Desert Island Plants

A self-confessed plant addict, Carol Klein takes the challenge to pick just eight she can’t bear to live without

When asked to choose my ‘desert island plants’, the list is endless. To edit it to just eight plants is virtually impossible. Riven with guilt for those excluded, I concentrate on the outstanding qualities of the chosen eight. But how to choose? Should my list’s criteria be based on reliability, longevity of performance or simplicity of cultivation?

Do I choose plants that are accommodating, will grow in a wide variety of different situations and thrive in different kinds of soil, or is admission to the list only to be granted to plants that are breathtakingly beautiful? Ideally, each should possess at least a couple of these qualities if not all. There are plants here that would appear in many a plantperson’s top eight.

Milk parsley

is beloved by many who see it and surely by all who grow it. In spring, rosettes of the most finely cut leaves create verdant doilies. Gradually, almost stealthily, the flower stems rise up green at every stage until they reach their perfect height, when the buds within open to pretty white flowers. The branches of each flower stem bear several subsidiary flowerheads, the most mature are white with blossom, the rest in various shades of green. Apiaceae, the family to which it belongs, is my favourite clan, abounding with scores of fabulous plants, almost all are adorned with umbels, hence the old family name umbelliferae. Some are fleeting, such as Ammi majus and Orlaya grandiflora with its flat heads of tiny fwers ringed by more substantial blooms. Some are statuesque, such as angelicas, giant fennel and giant hogweed. But Selinum wallichianum is a plant with such personality, it is in a class of its own. For months on end, selinum adds stature to beds and borders.