Honesty brings a splash of cottage garden charm and colour to the Chronological Bed.
A favourite of cottage gardeners the biennial honesty (Lunaria annua) is a relatively easy plant, self-seeding readily when given good conditions of moisture retentive, fertile soil in sun or semi-shade. A native of Europe and western Asia this species naturally occurs in disturbed ground and uncultivated fields. One of three species, the genus Lunaria belongs to the Brassicaceae, or cabbage family. All species have 4-petalled, cross-shaped flowers typical of the family, and these are held in terminal racemes. While providing herbaceous spring colour Lunaria annua is often more widely admired for its flat, papery, translucent seed pods, which are produced in late summer and persist into winter, and which have earnt it the common name silver dollar plant.