Report From An Opinionated Gardener – July 27
I’ve never met someone who hated Queen Anne’s lace. I’m sure that they are out there, but most people I run into love this flower. Visitors to my garden see the Ammi majus and say, “I just love Queen Anne’s lace.”
The true roadside weed, Daucus carota, is a plant whose fragrance takes me back to my childhood. It smells of a summer filled with long, unstructured days and nights illuminated with hundreds of fireflies.
Queen Anne’s lace flowers start opening with a pinkish hue while Ammi majus buds are green. Both of these bloom in mid-summer. I planted a variety of Ammi majus in my garden three years ago and it has reseeded every year since. These plants are shorter and bushier than Daucus carota, and they make great cut flowers.
Because their flowers look so similar, I’m not sure it matters which one is in the garden. I just wish that the Ammi smelled like the summers of my childhood.
Leave declining Ammi majus plants in the garden long enough to scatter seeds...then cut them to the ground so that the other annuals can shine.
