White clover

How to recognise it

Habit

Low and creeping, 5–20 cm tall. Long surface runners root at the nodes and form dense mats.

Leaf

Three leaflets on long stalks that rise straight from the runners. Leaflets round to oval, finely toothed, often with a whitish V-shaped mark.

Flower

Globe-shaped heads 1.5–2.5 cm across on long, leafless stalks, from May to September. White or pale pink, with a honey scent.

Fruit/Seed

After flowering the florets bend down and turn brown. They hide small pods with 3–4 yellow to brown seeds.

Roots

A taproot in young plants, later mainly roots at the nodes, with pinkish nodules housing nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Confusion with

Red clover has pinkish-purple heads without a long stalk and does not creep. Alsike clover has pinkish-white heads and does not root at the nodes. Wood-sorrel has heart-shaped leaflets and tastes sour.

Flowering: May–September · Pruning: April–October

Why grow it?

• A top bee plant: honeybees and bumblebees collect nectar and pollen from it from May to September.
• Food plant for the caterpillars of the common blue and of several moths.
• Makes its own nitrogen through root nodules, so a lawn with clover stays green without chemical fertiliser.
• Tolerates mowing and trampling: ideal for a flowering lawn or a play area.
• Once deliberately sown in pastures as protein-rich fodder and as a green manure.

White clover: where does it grow best?

• In the wild: lawns, pastures, verges, dykes, paths and open ground on almost any soil.
• Sun or light shade; in deep shade it hardly flowers.
• Ordinary to moist soil: sand, loam or clay. Poor soil is no problem, as it makes its own nitrogen.
• Ideal in a flowering lawn, a play area, between paving or as a green manure on bare ground.

Goes well with

• Daisy: The classic partner in a flowering lawn, in flower from March to October.
• Selfheal: Purple flowers in summer; also tolerates mowing.
• Bird’s-foot trefoil: Yellow pea flowers and food plant of the common blue.
• Bugle: Blue flowers in spring, before the clover blooms.

White clover: when and how to plant it?

1. Sow from April to June or from late August to mid-September, when the soil is warm and moist.
2. Mix the fine seed with a little sand, scatter it and rake it in no deeper than 0.5 cm.
3. In an existing lawn: mow short, rake the turf open and sow into the bare patches.
4. Firm the soil and keep it moist for 2–3 weeks until the seedlings are up.
5. Plants from a native-plant nursery go in 20–30 cm apart; they form a mat within one season.
6. Never dig up plants from the wild; buy seed or plants of native origin.

Care

Water

Keep moist after sowing. After that, not needed: in a dry summer it flowers less, but it comes back.

Feeding

Never needed. Nitrogen fertiliser mainly helps the grass, which then crowds out the clover.

Mowing

Mow every 3–4 weeks at 5–6 cm so it can flower in between. Ideally mow in two halves, so there are always flowers left for the bees.

Spreading

In a border the runners creep between other plants. Pull them out regularly; they root shallowly.

Self-seeding

Now and then leave a patch unmown until the heads turn brown: that way it seeds itself.

Tip: Want a bee-friendly lawn without much work? Mow higher (5–6 cm) and less often, and stop feeding: clover appears by itself and keeps the lawn green.

Pruning and mowing

Pruning months: April–October.

When: Mowing from April to October, every 3–4 weeks.

How:

• Set the mower to 5–6 cm: mowing shorter leaves few flowers.
• Mow after a flush of flowers, when most heads have turned brown.
• Alternate: mow one half, and the other half two weeks later.
• Give a last cut in October, then let the lawn rest.

Caution: Do not mow when the lawn is full of flowers and bees: mow in the evening or just after a flush of flowers.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

April–June or late August–September; germinates in 1–2 weeks in warm, moist weather.

Runners

In spring, lift a piece of the mat with rooted runners and replant it elsewhere.

White clover: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −30 °C.

• Stays partly green in mild winters; in hard frost the leaves die off, but the runners survive.
• Fully hardy, to well below −25 °C.
• In spring it shoots again from the nodes and fills bare patches in the lawn.

Diseases and pests

• Bees in the lawn: A flowering clover lawn is full of bees. Have children wear shoes, or mow the play area more often.
• Too much clover: Anyone who wants a pure grass lawn sees clover as a weed. Clover points to poor soil: think of it as free fertiliser.
• Leaf weevils: Half-moon notches in the leaf edges. Harmless; birds and ground beetles deal with them.
• Powdery mildew: A white film on the leaves in dry late summers. Mowing and some rain clear it by themselves.

Through the year

• March: The runners start growing again. Rake open bare patches in the lawn.
• April: Sow. First mowing at 5–6 cm.
• May: Flowering begins. Mow every 3–4 weeks, in two halves.
• June: Full flower, busy with bees and bumblebees. Mow after a flush of flowers.
• July: Flowering. Mow every 3–4 weeks; leave a patch to set seed.
• August: Flowering. In late August, sow into bare patches. Mow.
• September: Last flowers. Sow until mid-September. Mow.
• October: Last mowing of the year.
• November: Rest. In mild weather the leaves stay partly green.
• December: Rest.

Did you know?

• A four-leaf clover is a rare variation and has been seen as a lucky charm for centuries.
• The scientific name says it all: Trifolium means ‘three leaves’ and repens ‘creeping’.
• Some white clover plants release hydrogen cyanide when a leaf is damaged, a defence against slugs and snails; such plants are more common in warmer regions.