Lunaria (Honesty)

42 Replies to “Lunaria (Honesty)”

1. Hi Susan. I think you are right – the perennial Lunaria redivida. I have it in my old garden and there is a photo of it at the end of this post: https://wordsandherbs.wordpress.com/2019/05/14/visiting-the-old-garden/
   😃

   1. Thanks, Cathy.

2. We were chatting about the annual honesty here yesterday. It’s a nice plant, a pleasant thing in the garden. We have one with plain green foliage – white or lilac flowers – and another where the foliage had dark blotches and lilac flowers. Both are enjoyable things in the garden, growing here without and guidance from us. They do their thing – or not. We had one year, about three years ago, an honesty year when they simply thrived and gave a stretch of about 5 metres of solid white in one border. It was wonderful but – this was the essence of our chatting – a main part of the wonder was that it was transitory, and we wished it to be a passing event. Once was spectacular but every year would be tedious. We feel the same with Verbena bonariensis – a sprinkle through a border is good, a spectacular cover-all display is acceptable once but we couldn’t live with it longer! Fleeting is a good thing with some plants – what is it that is said of some people: that they were most enjoyed by their leaving?

   1. It’s good to be able to use a sweep of annuals, biennials or short lived perennials to ring the changes and also good when a visually overwhelming plant doesn’t permanently take over more space than you want. I don’t think I have quite the same feeling about tedium though. My sweetheart planted Verbena bonariensis and I’d have loved it to last a little longer than it did and the same went for a beautiful apricot agastache that was supposedly perennial. I tried to buy some of the latter over here, but it seemed to have died overwinter at the suppliers too as it didn’t arrive.

      1. Transience is part of gardening! They come and they go and we enjoy them while they are with us!

3. To be honest (groan…) I didn’t even know there were two types! I always think of honesty as the purple stuff that produces the coins! I loved collection them as a child and peeling off the outer skin to reveal the silvery discs. I still do!

   1. Now you mention it, I think I did the same thing. 🙂

4. A whole new plant for me! I’d probably admire it as a type of phlox. It certainly does have a different look from above. But about those leaves — do they tickle or just saw right through the skin of the unwary?

   1. The leaves do look like they would be troublesome – rather like nettles, but they are harmless so far as I recall tangling with them. Do you have nettles where you are?

      1. I think so. There are nasty things that I call nettles, but they might technically be something else.

         1. I bet they are the same as our nettles. They don’t have them in Mississippi, which is why I asked. I once read that Romans used to sting themselves to keep warm when they were keeping guard on Hardian’s Wall, though that could be a good reason not to believe all you read as I can’t imagine them doing it more than once.

            1. Yikes.

5. It looks more like Dame’s Rocket (Hesperis matronalis). The colours vary from white to deep purple, for no apparent reason.

   1. They do look very like that, but the flowers are a larger. It is hard to tell the scale from the picture.

      1. I was looking at the leaves. Yes, hard to tell.

      2. Who knew – Lunaria and Dames Rocket are related, and very difficult to tell apart except for the round seed pods that Lunaria produces. Sometimes the leaves can be different… Lunaria has a heart shape (with a wide base) and Dame’s Rocket is all narrow and much longer than wide (a shape called lanceolate)

         1. I hadn’t realised that. So your instincts were right. 🙂

            1. I’m not a botanist but have used my photography as a learning opportunity.

6. https://edlehming.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/dames-rocket-hesperis-matronalis/

7. Wow- that’s a new one to me, I’ve never heard of them, but they are lovely!

   1. I haven’t seen the perennial kind very often.

8. Yes, it certainly is Lunaria rediviva and it is perennial. It seeds around but not as enthusiastically as Lunaria annua. The flowers are slightly fragrant.

   1. Thanks for the confirmation, Chloris.

9. I love Honesty – but haven’t seen any yet this year,

   1. I have only seen the biennial kind this year.

10. I’ve seeded some annual variegated white flowered honesty, but so far no variegation showing on the baby leaves. Used to have the purple-flowered ones sprinkled along the woods at the old herb farm, and missed having those “coins” for fall bouquets. Hopefully these new ones will thrive on the Fairy Slope!

    1. I hope so too! I’m growing some variegated nasturtiums – there were not many seeds in the packet and the ones that have sprouted are not looking too well marked yet. I dare say I have to give them a bit more time – they are only two sets of leaves at the moment!

11. Our blooms are are deep purple – I’m not sure what that makes them

    1. It makes them very attractive, I imagine! I have spotted some deep purple comfrey plants on my regular walk, but they are growing on the side of a drainage ditch. I am not sure if I want to venture down to get a picture… certainly not worth trying on a windy day!

12. I’ve never seen this plant before – it’s beautiful! Will it have the same sort of seed heads as the purple flowered lunaria?

    1. The seed heads have the same papery nature, but they have tapered points.

       1. I shall look out for one!

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