Key plants in Eat, Drink and Be Rosemary

A perennial, clump-forming grass to 90cm high with narrow, blue-green leaves and from late spring to summer slender, upright stems bearing nodding, heart-shaped, purple-tinted green flowerheads that age to buff.

English bluebells are much loved for their stout spikes of bell-shaped, blue flowers in April and May. They are perfect for naturalising in a partly shaded woodland garden or underneath the canopy of deciduous trees.

Vigorous, bulbous perennial to 1m tall, with long, strap-shaped greyish-green basal leaves dying down by flowering time. Flowers to 8cm across are vivid deep rosy-purple, in crowded spherical umbels, of often up to 50 or more star-shaped flowers, in summer.

Iconic woodlanders, the flowers of this UK native first start opening from the base of the spike in early summer, but then carry on, reaching progressively higher over the following weeks. Each thimble-like pink, purple (or occassionally white) bloom has an attractively spotted throat and is a magnet to bees, which crawl right inside getting covered in pollen.

Aromatic, dark green, narrow leaves provide interest throughout the year and can be added to a multitude of dishes to enhance the flavour. From mid-spring to early summer (and often again in autumn), lilac-blue to white flowers appear towards the ends of the stems.