viper's bugloss

Viper's Bugloss: the name conjures a herb that Hermione could have searched out to get Harry Potter out of some scrape.

Our native Viper's Bugloss (echium vulgare) is said to love dry, bare and waste places. Have we got an ideal home for you!!!! Our garden!

'Blueweed' is a biennial, and is adored by bees. I read somewhere that it 'drips nectar'. We'll have some o'that!

But we've planted it with some trepidation. It has a very long taproot, making it difficult to remove. It's stems and leaves are prickly - not ideal for it's position against the path.

But our hope is that it seeds and becomes another of those wanderers, that give such a sense of naturalness to gardens.