A focus on….. Daucus carota ‘Dara’
Thought it would be nice to highlight some of the unsung heroes of the Higgledy seed portfolio (ooh that sounds posh!) and so here’s a short blog post looking in a bit more detail at a different variety each time. This week I’m looking at the delightful Daucus carota ‘Dara’. This is a new variety for us and I think its just lovely. Its an ornamental form of the species variety Daucus carota or wild carrot with delicate lacy flowers in various shades from white, to pale pink to dark pink almost red. Daucus carota is beautiful itself with gorgeous creamy white flowers.
It’s one of those seeds that is best sown direct and you can sow it in the autumn or early spring, it develops a long tap root as you might expect from its common name! Autumn sown plants will be stronger and flower earlier, but they are also great from an spring sowing and these will flower later so extend the season. You can also sow in seed trays but they don’t really like root disturbance so prick out into larger pots while still small seedlings or even better sow into modules and transplant that way. But really sowing direct is the best option. Leave some flowers to set seed and you will never be without it, thats the aim in my garden!! 
Depending on the lushness of your garden they can need some supporting so growing through a jute wide netting is a good option. The plants grow to about 80-100cm tall. A beautiful umbellifer, its a really great wildlife friendly plant in the garden loved by bees but also hoverflies and all sorts of beetles and bugs. 
As you might expect being in the Higgledy garden seed list its great as a cut flower adding a beautiful frothyness to arrangements and as an airy filler. It has a flat flower head so a different flower shape to include in your displays. It is best cut just as the flower is almost fully open and doesn’t require any special conditioning. It will last about a week in a vase. Use it in a similar way as to how you might use Ammi majus and Ammi visnaga but it usually flowers later than those so good way to extend the seasons in your cutting patch. Here it is in the mix with Cosmos ‘Fizzy Rose’, Cosmos ‘Sensation’, Cosmos ‘Purity’, Zinnia ‘Mammoth’, Origanum and Lysimachia barystachys.
Its has a beautiful way of fading too, the flower head curls in on itself, tucking its seeds into a little ball and these look great dried and included in arrangements or even your winter wreaths and you can collect seeds this way too for sowing again the following year.
Anyway hope thats inspired you to have a look at Daucus carota and Daucus carota ‘Dara’ for your garden or cutting patch this year.
Happy sowing,
Higgledy Anne
(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow)