Tremendous toadflax

With their flax-like foliage and spurred flowers resembling small toads, linaria or toadflax are easy-going, colourful, sun-loving plants

- Anne Swithinbank

CLOSELY related to snapdragons (antirrhinums), the naturalised ivy-leaved toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis) are the true toadflaxes in the genus Linaria. I well remember my first encounter with a group of alpine toadflax (Linaria alpina) burgeoning from a stone trough. The perky purple and orange blooms seemed to be smiling at me and I couldn’t help grinning back. Flowers have two upper lips, are spurred at the back and thought to resemble a horde of small toads or flocks of birds. Altogether there are around 120 species with their origins in dry, sunny places across the Northern Hemisphere with the Mediterranean a toadflax hot spot.

British wildflower

The perennial common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) known as butter-and eggs is a British wildflower of waste ground and often seeds itself into gardens. Another opportunistic selfseeder is the taller Linaria purpurea, originally from southern Europe. Among the cultivated toadflaxes is a surprisingly wide range of pretty and floriferous annuals and perennials that are perfect for filling gaps in sunny borders of well-drained soil. Their structural blooms come in a wide range of colours and are often bicoloured.

When to sow