Plant-Lore

Collecting the folklore and uses of plants

Sweet William

0051. Sweet William – known as Stinking Billy in Scotland, because of the defeat of the Scots at Culloden by the Duke of Cumberland (Billy) – loathed [Corbridge, Northumberland, January 1993].*

*Comment from Drew Robertson,  May 2021: It wasn’t the defeat of the Scots, because the 45 rebellion was in essence a civil war as Scots fought on both sides on Culloden Moor.

Images: main, cultivated, Southampton, Hampshire, October 2018; inset, cultivated, Geffrye Museum garden, London Borough of Hackney, August 2015.