Angelica gigas

Description

Angelica gigas is a fabulously architectural and exotic looking perennial producing zingy green deeply cut attractive leaves which are beautiful in themselves.  The stars of the show however are the flowers which appear during August and September.  Flowers are held on tall, stout red-tinted branched stems and take the form of wonderful dense domes of deep purple-bugundy.  This is an impressive addition to mixed herbaceous borders hiving height, structure and of course those wonderful flowers wich are loved by bees and other pollinators.  Plant in a fertile, moisture retentive position in shade or partial shade for best results.  The plants will die back after flowering and lay dormant over the winter months, sprouting new leaves during the spring.  After flowering, plants may self seed unless spent flowers are removed.  Although Angelica gigas is a perennial it is not long lived and will need refreshing after a couple of seasons – so if you stumble upon a few self seeded plants, do enjoy these or pot them up and grow them on.  Angelica is perfectly hardy here in the UK.