Angelica 'Vicar's Mead'

Striking deep purple to maroon stems with matching, deeply coloured foliage form a dramatic background for the lovely, matching, turning purple to soft pink flower umbels. It is nice and tall, so perfect for the back of a border or bed. This is a rare find and we think this is definitely garden worthy.

A handsome, versatile plant, Angelica not only looks good, it is edible too. The new shoots add an aromatic element to salads, and have a slightly bitter taste. The seeds add flavouring to sweet dishes. The birds and bees adore this plant too!

As a biennial, it will flower every second year, then die, leaving seed to sow, or save for future plants. It will have a lovely foliage show in the first year with flowers in the second. Removing the flower heads before they set seed can help the plant stay perennial if you’d rather just grow it for the beautiful, deeply divided foliage.

You can grow Angelica in full sun to part shade, a humus rich, moist soil is ideal. It is tolerant of a range of soils, including clay but doesn’t like to dry out too much. Water to establish and keep moist during active growth.

Angelica has a long history and it was a prized medicinal herb in the middle ages. Legend said the Archangel Raphael bought it to earth from heaven, hence the name. It is still used in a range of herbal medicines today.

A common name for Angelica is Purple Holy Ghost.