Bronze fennel

The bronze or purple form of garden fennel (not to be confused with sweet or Florence fennel, an annual vegetable grown for its swollen bulbs) is a handsome and popular perennial, often planted on its own for impact or combined with bergamot in flower borders. With plenty of humus and water in dry weather, plants develop into magnificent clumps of airy feather foliage, crowned in late summer with large heads of tiny flowers. The seeds are as useful herbally as the leaves, and may be left to ripen as a crop.