than the same jug without. It also glows at dusk in a way coloured flowers do not, which is why it turns up in every moon garden and every evening border.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe drawbacks are the ones that come with white. Rain spots the petals brown and they stay spotted, so cut ahead of a downpour if you have a use in mind. And it self-seeds enthusiastically. Volunteers will come up for years and gradually drift back towards pink, so pull anything that is not white if you want the planting to stay clean. It is half-hardy, flowering July to the frosts, and it wants lean ground. Feed it and you get a six-foot green shrub with a dozen flowers on it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195300274509,"sku":"COS-PRT","price":2.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/20488001e676ffe3f651d03_upscale.jpg?v=1768592241"},{"product_id":"cornflower-black-mauve-mix","title":"Cornflower Black \u0026 Mauve Mix","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwo varieties in one packet: the near-black 'Black Ball' and the dusty lilac 'Mauve Boy', put together because they do something for each other that neither does alone. The dark gives the planting weight and the mauve stops it going funereal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoth are double Ball types, considerably fuller than a wild cornflower, on silver-green stems long enough to cut. Pick a handful, drop them in a jug, and you have something that looks like it cost money. That is the whole appeal of this mix.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat you cannot do is control the ratio. It comes as a blend rather than as two packets, so some rows come out heavier on the dark and some on the mauve, and there is no sorting at the seedling stage because the colour does not show until the buds open. If you need a particular balance, grow the two separately and combine them in the vase. Keep cutting or deadheading either way. A cornflower left to set seed decides it has finished, and a plant that stops in July gives you nothing in September.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53195300208973,"sku":"CRN-BAM","price":2.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0828\/6961\/6973\/files\/cornflower-black-mauve-mix-4383335.jpg?v=1768592239"}],"url":"https:\/\/thefoalyard.co.uk\/collections\/seeds-and-bulbs.oembed?page=10","provider":"The Foalyard","version":"1.0","type":"link"}