A prickle: Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’

Bramble & Briar #112

The continuing chronicles of plants that got under my skin

It’s cow parsley, but not as we know it

May is the month of fresh foliage and froth, and no plant encapsulates the late spring vibe quite so well as cow parsley. A creamy white foam of flower from a distance, each a tiny, intricate star on closer inspection, with a roiling tide of ferny leaves beneath – it’s an absolute joy on the wilder margins of the garden. In more disciplined plantings the tendency is to recreate the effect with annuals we consider a little more biddable: orlaya or ammi, for example, both of which manage a comparable umbelliferous swag – an airy kind of presence, topped off with fireworks.

White and green froth

But paint a cow parsley purple and tinge its white flowers pink; it will gain admission to the more rarified borders, rubbing shoulders with cultivated pretties rather than being pushed out to the edges, there to hang with nettles, herb bennet and docks. This is Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’ – a gift for those of us who, like me, have a thing for a purple leaf.

Unlike most of the plants that pop up in this series of prickles, I have planted Ravenswing here. It harmonised beautifully with the black elder Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla ‘Eva’, and bounced about joyously with the purple smoke bush Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’ in the bed on the opposite side of the path. It would have gone beautifully with the red ninebark, Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Lady in Red’, except that’s still doing very nice in a pot by the back gate. When I remember to water it.

Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’

Sadly, Ravenswing doesn’t hang about for very long – frequently described at point of sale as a short-lived perennial, it often behaves in the exact same biennial fashion as its more humble relatives and, when it goes to seed, chances are that the more usual, green and cream form will reassert itself. Which is precisely what’s happened here.

Departed then, for now, from my garden, though much missed. I was delighted to see an apparently spontaneous purple sport on our regular dog walk through the fields behind us, communing chummily with a green relative on the other side of the fence.

Red and green versions of cow parsley out in the fields