Valerian

(Valeriana officinalis)

This elegant pale pink flowered plant is very popular with bees, butterflies and moths (and their predators as you can see)...

Strangely it is rarely referred to in wildlife gardening books but as you can see it is really popular with insects...

It grows to about a metre high and is happy in a range of sites from rich soils to quite marshy areas - as long as it is not allowed to dry out.

Valerian has tradtionally been used in herbal medecine as a sedative*. Tess Darwin's The Scots Herbal (Mercat Press, 1997), mentions its use by Romans when in Scotland.

It is a lovely plant that provides a good food source for visiting insects (and their predators as you can see in the image on the left!).

You can find it in our Pond Edge Mix of plants that will establish a healthy wild-life friendly edge to your pond. We also sell Valerian seed by the gramme if available. Please contact us to check availability and price.

*although traditonally used in herbal medicine we would not recommend eating any of the plants that you can grow from our seeds...

                                                  
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