Feverfew

Feverfew mingles with Physocarpus 'Center Glow'

Day 51
The Daily DuBrule

Now that I have passed the 50 day mark, blogging every day for 50 days, I might as well let you in on a secret. I love feverfew. So many people I know rip this plant out because it self sows so rampantly. Not me. I LOVE it. It blooms all summer long in deep shade and full sun. It makes a great cut flower. It is an aromatic herb, used in Europe for helping migraine headache sufferers. In my gardens, it weaves itself into pretty much anywhere I let it, adding a cottage garden feel and helping to fool the noses of the deer.

Herbs are just the best plants to have growing everywhere. When you are tired of the everyday world of computers and business and cars and problems, you can wander through your gardens, even if it is dark outside, and an herb like feverfew (being white and glowing in the dark) will say "hey, look at me!"  I pluck a bit of foliage and inhale the pungent, herbal scent. Yup, I can surely believe that this is a medicinal herb.

Does it bother me that this plant self seeds a lot? Nope. I can easily spot it in the spring and if it's too much, I pull it up. I don't try and transplant it an save it, I just say "bye bye" and off to the compost pile it goes. Meanwhile, for months and months into the growing season, feverfew adds a pretty filler flower to every bouquet I create.

I have a favorite woodland garden in Guilford with a long, winding driveway. In the spring, the drive is lined with daffodils and Virginia bluebells and bleeding hearts. In the summer, when my client is away on an island, feverfew takes over. Slowly but surely it has been seeding in, a welcome presence when all of this spring glory recedes and goes dormant. 

I guess I am just a cottage gardener at heart. No matter how much of a sense of order I try to bring to my world, plants like feverfew melt my heart.