• Contains vitamins
• Easy to grow
• Native perennial
• Good for a wildlife garden

This pretty little perennial can be found growing wild on chalky grasslands and is famously known for its cucumber tasting leaves. It has funny bobbly flowers that can really be appreciated when seen close up. It is a fun and different culinary herb for salads, soft cheeses, butter, baked potatoes and more.

Plant care

• Height: 30-60cm
• Type: Hardy
• Aspect: Sun
• Soil: Any/alkaline
• Flower colour: Red/brown
• Flowering period: May – July

Easy to grow, salad burnet is happy in sun or shade and in most soils. It requires little attentionand as it stays green all year round can be used right through the winter. Good in a pot or the ground, burnet will slowly increase in size to form a lovely clump.

Usage

Traditionally, salad burnet was used to stem bleeding and clean wounds and a poultice made from the boiled and cooled leaves and flowers was used to treat mild burns once they had been cooled in water.
The slightly bitter cucumber flavoured leaves can be added to salads and drinks, they are a good source of vitamins, particularly vitamin C.