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There’s a little-known flower that is small but mighty. Discovered by a botanist on an expedition in 1820, the poached egg plant has properties that will transform your garden: it is a magnet for pollinators and can even help to lock nutrients into your soil. Ben reveals the lost secrets of this mysterious flower, (that looks like an egg) in this week’s episode.
47 Comments
I wonder if this would grow in temperate Australia?
Its actually native to my state, thats awesome! I planted Nasturtiums once and now they've gone feral can come back year after year. Planting some Calendula again this year. I also have marigolds.
I got these seeds in my garden advent calendar, first time I'd seen them, so excited to get growing!
I received a free packet of these seeds in a gardening magazine a few years ago. Whilst I agree they are a very handsome and easy to grow plant, I did find that they self seeded everywhere in the garden,it took many seasons to get them under control.
Österreich 🇦🇹 Deutschland 🇩🇪 Schweiz 🇨🇭 für alle die Info in Deutsch: „Die Douglas-Sumpfblume (Limnanthes douglasii), auch Spiegelei-Blume genannt, ist eine Pflanzenart aus der Gattung der Sumpfblumen (Limnanthes) in der Familie der Limnanthaceae. Ihr Name ehrt den britischen Botaniker David Douglas […]“
Quelle:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas-Sumpfblume
👍👍😊
Minor clarification; limnanthes is not edible, right? Whereas calendula, borage and nasturtiums are? (about to sow my container lot, always happy to find a new edible, but I'm pretty sure it's not one).
Apparently these are native to my area but I have never heard of them or seen them ever…welp, time to get to the store 😊😊
Nah 2 fried EGGS ANY DAY 😅 WILL HAVE TO GET THIS 1 , KEEP ISLAMICS OFF FLOWER BEDS 😅😊
Yep we have them every year once planted they do it themselves.
This plant survives the harsh UK winter. I find the new seeds grow just before winter and then grow all winter. Unbelievable flower.
Second only to dandelions as a self-seeder
Hey Ben, would you consider making a video about all things tuber, bulb, and runner-related? Like, how to check if old flower tubers and bulbs are still viable, planting depth, how to divide them, how to store them without going moldy, etc. Flower bulbs cost money, and they often get thrown away or rot over winter.
I'm in Zone 6B and I need a source for these seeds, please.
Tomatoes and peas are not pollinated by insects FYI. Hoverflies are attracted by poached egg plant (sorry not poached eggplant, haha) and these insects will prey on aphids. That's it, that's all.
Poached egg plant! My goodness. In my part of the world, we call that meadowfoam. It’s famous for its honey, which I can confirm is very delicious.
Does it keep that ticks away. I also have a problem with June bugs
I'm wondering about over-fertilizing potentially inviting more pests/diseases into the garden due to lush leaf growth.
If I were to fertilize with compost instead of slinging handfuls of fertilizer over the soil, would that help to deter pests that would otherwise attack the leaves?
Perhaps my usual nasturtium/cosmos traps, in addition to the poached egg plant will continue to help with garden fertility and vitality?
What pests does it banish?
Hey, Ben!! I grow lots of flowers in my gardens, many of them medicinal or for pest control.
In the vegetable garden: petunias, dwarf zinnias, nasturtium, 5 kinds of marigolds, alyssum, cosmos, borage, hollyhock, lupines, delphiniums, wild mallow, wild violets, yarrow, chamomile, and geraniums. I guess artichokes are also technically a flower. Lol.
i usually have petunias planted with my squash as they repel vine borers and squash bugs. Pairing it up with cinnamon basil has really saved my squash! We get pretty heavy pest pressure from them here in Iowa. The wild plants like yarrow, violets, and mallow are transplanted in intentionally to bring in more native pollinators and predators.
In the medicinal beds, i have loads of flowers that all have a medicinal purpose: chamomile, calendula, edelweiss, evening primrose, echinacea, hollyhocks, marshmallow, valerian, spirea (aspirin), heartsease, shiso in both red and green (perilla), burdock, rudbeckia, elecampane, mullein, self-heal, yarrow, stinging nettle, cleavers, horehound, monarda (bee balm), catnip, milk thistle, lemon balm, peppermint, several agastache varieties, hyssop, zaatar, lavender, cornflower, purslane, California Poppy, lilacs, hydrangeas, and I'm sure more that i can't remember at the moment.
This year I'm hoping to add white and blue gentian to that list as well as st. John's wort. I am not planning to harvest the gentian as I'm growing it for conservational purposes. The hydrangeas and white lilacs are very special to this house. The hydrangeas were planted the year the house was built in 1911. It burned to the ground in 1912, but the hydrangeas survived. Then the house was rebuilt from the same blueprints as an exact duplicate in 1913. The hydrangea bed, technically, outdates most of the house. In some of the hollow bricks in the basement, you can still see charcoal coming out of them as they break with time. (Inner walls in the basement are brick, not the actual weight bearing ones). The white lilacs were planted in the 1930s.
Around the rest of the property i have loads of other ornamentals like papaver poppies, white bleeding hearts, hostas, morning glories, daylily, roses (hard to keep grafted ones alive around here though), peonies, daffodils, and more. I can't possibly list them all if i tried. Lol. I'm currently at WAR with Lily of the Valley, or as i call it "cancer of the garden." It is VERY pretty and smells lovely for about 2 weeks a year. It wants to take over the universe and I've dug up runner roots as deep as 2 feet!! It refuses to die. I want it removed because it's extremely poisonous and i don't want it continuing to take over the yard nearing the house and my medicinal garden. You can't even burn the stuff because it's too dangerous. It can even make you sick from skin contact. I have pets, sheep, and a small child so for 2 weeks of pretty blooms, it just isn't worth it.
Gardeners to a half price plant sale 😆 – so true
But, are they slug resistant…I have armies of very big slugs to deal with so I avoid plants they find yummy.
So far I've grown Calendula and French Marigolds. Last year I added cosmos but this year I'm going to build a bed just to feed the pollinators and hopeful bring in the beneficial insects….I can't find poached egg plant seeds in Canada. 🫤
I sowed these a few years ago as they came free with the first garden magazine I ever bought 🥹. I wasn’t ‘into’ flowers at the time. When these kicked off I loved their green fronds. Then came the flowers, wow, they really flower well, I had them in the edges of a flower planter left by previous owners (used the old soil in it) and they did fab filled the edges beautifully. I discovered how wonderful it is for pollinators. And the self seeding nature of them is so useful too. I’ve saved seeds and shared with friends who had never heard of them before aswell 🥰
Thanks for introducing me to this wonderful plant. Looks like this is must grow like Marigold and Calendula.
❤👍✌️🙏🇬🇧
my only problem is grasshoper
Love Rosie's new hairdo ❤😊
I'm having a hard time finding a vendor with this flower. where can I get it ?
Flowers or blossoms in my garden beds? Really ordinary stuff. Marigolds; zinnias; snapdragons which get planted right next to the tomatoes; mullein; common thyme; alyssum; coreopsis; calendula; cosmos (three varieties, all white); malva; nodding onions for their blossoms; nasturtiums, several varieties; pansies/violas; a "lemon" colored coneflower/echinacea; Jerusalem artichoke for a privacy screen during the growing season and some food after it; bachelor's button. Some alliums, generally garlic, allowed to flower and make seeds.
And I think that covers the flowers intentionally put into the garden as flowers.
Lovely! I grow Lavender, Hellebore, Nasturtiums and French Marigolds every year. I'm going to add this little gem. Thanks for the nudge, Ben 😊 EDIT: Forgot to add sunflowers and poppies!
Where did you get your metal garden arches, please?
Hadn't heard of this one; I'll have to incorporate it into my perennial garden plans. Thank you so much.
You can find these seeds from an excellent supplier at Everwilde Farms. They do not ship to EU countries though
Starting off the first few sowings marks the beginning of the season especially when they germinate.
I am thinking of trying some poached eggplant this year. Last year I tried your other recommendation, Sweet Alyssum and I have got to say it was massive success.
I wonder what the 2026 growing season has to offer and how it will contrast that of 2025.
My mother was sowing 80 years ago and I’m still growing it at 78. She used to grow it under fruit trees and bees and bugs used party like drunks 😂😂
I wonder if they’d grow in the tropics?
Hi Ben i suffer with agoraphobia and only can go as far as my garden.Your videos have been an inspiration for me personally being in the garden really does help with your mental health thank you
Native to the Western United States.
The name is not as beautiful in Swedish. A direct translation would be marsh herb. I will try it this year though. I usually grow marigolds together with my carrots. It keeps the carrot flies away.
It killed off all the dead matter eating springtails and ferns died alot
Love watching your videos (even though you live in a completely different climate to mine 😅) but that poached egg was way overcooked 🤢
Hi Ben, I usually let the chickens into the garden before spring planting. (fenced of course for protection of plants already growing). Although they weed and turnover my soil for me and eat all the pests, they also eat all the self-sown seeds from last year😏 do you think it’s a good idea at all to let chickens into the garden. Your ideas please
Great video thank you! Happy gardening
I love poached egg plant but once you sow it you never need to resow it as it self seeds like crazy. Best to keep it in its own little bed surrounded by grass or in a wild flower meadow.
Can it be bought in quantity, or do you only get those small bags? Will it thrive on a huge soil mound? I have had a pile made to make way for some construction. So otherwise I have lupine, but a neighbor think they are a pest. So hard to please everyone. The summer is pretty hard with sunshine. How does a moisture thriving plant like this thrive on my mound of soil. Higher than 2 meters tall. Other plant suggestions for my mound that was stripped black soil in winter 2025? I am not ready to utilize this soil the coming season. And I wonder if I need to compost it together with compost to get it free from weeds later, in order to use some of it as an topping layer do get rid of divots in a successful lawn
I love the plant richness already present in the lawn. And like to not get something new and invasive
Always thought fried egg plant or fried egg flower was a better name, the yellow yolk on a poached egg is usually covered in a film of the white and not so noticeable.