Honesty, a beautiful plant that shines in fall

Honesty, or silver dollar plant, is a breeze to grow and brings you lovely flowers come spring.

Key Honesty facts:

Name: Lunaria annua
Family : Brassicaceae
Type: biennial

Height: 20 to 31.5 inches (50 to 80 cm)
Exposure: sunny to partial shade
Soil: rich, well-drained

Foliage: deciduous – Blooming: spring

Planting honesty

If you bought your silver-dollar in a pot, plant it in the spring or at summer’s end.

• Honesty likes partially sunny spots, with partial shade being ideal.
• A rich soil allows it to bloom its heart out all through its flowering period.
• Avoid soils that are either too dry or too wet.
• Pot cultivation of honesty is entirely doable.

Sowing the money plant:

For sowing, prefer a sowing in a nursery in the spring and transplant at summer’s end or the following spring. You can directly sow in the ground from June to September.

Gather the seeds of this plant when seed capsules become transparent. Simply store them in an envelope and sow them the next year.

Caring for honesty

Honesty is so easy to maintain, it demands so little attention that you might forget about it if it didn’t catch your eye with its lovely blooming and its pearly iridiscent coins.

If you truly wish to pamper it, remove faded flowers gradually.

In fall, leave some coins in place for the plant to self-sow.

What to know about Lunaria annua

This is one of the easiest plants to maintain thanks to its ability to self-sow. Its purple or violet flowers enchant our gardens in the spring and display lovely translucent medallions at the end of summer. It adapts perfectly to wild gardens and flower beds and also to the creation of dried flower bouquets at the end of summer.

Its Latin name Lunaria annua translates literally as annual moon, likely due to its lovely moon-shaped pearly coins. It is also often found under the name of coin-plant.

Note that there is also another variety of honesty called Lunaria rediviva.

→ To go further: Lunaria: its fruits are dazzling