Star spangled meadows

Camassias are tall, elegant and simple to grow– it’s easy to see why people fall in love with these American beauties, says Val Bourne

- Val Bourne

IF you see a haze of blue in May in a grassy meadow or on a woodland edge, it’s probably going to be starry flowered camassias stretching up to Heaven. These American bulbs, once an important source of food for native North Americans, were officially discovered in 1806 by Capt Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, so they’re not merely beautiful. Their tendency to flower later than most bulbs helps to fill the May gap and their ability to tolerate moister conditions than most bulbs means they can be grown in a greater variety of situations. They make a perfect entrée for a summer-flowering wildflower meadow and they’re an essential part of Highgrove’s four-acre meadow in The Prince of Wales’s Gloucestershire garden, rising above buttercups and pre-empting wild orchids. Elegant, yet understated, camassias are also planted in the long grass at Great Dixter in East Sussex.

The fashion for making sustainable wildflower meadows has led to a surge of interest in camassias. Stella Exley, of Hare Spring Cottage in North Yorkshire, has developed a Plant Heritage Collection, having fallen under their spell almost 30 years ago. ‘We went to look at a house in South Devon, with a view to buying, and there was a haze of blue on the woodland edge,’ she recalls. ‘It was late April and that hue of blue mesmerized me. I’d never seen them before. I’d never heard of them, although I was into bulbs. Within days, I’d bought my first potfuls.’

Hazy blue tinged with gold: camassias and malus blossom at Pettifers in Oxfordshire, designed by Gina Price