Magical Masterworts

With common names such as masterwort and Hattie’s pincushion, astrantias were once famed for curing ailments. Anne Swithinbank examines these popular perennials

- Anne Swithinbank

PLANTS blessed with a good raft of common names usually have a long history to match, full of folklore and medicinal uses. The masterworts (species of astrantia in the carrot or cow parsley family) are known as mountain sanicle, a nod to their origins in alpine woods and meadows. An old name, magistrantia reflects the mastery and skill needed by apothecaries who, from Tudor times, used them to treat a long list of ailments.

Folk also wore masterworts around their necks to ward off evil spirits and gain power themselves. Umbels of tiny flowers held within a ruff of bracts have inspired the pretty name of Hattie’s pincushion, but the dark, almost brooding colors of some cultivars are responsible for ‘gentleman’s melancholy’, often turned around to ‘melancholy gentlemen’.

These long-lived herbaceous perennials are justly popular, especially as their flowers begin to open in May and by June are in full swing, filling what can be an early summer gap. Upright sprays of umbels opening above lobed leaves sit comfortably in herbaceous borders, cottage-style gardens, and lightly shaded semi-wild areas, where they are usually left alone by slugs, deer, and rabbits.

Great for insects

Masterworts are not exactly fussed,y but to thrive they need moist, fertile soil and in my experience are not great at holding their own against invasions of weeds or coping with drier soils gasping for a mulch of organic matter. Careful positioning and timely interventions of care pay dividends in terms of quantity and length of flowering.