Flowers for free…

Flowering ‘Autumn King’ carrots

Here’s a way of adding beautiful, architectural flowers to your garden without cost..

Amblyteles armatorius

A parasitic wasp feeding on tiny parsnip flowers.

Wild carrot flowers have been a favourite meadow flower for a long time and their cultivar cousins are just as special.

Flowering parsnip

We first saw flowering parsnips used as a border plant at the Chelsea Flower Show many years ago. Such an impact!

So, if you have parsnips or carrots unused in the fridge that you can’t use for a delicious vegetable soup, just plant them..

Seven-spot ladybird

The carrots are ‘Autumn King’ variety. I can’t remember the parsnip variety but when you leave them to flower and seed they pop-up anywhere..

Ornate-tailed digger wasp on carrot flowers

Parsnips can grow to two metres and are like the giant trees of the jungle towering over the beetroot, cabbages and potatoes.

Flies play an important part in pollination

• here on parsnip

And the whole point is the wide range of insects that find them irresistible as a pollen or nectar source or as a hunting ground.

As well as the benefit to invertebrates, we will be able to collect parsnip and carrot seed for use next year…