It was alongside a dis-used Railway embankment in Pencader, Carmarthenshire, where my mother first saw spires of wild Verbascum causing butterfly theatrics around their yellow vertical prongs. So good were they at promoting their presence that nearly all their leaves had gone having had the local slugs and snails over to eat too many times.
I tried to grow them from seed at nearby Aber Gwen Mill but they never germinated.
Now we are a few miles further north at the HoBB, and alongside the Mid Wales Railway Line, we’ve found some more growing and have managed to get their seeds to germinate. Not only do we keep the slugs away from their wonderfully soft leaves but their tall complex seed heads are harvested, dried and bees-wax polished for use in the most spectacular of dried flower displays.
~~~~~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ waves from Grant
Picture above : My mother (right) Filming: “The Fasting Girl” (‘Pencader’ Platform)