amazing Apiaceae (the umbellifers)

[Tim Ingram]

The latest umbel to flower - Orlaya grandiflora - an annual species that more than lives up to its name. I am not sure how many gardeners grow it but it flowers just at the right time for the Chelsea Show and is often used on displays there. This and Ammi majus are both superb dry meadow plants mixed with poppies and the like.

[McDonough]

There are so many of these umbellifers that I don't know and never heard of, but I'm paying attention   The Orlaya is pretty, the genus name sounding like it should be a town in Florida or a brand of potato chips

[stephenb]

I didn't know what it was or what it's family might be when I saw it in seed in the Uppsala (Sweden) botanics a couple of years ago. Good to see it in flower!

[RickR]

That certainly seems like strange seed pods for the family.

I have tried to grow Orlaya from seed from another acquaintance in another garden forum.  She gave me so many seeds that I planted them in a pot and directly in soil outside. Nothing ever showed, even in future years.
Any special insights/experiences on this one?

[Tim Ingram]

With me Orlaya self seeds well, except when the rabbits discover it! Generally umbel seed should be sown pretty fresh and will germinate after a period of winter cold. Orlaya is a Mediterranean annual and should germinate with autumn rains if sown early enough, making strong overwintering plants. It sounds like you were just unlucky.

Umbel seeds are marvellously varied and quite a few have hooked spines like Orlaya, especially in dry habitats.

[Hoy]

I have grown Orlaya at my summerhouse for many years but I have to sow it regularly.

[RickR]

Thanks, Tim.  Perhaps I will try again sometime.

[Lori S.]

It is not such an unusual one as some of those shown here, but Myrrhis odorata is looking nice right now...
   

[Tony Willis]

With me Orlaya self seeds well, except when the rabbits discover it! Generally umbel seed should be sown pretty fresh and will germinate after a period of winter cold. Orlaya is a Mediterranean annual and should germinate with autumn rains if sown early enough, making strong overwintering plants. It sounds like you were just unlucky.

Umbel seeds are marvellously varied and quite a few have hooked spines like Orlaya, especially in dry habitats.

No chance of it self seeding in the wet north west or surviving the winter. Here it is a tender annual which needs to be sown in a warm propagator in spring and grown on in individual pots for planting out now which is what I have just done.Small country vastly varied climate.It is a lovely plant

[Lori S.]

Here's an update on Peucedanum ostruthium 'Daphnis'... I've gained a bit more appreciation for it since this thread started, and it really is an attractive thing:

[Hoy]

It is not such an unusual one as some of those shown here, but Myrrhis odorata is looking nice right now...

It is a very nice plant and the seeds taste like "King of Denemark" ( a kind of sweeties) but it is one of the worst  weeds here - I have it many places >

[stephenb]

I've just planted seedlings of "Bald Cicely", my name for a variety of Myrrhis odorata which is completely hairless - also an excellent spring vegetable...

This is what Gerard had to say on the matter in 1597 (Kew Gardens):

[Kelaidis]

Delighted to see Tim's Orlaya: one of my favorites. It has been self sowing a bit more every year and starting to make quite a show for me. Unlike many spring annuals, it hangs in there through the summer and reblooms when we get the odd shower in summer. I recall seeing something like these here and there all over Greece in April and May. It is a must have in my opinion. I keep stumblng on whole genera that seem to be twins to Orlaya from all over Eurasia. The only one I have a picture of is from Central Asia, I photographed it last September...here goes:

1) Overall shot of Orlaya grandiflora in my dry garden
2) Closeup of the same
3) Semenovia sp photographed near the Observatory near treeline above Almaty in Kazakhstan Tian Shan...growing with what looks like Veronica spicata, but is not, I believe.

Love them umbels!

[Tim Ingram]

When I first became interested in these plants I was persuaded by the Hardy Plant Society to write one of their booklets on the family. Umbellifers have always been of interest to knowledgeable gardeners in the UK (such as Graham Stuart Thomas and Alan Bloom, both of whom wrote about them). Recently though they have been grown a lot more widely, especially in more naturalistic gardens, and they must always have an appeal even to non-gardeners because they are so recognisable. Even so it is only the very few that are grown in gardens. Looking back through this thread, and with the host of amazing North American umbels which are hardly grown anywhere, I am keen to learn a lot more about them and hopefully put this together in a more comprehensive book on the family (a bit of a tall order since it is such a large family!). There are quite a few nurserypeople I know with a fascination in the family - for example Marina Christopher who used to work with John Coke at Green Farm Plants, and who values them especially for the very wide range of pollinators they attract, and Graham Gough at Marchants Nursery and John-Pierre Jolivot in France.

I would be very grateful for any information from members of the NARGS who grow umbels (there is quite bit already on this thread already which is really helpful and stimulating) or even more who have experience of seeing them in the wild. I aim to try more of the North American species from seed since these are virtually unknown in cultivation. There are also quite a few alpine species in particular that have been introduced from South America.

I think the diversity of the family would surprise many even botanically minded gardeners and the long historical uses of umbels in medicine and as foods have given them such enduring interest. It may be quite a long project but there has been very little written on the family from a gardening perspective. Many thanks in advance.

[Weiser]

Tim
Here is one you will not see every day, Cymopterus globosus. I have only come across this little desert Spring Parsely one time, on a low, very cobbled  hill in eastern Nevada. The flower heads feel like a moist, dense rubber ball when you squeeze them. I can't find a lot of information about it but it is a uniqui little guy. I hope some day to find it in seed.

http://aplantaday.blogspot.com/2011/04/globe-springparsley-cymopterus-globosus.html
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CYGL2