Filipendula

Meadowsweets are damp meadow plants, so ideally needing a retentive soil. There are around 10 species, and have fluffy flowers, held in flattish heads, rather than astilbes, which have often have flowers held in upright spires. Foliage is often attractively palmate. With a good moisture-retentive soil, they can take a full sun position, or tolerate some part shade. Our native meadowsweet, F. ulmaria, found across Britain, has a strong sweet or medicinal smell. It has been used in herbal medicine and to flavour meads, wines and jams.

The frothy heads of flowers attract a wide range of insects, especially flies, as pollinators, and the leaves are eaten by the larvae of numerous moths, including the dramatic emperor moth. Stems and leaves are also infected by rust fungi, leaf-mining micromoths and the galls of a gall-midge: some may consider those to be disfigurements, but in reality they are the manifestation of rich biodiversty, and the plants are not harmed. As always, doubled forms have a lower provision of nectar and/or pollen to passing insects. Some forms, especially F. camtschatica,  are increasing in the wild and starting to pose a risk to natural wetlands, so steps should be taken to avoid this escaping the confines of the garden.