Frothy umbellifers are a rich source of food for wildlife, says Monty Don

One day, when I am less busy – much, much less busy – I shall count up all the different plants that are in my garden. 

There must be thousands of them, and some are rare and unusual although most are, by definition, easy to grow. We have a policy of not straining to keep plants that do not want to be here.

But none of these thousands, no plant from any corner of the world, however expensive, gives me as much pleasure as one weed that has been thrilling me for the past month. 

It originally came into the garden from the floods that regularly encroach our boundaries from the water meadows that surround us but has made itself comfortable right across the borders, vegetable beds and hedgerows. 

It is Anthriscus sylvestris, the glorious, frothy cow parsley, from the umbellifer family.

In fact, a few years ago I made a garden devoted to trying to capture and sustain the ephemeral effervescence of cow parsley. 

It was doomed to failure, of course – it is the plant’s very transience that makes the parsley so ravishing – but the end result is, nonetheless, one of the nicest parts of the whole garden, filled with white and green flowers from February through to late autumn.

The key to it is other plants from the umbellifer family, which link the rest of the planting in tone and texture as much as anything else.

 Umbellifers of any kind add a graceful lightness along with a stately quality to any garden and, as well as pleasing the gardener, they are a magnet for insects. 

Their tiny flowers are rich with pollen and the upturned, flat ‘umbel’ – in fact masses of tiny flowers – is perfectly reached by insects that would struggle to delve into the convoluted recesses of many plants.

Ladybirds, hoverflies and lacewings in particular love them and they will repay you tenfold because they are your best defence against aphids. 

Birds, too, are attracted in autumn to the seeds, so they instantly enrich the wildlife of your garden.

Ammi majus is perhaps the best replica for wild cow parsley. 

It is a biennial that is best sown in September, kept over the winter with a bit of protection and then planted out in spring, when it will grow to about a metre, topped with an umbel of clean, white florets. 

However, rabbits love them and I have lost many plants in the past by planting out too early. 

Ammi visnaga seems to be less tasty to the average rabbit and has a more rounded umbel that lasts well into July or even August.

Orlaya grandiflora, the white laceflower, is another superb and graceful annual with rather larger flower heads that will flower continuously for about ten weeks so is extremely good value in any border.

The common fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) seems to exemplify all the virtues of umbellifers: open, lacy and towering, but not shading anything beneath or around it. 

We let the bronze type of fennel seed itself freely, as much for the stems that can be like the best bamboo. 

Birds love the seeds as we go into autumn and the hollow stems provide perfect cover for overwintering insects and beetles.

An umbellifer that is very happy in shade is sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata). 

It has soft, generous leaves and lovely heads of white flowers that open early so are especially good as a source of pollen when many other flowers are yet to appear. 

Before the availability of cheap sugar, sweet cicely was often used as a sweetener, especially with tart fruit like gooseberries or rhubarb.

You can plant a dark-purple version of cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Raven’s Wing’, which is lovely but invariably hybridises with the wild stuff, so the seedlings become a pale, muddy pink. 

But for the richest colour, the umbellifer to grow is Angelica gigas, which has a 2m-tall crimson stem topped with a sheafed bud that opens to reveal umbels of deep burgundy. 

It is magnificent, and no plant is more popular with butterflies, hoverflies, bees and wasps.

MONTY’S PLANT OF THE WEEK: GERANIUM PRATENSE 

This native species, with flowers that range from white and pink to blue and grey, is brilliant for attracting insects. G. pratense f. albiflorum is white and ‘Mrs Kendall Clark’ has petals striped blue and pale grey. 

G. x johnsonii ‘Johnson’s Blue’ is a cross between G. himalayense and G. pratense. 

To keep flowers coming, cut back hard when less than half the plant is covered with flowers – usually mid-June. 

The regrowth will be well visited by insects. It spreads wildly, seeding enthusiastically, so I hack it back as soon as the petals begin to fall.

THIS WEEK’S JOB: ENCOURAGE WILDLIFE    

Here is one thing you can do now to encourage wildlife to visit your garden – avoid using pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and fungicides.

They destroy beneficial organisms and start a chain of plagues of problems. 

Strive to create a balanced, self-regulating environment.