It's pretty lifeless out in my woodland garden at the moment, but there's one thing that brightens it up:
It's the closest thing to 'money growing on trees' - the silvery coin seedpods of last spring's Honesty flowers. With even just a little bit of light behind them, it adds a bit of frosty sparkle in the gloom, matched only by the trunk of my Silver Birch stump beyond.
This is a plant found in the wild in southern Europe, and Man hasn't done much to tinker with nature's blueprint. In spring I find it just as pleasing on the eye as in winter, especially the rich magenta-flowered basic variety which can enliven the gloom of a shady corner.
There is a white-flowered version, and one with variegated leaves too.
And for wildlife? Well, this is one of the very few flowers that Orange-tip butterflies will stop off at to nectar in spring. And the females will lay their eggs on the leaves, although there is some doubt about whether the caterpillars can make it through to being a chrysalis.
Honesty is easy to grow. Sow as seed between about April and June, making sure that you plant the seed deep, an inch or so down. Then plant out in summer where you want it to flower the following year to let it bulk up into a good sized plant.
Being a biennial, it will die after flowering, leaving those lovely wafer-pods, and then self-seed sparingly around the garden. For a plant in the cabbage family, it's not 'alf bad, eh?
I've scattered these seeds around the garden before and wondered why no plants appeared next spring I will follow your advice and hope it works.