A swarm of flowers

Tall and long flowering, sanguisorbas are wonderful border plants that look like a swarm of bees from a distance – and you can plant them now, says Hazel Sillver

- Hazel Sillver

LOVED by garden designers, sanguisorbas (burnets) are tall perennials that boast flower power and have a ‘see-through’ quality. Their poker-like flowerheads float atop slender stems, providing glimpses of the plants behind, in turn giving the border a lightweight feel. They are also easy to grow, attractive to bees and can be cut for the vase. And now is the ideal time to plant them for summer flowers next year.

In the wild, sanguisorba grows in moist mountain meadows in the temperate northern hemisphere. The name stems from the Latin sanguis (blood) and sorbere (absorb) because it was once used to staunch wounds. Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor), which has wonderfully weird green and red globular flowerheads, was introduced here in the 16th century as a herb. It was planted on paths, as it releases scent when trodden on, and the leaves (which have a very bitter, cucumber taste) were eaten. It is now one of our wildflowers, abundant on chalk downlands.

Many of the burnets favoured by garden designers have similar compact flowerheads. S. officinalis ‘Red Thunder’resembles a swarm of dark-red bees from a distance. And the blooms of the superb S. ‘Cangshan Cranberry’ look like pink-red catkins. On branching stems as thin as wire, they create an open screen through which a view of plants behind can be seen.