Bishop's Flower

Ammi majus is the flower that florists don't want you to know about. Well, that's not quite true — they're perfectly happy for you to know about it, they'd just prefer you didn't realise you can grow it yourself from a two-quid packet of seeds and have armfuls of it all summer long.

It's sometimes called Bishop's Flower or false Queen Anne's lace, and it produces these gorgeous, flat-topped umbels of tiny white flowers on tall, branching stems. Think cow parsley, but more refined — cleaner lines, bigger heads, and a slightly more elegant habit. It's the flower that makes every bunch look like it was arranged by a professional.

I discovered it when I noticed it in every single wedding arrangement on Instagram one summer and thought, right, what is that wispy white thing that makes everything look expensive? It was ammi. Of course it was. The secret ingredient. The thing that lifts a bunch of garden roses from nice to extraordinary.

Sow seed in autumn or early spring and by midsummer you'll have waist-high plants covered in lacy white heads that last for weeks in a vase. Weeks. They branch and re-branch, so the more you cut, the more they produce. Sound familiar? It's the sweet pea principle — generosity rewarding generosity.

I grow it every year now, in a cutting patch alongside cornflowers and sweet peas, and I treat it as an essential ingredient rather than a feature flower. It's the flour in the cake — the thing that holds everything else together and makes the whole thing work.