I always find it interesting that we sell so many more vegetable seeds than flower seed. It reminds me when, years ago (25years ago) I would only grow what I understood then to be edible plants, i.e. only fruit and vegies. I now understand the flowers to be a totally essential part of the circle of life, and grow flowers all though the veggie gardens and orchards where possible. They are so essential for feeding the beneficial insects, and also for the subtle ways they are able to connect with and support both the vegies and trees in the garden and us. They are healers of our souls. Flowers bred in modern times have different characteristics to these old beauties - larger flowers and more compact plants - designed for maximum eye contact in small spaces. They do not have the subtle healing energies of their ancestors. Our heirloom flowers are disappearing fast just as the vegies are. Growing them will not only improve the quality of your life it will help to keep the lines alive.

ARNICA (10cm) OS
This is the medicinal plant used to make arnica cream. Traditionally, it is grown in alpine conditions, but we have found it to do very well here, too, as long as they have sandy soil. It’s worth making a special place for it just so you can make your own arnica creams!

BLOOD FLOWER (30-40cm) OS
A wonderful plant with orange flowers that attract the monarch butterflies. Ours attracted huge numbers of butterflies every day for months. The caterpillars didn’t even eat the plants to death (we planted about 20 plants). Wonderful for a child’s garden.

BISHOP’S FLOWER (100cm) OS
Bishops Flower is an umbellifera and as such it plays a very important role in the flower garden vege garden or the orchard. The beneficial insects and predator wasps love the flowers. Bishops Flower flowers after the parsnip and carrot weed does so it extends the season for feeding our beneficial insects. The flowers are also beautiful, looking like Queen Anne’s lace.

CALENDULA

Orange (30cm) NZ

Traditional orange flowers that brighten the winter garden.

Yellow (30cm) NZ

Traditional bright yellow calendula that contrast well with the orange in our winter garden.

CHAMOMILE (Matricaria chamomilla) (50 - 60cm) OS
German.

Erect annual whose white daisy flowers are used for a relaxing tea which aids digestion. Cottage garden flower which smells delicious as you brush past it. Plant in Spring. Self seeds easily. Companion plant for the vege garden.

CHINESE FORGET ME NOT

Mixed pinkand blue (50cm) Biennial Cottage Garden

These flowers do best planted in Autumn and then they flower the following Spring /Summer..they need to over winter before flowering. Clear sky blue and baby pink.

CINERARIA (70cm) NZ
Maida

This is the old wild type that come up all on their own every autumn and make a vibrant purple and pink and white display each spring. Once you’ve got them you’ll always have them.

COLUMBINE (Aquilegia vulgaris)
Grandmothers Garden (80cm) OS
An old tall form of columbine (granny’s bonnet) with dark rose, violet, pink and white flowers. Stunning colours and form, perennial.

Ruby Port (40cm) OS

An excellent border columbine, with beautiful port wine hanging flowers. Outstanding cultivar perennial.

CORN FLOWER
Emperor William OS
This is a very old cornflower with starry, sky blue, very dainty flowers. Old cultivars grow tall so it needs to be at the back of the border. Really beautiful with sweet peas and larkspurs.

Black Gem annual (1M) OS

Stunning ruffled dark maroon flowers. Good cut flower, flowering from Spring into Summer. Stunning at the back of a border.

Black gem with Earl Grey Larkspur

COSMOS (Cosmos bipinnatus)
Red Dazzler (120cm) OS

A pinky red tall cosmos. Great for the back of the border amongst other cottage plants. They’re really easy to grow and make a lot of colour. Great vege garden companion.

ECHINACEA (Rudbeckia purpurea)

Purple Cone Flower

(80 - 100cm) OS
Pink Daisy-like heirloom flower of the North American prairie. Highly prized as a cut flower and in the garden the large pink daisies last a long time. Whole plant, including roots, is a traditional medicine and herbal remedy used for strengthening the immune system. Pupurea is the hardiest of the Echinacea family and the best one for growing in clay soils. We make our own tincture and it works really well.

GAILLARDIA (Gaillardia polycholia) (60cm) OS
I fell in love with this old world flower growing amongst the pumpkins in a vegetable garden of David Pomare, the then head gardener at Heronswood (in Melbourne) The flowers are like colourful miniature sunflowers, all orange, red, brown and yellow, some double some single. They look great in the vege garden, flowering for a long period over the late summer, autumn, and into winter.

KISS ME OVER THE GARDEN GATE
(Polygonum orientale) (250cm) OS
Another old Heirloom that I saw for the first time in the gardens at Heronswood in Melbourne. It grows 6ft tall with a corn like stem, large heart shaped leaves with these pink tasselly feathery hanging flowers on top. Presumably once upon a time, hanging over the garden gate! I loved them and we planted them amongst the corn the first year we had the seed and ever since it’s just self-seeded around.

LARKSPUR
Earl Grey. (100cm)
This is my favourite larkspur. Grey is the closest colour you could call it but when you look closely it is all colours, exquisitely beautiful, excellent cut flower.

Larkspur Bluebell (120cm)
This is a very old fashioned, original larkspur. It grows far taller than the modern varieties and has exquisite flowers of the very vibrant sky blue, or the colour of bluebells. (Approx.100)

LUPIN

Lupin Yellow NZ
An old cultivar from the South Island that has pale yellow flowers.

LOVE-IN-A-MIST OS
Mixed. (50cm) Old-fashioned flowers that are always loved in an annual border. They self seed readily which is part of their beauty. Mixed colours, white, pink and several blues. Can be picked as a cut flower or as a dries flower at the pod stage.

LOVE LIES BLEEDING (Amaranthus caudatus) OS

Red. (100cm)

This is a well known old world flower, Actually a member of the edible grain amaranths, this one is grown because of its amazing weeping red form. Long seed heads hang from all over the plant. This stunning edible ornamental is at home in the flower garden and the vege garden.

MALLOW (Malva moschata) OS
Marsh Mallow. (120cm)
Showy 3-5cm saucer shaped pink flowers amidst large heart-shaped leaves. Once the source of Marsh mallow, the confectionary. Used medicinally for its soothing effect on the throat. Tall plant reaching around 1.5 metres.

Mallow Musk Pink (120cm)
This mallow has large, baby pink flowers. Mallows are great in the Mediterranean areas, as they like hot, dry conditions, don’t mind coastal winds, and with their silvery grey leaves work well with other Mediterranean herb bank plants (catnip, catmint, wormwood, lavender, rosemary, geraniums, etc.

Mallow Zebrina

This is a very ornamental mallow white large dark pink flowers with very dark stripes. Perennial

MARIGOLD
Marigold Inca (300cm) NZ
This marigold has a completely different growing habit. It grows like a tree and has trunks like sunflower stalks and insignificant flowers. An odd plant or two scattered around a large vege garden will certainly help keep potato eel worms and nematodes etc. at bay, however we’ve decided they are also an excellent compost crop, and a very good fast growing shelter, if you’re looking for fast shelter for the vege garden. Keep in mind that they self-seed prolifically and in sandy open soils may become a problem. They aren’t a problem in the North on clay soils. They are an important edible plant in South America; the leaves are used in small quantities to season salsas.

Marigold French (1m) NZ Annual Vege companion

Sent in recently this is very old fashioned type of marigold that I haven’t seen since I was a child. They grow into a bush around 1 metre square and are covered in flowers from spring to  the middle of winter. A real cheery bright patch in the garden, great for a garden edge plant. I’ve really enjoyed them . They look great in a vase with some tansy flowers!

MORNING GLORY (Ipomoea sp)

Grandpa Otts OS
A deep blue morning glory with a purple throat.

Crimson Rambler

The brightest crimson I’ve ever seen in the garden. Stunning up the beanpoles, behind the roses, and at the back of the borders.

NASTURTIUM
Red Empress (20cm) OS
The best one for a companion plant in the vege garden because it doesn’t take over. This one forms quite neat clump and had red flowers as well as quite dark reddy coloured leaves. (Approx.20)

NICOTIANA (Nicotiana sylvestris) OS
Woodlands (20cm). Heirloom variety, tall growing with bunches of tubular, drooping, highly scented flowers. These white scented flowers are stunning in the evenings and at night, so put them where you will be walking past them or sitting (or of course sleeping) They mix wonderfully with other Heirlooms, Hollyhocks, Petunias, Cornflower, Sweetpea, Cosmos, Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate, Scabiosa etc.

POPPY
Fire circle (80cm) NZ
We were sent this poppy years ago by a member, and we all but lost it. Last year we planted the last of the seeds and only one grew. It flowered by the fire circle and it’s beautiful! They’re all the same; pink, very double and very frilly.

Hungarian Blue Breadseed (100cm) OS
This poppy is a single mauve one, and it’s been selected for the size of the seed heads and so the amount of seed contained for cooking with. They are far larger heads than the more ornamental varieties, however the heads them selves are extremely ornamental and make great dried flower arrangements

SCABIOSA (Scabiosa altropurpurea)
Fire King (80cm)
Bright blood red flowers with white markings in the centre. Attracts many butterflies, excellent as a cut flower. We grew this seed from seed we imported from Seed Savers USA. Yet another example to us of the magnificence of these old flowers. They flowered for months, and were outstanding. Extremely bright and unusual colour. Scabiosas attract the butterflies.

Scabiosa Mauve (80cm) OS
European seed company called Antique Flowers. This is one of those. It is a very clear and beautiful mauve, a colour not common in other flowers so this is a great addition in a blue white purple pink colour border.

SWEET WILLIAM (Dianthus barbatus) OS
Nigracans (30cm)
This very old variety is really different to what we know as Sweet Williams today. It is a single colour, dark red maroon, almost black, with dark leaves as well, and is very highly scented. It was apparently planted by the bushel in Henry the Eighth’s new garden at Hampton Court, and at that time were called Velvet Williams, and Bloomy Downs as well. They haven’t been available since 1883!

SUNFLOWER (Helianthus annuus) OS
Maximillian (200cm)
This is an original form of the modern sunflower. The flowers are small-4cm across- but each plant produces hundreds. They are like golden stars all over the plants, which become bushes. This variety is a perennial, forms a clump, and sends up multiple stems each Spring. They are not invasive, and they make wonderful summer hedges. Red Gift Zinnias, Persian Carpet Zinnias and Sunset Cosmos all look stunning with these sunflowers.

Lion’s Mane (200cm) NZ
As far as I’ve ever seen this is our only NZ Heirloom sunflower and it’s a real stunner. It has one main head, which is all petals right to the middle just like a big fluffy lion’s mane and then a whole lot more smaller heads.

Tithonia MeXican Sunflower
Plants grow to I’m tall and are covered in small 4cm wide bright orange sunflower like flowers. Flowers for months needs warmth.

TWEEDIA
Pink (30cm) NZ
. This is a little low growing bushy plant, with stunning tiger lily type flowers, pink with dark pink spots on their throats that attract the Monarch butterflies. Easy to grow, self-seeds easily, and in our gardens, haven’t been demolished by the monarchs to the point where the flowers are sacrificed at all.

TOBACCO (Nicotiana tobaccum) NZ
Hauraki Gold (250cm)
This is an old commercial variety that used to be grown in the Kumeu area. Very tall ornate plants with pink flowers. Harvest as leaves turn yellow starting at the bottom of the plant. We’ve really enjoyed growing this tobacco simply as an ornamental; they are stunning with their pink flowers coming out over almost a whole year. They just keep on keeping on. A great backdrop to a perennial border, self sow readily. Leaves can be used to make a liquid tea for pesticide use.

VERBASCUM (Verbascum olympicum) NZ
Olympican (180cm)
A stunning biennial with large furry leaves and a huge bright yellow spike with orange stamens. An old form of the herb mullein. A real showstopper, enjoys a hot dry place.
(Approx. 500)

ZINNIA (Zinnia angustifolia) OS

Classic (150cm)
This flower is a Native to South America. For thousands of years it has been grown by the Aztecs, and we can see why. It attracted more attention than any other flower in our gardens this past summer (with the exception of Cosmos Sunset). It is a low growing bushy compact plant with glowing orange daisy like flowers (3cm) with an orange yellow centre. Easy to grow and especially fantastic in the vege garden as a companion plant on the ends of the beds, and along the paths. Looks great with dandelion flowers, Tangerine gem marigold, and Red Empress nasturtiums.

Persian Carpet (60cm) OS

I bought this seed back from seed savers a couple of years ago. It’s a stunning new addition that will flower from Summer to mid Winter. It is a medium height 20-30cm with a wide variation of colours and intricate patterns just like a Persian carpet. Stunning cut flower - excellent companions in the vege garden. Maroons, yellow, lemon, gold, cream.

Chrosmia (1m) OS

Nothing can compare with zinnias in the summer/autumn garden for color. They are always the brightest, the longest lasting, great cut flowers and also attract the butterfiles.