The beauty of astrantia

The astrantia is an attractive family of cottage garden plants providing long-lasting interest from as early as April and well into July.

Then, as the flowers turn to seed, they provide rustling paper ghosts of themselves in the late summer and autumn garden. It isn’t a showy plant, the flower colours are subtle, pastel shades of pale pink and green and deeper purplish pink depending on the variety.

However, a close inspection of bloom reveals their beauty, papery bracts surrounding clusters of the tiniest flowers held on pin-thin stems that quiver with the slightest of movements. They do indeed look like small pins, giving rise to the country name of the plant, Hattie’s pincushion.

These plants have a sentimental attachment for me as Astrantia major was one of the first herbaceous plants I bought for my first garden, more than 25 years ago in London.

The garden was a small patch shared with the other owners of the converted house in which I lived. None of my neighbours were bothered about maintaining an outside space, so the patch became my own and, with DG Hessayon’s The Plant Finder in hand, I visited local nurseries gradually learning about the plants I now love.

Astrantia major is perhaps the least attractive of the family, the bracts are pale pinkish green and the flowers a little darker, but it is readily available, clumps up quickly and like its relatives does especially well in partial shade. Astrantia major “Sunningdale Variegated” has striking white, then cream, streaked leaves in spring and early summer which fade to green when the greenish white flower appear.

Astrantia maxima is much pinker and will form good clump of colour for many weeks. One of the number of deeper-red varieties is the compact growing Astrantia major “Ruby Star”, with rich red flowers from April to June then sporadically until November depending on the weather. The stems are dark, the foliage red flushed and a mature clump will grow to about 30cm tall with a spread of 20cm. Other darker varieties include “Hadspen Blood” and “Ruby Wedding”.

Astrantias are easy to grow, but in order to thrive they need some shade and soil that doesn’t dry out. Keeping the soil fertile with a thick mulch of manure each year will encourage the biggest flowers as well as helping to retain the moisture this plant craves. They combine well with hardy geraniums and hostas, both of whom like to grow in the same conditions.

• The Big Butterfly Count runs until July 31, so if you want to take part simply choose a sunny 15- minute period in the garden and take a note of the butterflies that appear. The sightings can then be logged online at bigbutterflycount.org

In the veg patch

The wet weather we have had has seen the courgettes putting on a massive spurt of growth and we will soon be harvesting our first fruit.

From then on it will be a race to keep cropping and eating them before we have marrow sized specimens which none of us like no matter how they are presented at the dinner table.

This year I have tried to limit the number of plants grown to one, but then decided some more were needed just in case... and now there are four. The recent additions are Courgette “Midnight” a compact, spine free variety which can be grown in a container or small patches in the garden.

Open gardens

Sunday, July 24

In aid of the National Gardens Scheme.

• Goldsborough Hall, Main Street, Goldsborough, near Knaresborough, HG5 8NR. 11-acre garden and formal landscaped grounds in parkland setting with Gertrude Jekyll-inspired 120ft double herbaceous borders, lime-tree walk, rose garden and woodland walk. The village church, St Mary’s, will also be open. Open 12pm-5pm, admission £5.

• 39, Market Place, South Cave, HU15 2BS, 12 miles west of Hull. Small walled garden with established trees, cottage garden plants, shrubs, fernery, rockeries, grasses and lots of nooks and crannies. Open 2pm-5pm, admission £3.

• Rewela Cottage, Skewsby, near Sheriff Hutton, YO61 4SG. ¾-acre garden with a natural stone sunken garden, breeze house, raised vegetable plot and summer flowering plants. The many unusual trees and shrubs are all labelled with cultivation details. Open 10am-5pm, admission £3.50.

• Stamford Bridge Gardens, Stamford Bridge, YO41 1PD, 7 miles east of York. Three village gardens open all for the first time for the NGS. Daneswell House has a ¾-acre terraced garden sweeping down to the River Derwent with a large lawn, mixed borders, shrubs, pond and water feature. Grove Lodge has a large collection of plants grown by the owner from seed and cuttings, vegetables in planters, fruit trees and greenhouses. Mill Timber has a large collection of perennials in a garden sheltered on one side by mature trees. Summer flowering plants in containers and hanging baskets provide a kaleidoscope of colour. Open 11am-5pm, combined admission £5.

• Westfield Farm, Melbourne, YO42 4SX, ten miles south east of York on the B1228. 1.5-acre garden new to the NGS with a box edged herb garden, raised bed vegetable garden, fruit trees, greenhouse, many borders and beds, ornamental fish pond, wildlife pond and a footbridge over a stream to a woodland area and rare breeds. Open 1pm-3pm, admission £3.

TV and radio

Sunday, July 24

8am: BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

9am: BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

2pm: BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Eric Robson and his team attend the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park in Cheshire. The gardening weather forecast is at 2.40pm. (Repeated from Friday).

2.45pm: BBC R4, Mabey in the Wild. Richard Mabey discusses the Indian balsam, an invasive non-native species and questions whether it is wise to try to eradicate it.

Wednesday

7.30pm: C5, Garden ER. David Domoney creates a chilled-out zone and Bonnie Davies helps to complete an abandoned barbecue and patio project.

FRIDAY

3pm: BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Eric Robson, Matthew Biggs, Bob Flowerdew and Pippa Greenwood answer listeners’ questions sent in by post and email. (Repeated on Sunday).

8pm: BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Monty Don makes sure there is plenty of late summer colour at Longmeadow and Joe Swift visits Newby Hall here in North Yorkshire, which is home to the longest herbaceous borders in Europe.

8pm: ITV1, Love Your Garden. Alan Titchmarsh shows how to create a tranquil Moroccan garden while Laetitia Maklouf transforms a conservatory.

Saturday, July 30.

7am: BBC Radio York, Julia Booth. Julia and gardening expert Nigel Harrison hold their weekly plant surgery.