The One to Watch for 2015

You heard it here first folks – Lunaria ‘Chedglow’. I first saw this darkly refined relative of the common purple honesty when I visited Bramdean House in Hampshire. Victoria Wakefield was full of praise for it but said it was difficult to source. Today I spotted it on Avon Bulbs stand and bought myself a packet of 10 seeds for £4. Quite an investment as honesty has a reputation for growing where and how it likes rather than where and how we want it to – and the packet also warns that it will cross with its common relatives. Still, I suspect that even now designers are planning to incorporate in next year’s garden and Avon Bulbs, brilliant nurserymen that they are, are propagating like mad.