Cardamine pratensis | cuckoo flower
How to grow and propagate this beautiful grassland wildflower
I’ve really got to know cuckoo flower since living in Yorkshire. They grow in the surrounding grasslands, popping up here and there from spring through to summer, flowering in beautiful shades of white to very pale pink. Their flowers glow in thick grass, held just high enough in the sward to be seen.
It’s the delicacy of the flowers, while having good presence from a distance and up close, as well as its reliability that makes cuckoo flower one of my top wild way plants. Over the last two years I’ve been propagating more of them from two plants I found growing on our farm, I discuss how to do this below.
It’s said that Cardamine pratensis begins flowering at the time you can hear cuckoos, giving its common name, and sure enough, that seems to be true for us. Though with cuckoos declining and on the endangered list in the UK, it may not be the case in future.