A field of blooming Hesperis Mixed from Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd shows nature’s beauty under a blue sky with trees—a scene styled more perfectly than any CSS style or border radius could achieve.
A field of blooming Hesperis Mixed from Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd shows nature’s beauty under a blue sky with trees—a scene styled more perfectly than any CSS style or border radius could achieve.A close-up of Hesperis Mixed by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd shows clusters of small purple and white blossoms under a clear blue sky, capturing the freshness of a sunny day—nature’s border radius softening every edge.Hesperis Mixed by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd features tall clusters of bright purple flowers with green stems and leaves, blooming in sunlight. The blurred trees and blue sky form a border radius, evoking modern CSS styles.A person in a beige floral dress holds a bouquet of Hesperis Mixed by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd. The background has smooth white siding and green potted plants, reminiscent of a sleek CSS border radius style.Close-up of Hesperis Mixed by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd—vibrant purple blooms with green stems and leaves, set against a blurred wooden fence and trees beneath a bright blue sky.Hesperis Mixed by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd blooms in clusters beneath a clear blue sky, their beauty shining amid green leaves and tall trees in the background.Close-up of vibrant Hesperis Mixed flowers from Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd, with purple blooms in a sunlit garden, green foliage, and a blurred house with tiled roof and white siding softly framing the background.
Biennial Pollinator

Hesperis Mixed

Hesperis matronalis — Sweet Rocket, Dame's Violet; Brassicaceae

£2.20approx. 500 seeds

Tall stems of dusk-scented violet-purple and white four-petalled flowers — the great evening flower of the cottage garden in a mixed-colour packet. Orange Tip butterfly host.

Sowing months
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Height
70–90cm
Spread
30-50cm
Spacing
30-45cm
Position
Semi-shade to partial sun
Soil
Moist, humus-rich soil; under trees
Grow guide
How to grow Hesperis Mixed
Read the full guide →
About this variety

By day it is a pleasant enough plant and no more: branching stems at 75 to 90cm carrying loose clusters of four-petalled flowers that look like a slightly rough phlox, here in a blend of violet-purple and white. Then the sun goes down.

The scent is the whole reason to grow it. As the temperature drops the flowers release a heavy sweet fragrance of violets and cloves that carries right across a garden, timed that way to bring in night-flying moths. Plant it by a bench, a path you use in the evening, or an open kitchen window.

It is a biennial: rosette the first year, flowers in May and June the second, then it dies. It self-seeds prolifically, which is how a colony keeps going and also how it turns up in places you did not intend, so pull what you do not want while it is small. Two other things worth knowing. It is the preferred larval food plant of the orange tip butterfly, so leave some seed pods rather than cutting everything back, and the foliage mildews badly in a dry late summer.

Plant alongside

Hesperis Mixed pairs beautifully with these cottage garden classics

Aquilegia Barlow Mixed
Aquilegia Barlow Mixed
£2.10
Foxglove Excelsior Mix
Foxglove Excelsior Mix
£2.15
Honesty Mixed
Honesty Mixed
£2.20

RHS Plants for Pollinators

This plant has been assessed by the Royal Horticultural Society and recommended as especially beneficial to bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Growing plants like this directly supports UK pollinator populations — something close to our hearts at Salle Moor Hall Farm, where we see the difference a cottage garden full of the right plants can make.

Learn more at RHS.org.uk →