THERE has been a quite astonishing flowering this year of dame’s violet along the banks of the River Devon. It is a lovely garden escape that has become widely naturalised in many parts of the country.

Its drifts of nodding white and purple blooms really transform the landscape. There is often much debate about the impact of introduced species on our native environment, but dame’s violet appears to be largely benign, and its flowers are pollinated by a wide variety of insects, including butterflies and moths.

Dame’s violet is a cottage garden plant introduced into this country from southern Europe and west Asia in the 16th century. The flowers, especially the white ones, have a sweet violet scent. It is a perennial, although sometimes biennial too.

The dame’s violets have now finished flowering, but the colour they provided on the banks of the Devon is now more than compensated by meadow crane’s-bill. A member of the geranium family, its soft bluish violet coloured flowers have dark radiating veins to direct bees to their rich nectar. The leaves are rather flowery, being deeply cut.

Meadow crane’s-bill is one of our few native plants that finds a permanent place in our gardens because of its beauty and large flowers. Crane’s-bills are so-called because the distinctive seed cases are shaped a bit like a bird’s bill. In autumn, the seed cases burst open, spraying the seeds some distance from the plant.

Closely related to meadow cranes-bill is a delightful little plant called herb-robert that occurs widely throughout central Scotland. It has small pink flowers and in autumn the stems and leaves turn a most striking crimson. In medieval times there was the popular assumption that a plant would be effective for treating a medical condition to which it bore some resemblance. The deep-red coloration of herb-robert meant it was thus regarded successful for the treatment of blood disorders – the leaves in particular being said to be useful in staunching the flow of blood.