Cow parsley or something else?

Good evening everyone.

I recently went to Chelsea Flower show and noticed a lot of the gardens had cow parsley in them or at least a plant that looked like cow parsley. I really liked the look and would like to plant some in my garden. When searching online I see there are quite a few similar looking varieties. Cow parsley, yarrow, Achilliea all have similar form. I was wondering if someone knows what the plants that I saw are.
I’ve included a couple of screen shots from Jo Thompsons Glasshouse garden which include what I’m talking about.


Are some varieties better to plant than others?

many thanks,

Ed

 

Perhaps it's Ammi Majus?

I'm growing it the first time as I needed a big filler for the first summer, it was dead easy from seeds sown in greenhouse in October and planted out around May. It has flowered ever since and is only now starting to show signs of old age.

This was in June:

 

Interesting. Thanks very much. There seems to be so many plants that look similar.

 

There's also Selinum Wallichiana or Ligusticopsis wallichiana (the same plant I'm pretty sure, the latter name is up-to-date I assume, common name Wallich milk parsley). An airy and beautiful umbellifer, described by E.A.Bowles as "the queen of the umbellifers" and "the most beautiful of all fern-leaved plants" (mmmm but what about ferns?).

https://www.bethchatto.co.uk/conditions/plants-for-general-conditions/selinum-tenuifolium-our-original-form-.htm

I bought this plant a few days ago at East Lambrook garden, created by Margery Fish - https://eastlambrook.com/ . For now I've repotted it, I'm looking forward to planting it out later.

 

There are certainly plenty of varieties of Ammi and they're quite easy from seed.
I think cow parsley was being grown in some of the Chelsea gardens, but I didn't watch much of it. I collected seed a couple of years ago,as it's everywhere round here, and have it in a couple of places in my garden. I do deadhead it as it can get a bit rampant if left alone.

I grew A. Casablanca some years ago - mainly because it's one of my favourite films! It did well. It can be used as a cut flower too.

 

I like the dark-leaved, dark stemmed variety of cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing', but I can't tell whether that's what's in the picture (it might be, the stems look dark). It was very fashionable/popular in show gardens several years ago.

It's biennial like the green form and dies after setting seed, but self-sows readily. Some of the offspring come up green or less purple, but are easy to pull out. It's one of those plants that seems to grow best if you let it do its own thing and grow where it likes. The tap root means it's not always easy to transplant although it must be possible to grow it in containers or they wouldn't be able to use it in show gardens.

 

Doesn't Monty Donn keep prattling on about this plant? I'm glad someone else thinks its just cow parsley.

 

Yes - he has a whole area of it @pete. I don't see huge differences between the wild one [Anthriscus] and many of the cultivated types of Ammi, because they all have that same general appearance, with a few variations. The wild one can certainly get really big - or it does here anyway, so that could be a problem in some areas.
If you want that 'look' there are loads of umbellifers available, and most are easy to grow from seed, which might be better behaved than the wild cow parsley.

I feel that way about a lot of plants though. Remember the fuss about that Japanese Anemone a few years ago? Can't remember what it's called, but it was very similar to lots of others as far as I was concerned. They kept banging on about the darker areas on the back of the petals. I had one which was virtually identical. That saved me some money

 

I grew Ammi majus and was very disappointed as it is a bit too solid and robust looking. I haven’t tried any other varieties. I think Anthroscus are generally more dainty and light?

 

Was it Ammi Visnaga @Butterfly6 , that is a denser variety.

 

It might have been, @Bluejayway, it was a few years ago. It didn’t self seed, I think our soil is a little too heavy for it