🌿 Angelica

Angelica is a majestic, architectural plant with huge, ribbed, hollow stems, lacy leaves and globe-shaped greenish-white flowerheads loved by hoverflies. It is the source of the green candied stems used in cake decoration.

It thrives in moist, partial shade, and is biennial: it grows leaves in year one, and flowers in year two, then dies, though it self-seeds freely. Allow space for a huge plant.

Varieties to try

Angelica archangelica (the culinary species)Angelica gigas (ornamental, purple flowers, not for eating)

Sow fresh seed as soon as it is ripe, in August or September, as it loses viability quickly. Scatter on the surface of moist compost or soil and press in lightly; germination takes 3–6 weeks. Alternatively, buy young plants.

Plant in moist, rich soil in partial shade, 90 cm apart. Thin seedlings, or pot on and move before the long taproot develops.

Top tips

• Sow seed fresh.
• Choose moist soil.
• Allow plenty of space.
• Transplant when small.

Water in dry weather and mulch with compost. To prolong the plant’s life, remove flower stalks as they appear in the second year, though the plant may then live a few more years. Allow a plant to seed to keep a supply.

Leaf miner and aphids may affect the foliage. Support tall flowering stems in windy sites. Plants die after seeding if allowed.

Angelica grows best in cool, moist soil, and suffers in hot, dry sites, where the leaves scorch. Give it room: a mature plant covers a square metre or more. Keep the base mulched, and if you want it to persist, cut the flower stalks before seeds form, which can turn it into a short-lived perennial for several more years.

Top tips

• Remove flower stalks to prolong life.
• Let one plant seed.
• Support tall stems.
• Mulch with compost.

Watch out for

Leaf minerAphidsSlugsDie-back after seeding

Cut young stems in April to June of the second year, before the plant flowers, while still tender and about 1 cm thick. Leaves can be picked from the first year, and the roots and seeds can also be used.

Use stems immediately to candy them. Collect seeds in late summer when ripe.

Top tips

• Cut young stems in spring.
• Pick leaves in year 1.
• Candy stems quickly.
• Collect ripe seed.

Candy the stems by simmering in sugar syrup over several days, then drying; the result is bright green and used in cake decoration. Add chopped leaves to stewed fruit such as rhubarb to reduce acidity. Stems can be added to jams. Seeds flavour liqueurs, such as Chartreuse.

Candied angelica keeps for months in an airtight jar. Do not eat if you are pregnant, take blood thinners or have diabetes, and avoid confusing angelica with poisonous lookalikes such as hemlock.

Top tips

• Candy young stems.
• Add leaves to stewed rhubarb.
• Check identification carefully.
• Store candied stems in jars.