Botanical name: Galium verum 
Folk names: Bed flower, cheese rennet

Type: Perennial

Wildlife: Caterpillar food for moths including elephant and hummingbird-hawk moths.

Flowers: June to August

Decorative merit: Frothy yellow flowerheads of tiny, honey-scented florets. Delicate, whorled green leaves. Low-growing with a scrambling habit and will spread by rooting stems. Stems grow up to 60cm but are fairly weak and fine, needing the support of surrounding plants. Blends well with great mullein or red valerian, bellflower, cornflowers and poppies. Makes a long-lasting cut flower as well as the dried seedheads.

Where: Sun or part-shade. Can cope with dry, poor soil so great for filling those awkward spots while helping wildlife!

Folklore: Once dried and used to line mattresses. Legend goes that lady’s bedstraw helped form the rough bedding in the stable where Jesus was born.

Bedstraw relative of sweet woodruff

Donate seeds to Exeter Seed Bank