From £1.50
Used in victorian times to scent bedding. Delicately whorled leaves and bright golden Beautiful sweet scent in high summer. Galium verum lady’s bedstraw or yellow bedstraw in the past, the dried plants were used to stuff mattresses, as the coumarin scent of the plants acts as a flea repellant.
The flowers were also used to coagulate milk in cheese manufacture and, in Gloucestershire, to colour the cheese double Gloucester. The plant is also used to make red (roots) madder-like and yellow (flowers) dyes.
A favourite, as the name suggests, of the Bedstraw Hawkmoth – opposite a caterpillar making the most of it and the adult form.
| Sun Preference | Sun either Partial or Full |
|---|---|
| Soil Preference | Most Soils OK |
| Suitable for | Requires sun and well-drained soil. |
| Attracts | This is the food of the hawk moth, however also valuable to a diverse range of butterflies and other insects. |
| Flowering season | July onwards |
| Flowering colour | Yellow |
| Eventual height | 15cm-30cm |
| Species Type | Perennial |
