Alexanders the Great

With a morning free to spend in the garden this weekend, I decided to spend an hour doing some weeding. I don't know about you, but I find it quite therapeutic. And they do say that an hour weeding now saves nine later in the season.

And there is was one plant in particular I wanted to bring under control before it overran my hedge, and it's something I have the Romans to thank for - Alexanders.

It's a perennial, native to much of western Europe that was brought over here as a vegetable, and remained in cultivation for centuries until celery took its place. It has done that 'leaping over the garden wall' trick, however, and is now found around much of the English and Welsh coasts, and scattered widely inland.

I do grow it deliberately in my garden, but it self-seeds like crazy, and it germinates very early, so that soon these tell-tale seedlings begin to appear...

And if I'm not careful they very quickly begin to look like this...

And by April they are a dense stand of greenery, chest high.

But, as I say, I do let some of it grow to maturity because it is one of that most useful of groups of plants called the umbellifers - the carrot family. And the great heads - or umbels - of flowers on many species are often really valuable for smaller pollinating insects.

This was an Alexanders I photographed in flower in April, and you can see how good it is for spring insects. I believe the photo shows two different species of solitary bee, but I'll happily defer to the experts on that. It is also good for many species of fly.

Later in the season, other umbellifers such as the angelicas come into their own, but few flowers are as good in spring as this for short-tongued pollinators. And maybe you can try some Roman recipes with it too - it can't be any worse than celery (yuk!).