Botanical name: Filipendula ulmaria   
Folk names: Queen-of-the-meadows, meadsweet

Type: Perennial

Wildlife: Pollen for bees, butterflies and moths attracted by its sweet scent. A tree bumblebee was spotted in my garden for the first time feeding from the flowers within days of them opening.

Flowers: June to September

Decorative merit: Sweetly almond-scented creamy white flowers in cloud-like clusters. Fragrant leaves are dark, shiny and fern-like. 60-120cm high.

Where: Sun or shade. Pond margins and in moisture-retentive soil. Flowers in succession after ragged robin and lady’s smock.

Folkore: Elizabethan strewing herb and believed to be a favourite of the red-haired queen. Used to flavour mead and wine and added to pot-pourri.

Donate seeds to Exeter Seed Bank