As I sit here at the kitchen table, protected from the horizontal rain that is battering the window, it is no surprise I am not in the best of moods – another wet day and even longer before the soil dries out a bit. So I am ignoring all the lovely plants in the garden, which are getting battered against the soil, and the slugs that are happily slithering around on the moist soil in these mild temperatures, and will mention a plant that is flowering away, much to my disgust. I really do like most plants – honest – but some just irritate me. In a way it must have something to do with my dislike of plastic plants and flowers. In the same way that I do not want a plastic houseplant that never changes, I do not want a plant that does not grow or change. It is one of the reasons why, decades ago, I disliked conifers and heathers although some have charmed me now and I would not ignore them all when making a garden. Some bedding plants (mostly those propagated from cuttings) are the same – they don’t grow much all summer! Long gone are the glorious, trailing (ivy-leaved) pelargoniums that created sheets of colour. Now the plants hardly get any bigger all summer, they have been bred to be so close-jointed that it is almost impossible to find shoots for cuttings.

And in general I am not keen on plants that do not have much ‘character’. I don’t care if a plant is a diva as long as there is some reward, but a dwarf plant with small leaves that flowers for ages and doesn’t really have much seasonal change is not really for me.

So I could not get excited when I was given some Polygala chamaebuxus var. grandiflora ‘Purple Passion’ to put in the garden. With a name bigger than the plant itself and certainly bigger than its charms, it is not my kind of thing, especially as the flowers are a nasty combination of magenta and yellow!

To make the plant look even more disgusting it came in a bright purple pot, just in case the flowers were not bright enough to attract attention in the garden centre! I do not know where the cultivar name of ‘Purple Passion’ came from and whether it is really different to the species or just a ‘selling name’ made up to make the plant seem extra special. The species itself is native to western Europe and it is a mild calcifuge, needing acidic soil to thrive. With small, dull green leaves and flowers the same size it is the sort of plant that would look dull in a black and white photograph. With (bad) luck it will flower through spring and summer. It needs well-drained soil, will grow in sun or part shade and will grow to about 15cm high and twice as wide and is easy to propagate by softwood cuttings in summer if you feel you need more of them. I suppose it is useful for rock gardens because of its unusual colour combination but I would find a thousand more things I would rather have before I planted this! The flowers are supposed to be fragrant but I can’t bring myself to get that close to find out.

In case it seems that I have problems with the whole genus I have to say that P. myrtifolia, though frost tender, is a beautiful thing and P. vulgaris, the wild milkwort of the UK and Ireland is a beauty with bright blue flowers.

calcifuge, milkwort, polygala chamaebuxus, polygala purple passion, polygala vulgaris