What on earth is this post about? This is after all a blog about gardens, designed landscapes and sometimes plants and their history. If you’re from a rural background and of the right age to remember children’s country games you might well know what the title refers to. But if you’re not here are some more clues: it’s a plant sometimes known elsewhere as old man’s nightcap, thunder flowers, scammony or Our Lady’s little glass.
Still none the wiser? I bet its one of those plants you definitely DON’T want. If you’ve got it be prepared for a long losing battle because when I googled it almost every reference was to ways of eradicating it, with the admission that it was well nigh impossible…and unfortunately I’ve just spotted it beginning its assault all round my garden.
It is of course….
On the way to a family wedding last weekend I stopped off at Harlaxton near Grantham in Lincolnshire. Like John Claudius Loudon before me I “had heard much of this place from various architects and amateurs for several years.”
The Garden History Blog 
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