Symphytum - Comfrey

I try to do a perennial spotlight every few weeks. Yesterday I wrote one for my Melanie's Perennials blog, it featured some of the hardy Geraniums in bloom right now.

Another perennial that is deserving of the spotlight is Symphytum which is commonly known as Comfrey or Borage. Any book on herbs contains a page on this hardy perennial. Throughout history it has been used for many different ailments, unfortunately it has come to light that internal use of this plant causes liver cancer.

While I grow quite a few herbs in my garden, I rarely use them in any way other than ones specifically grown for flavoring foods (fennel, basil, mint, rosemary and so on). I have no problem keeping this lovely plant in my garden.

The tallest of the three comfrey's growing in my garden is this purplish/blue one.

I would love to have the full botanical name for this plant but I never purchased it with a tag. My friend Kim and I each rescued a small piece that had been planted at a local historical house. I am just crazy about it and look forward to seeing how it grows in future years.

Another Symphytum in my garden is this pale white/pink variety. I actually purchased this one at a local nursery but none of the pots had labels in them. I have it planted in full sun and part shade, it appears happy in either condition and has been blooming for almost a month now.

In one of my front gardens we had a telephone pole that had broken. The phone company simply cut it off at ground level and put in a new pole. I was worried that nothing would grow near the rotting base of the old pole so planted Symphytum in that spot.

I had read that Symphtum is an invasive plant but so far I have yet to experience any type of invasiveness from any of these varieties. Maybe that one reference was wrong?

This pink blooming one is the only one I have the full name for, it's Symphytum 'Langham's Pink'.

The leaves on Symphytum are rough to the touch and have been used (and still are used) to make a poultice to help knit broken bones. Another use I've read about is to add them to your compost pile to speed up decomposition or to make compost tea with them. I have tried the tea, it stinks to high heaven so I haven't tried it again. If any of you make compost tea with this plant I'd love to know about it.

Over the years I've seen another Symphytum for sale, it's name is 'Goldsmith' and it has foliage that is marbled with yellow & green. Although I did buy this and plant it in my garden in semi-shade it is not here now. I would try it again if I saw it for sale but put it in a sunnier location.

Searching on-line I found some great information at Wikipedia The article states that comfrey grows back quickly after being cut back. This is something I have had first hand experience with, I've cut mine back hard after flowering, put the foliage on the compost heap and had a new flush of growth and bloom.

One thing I haven't tried yet is to divide any of my comfrey. Let me know if you have!

Melanie

Tricyrtis - Toad Lily

Finding good fall perennials require a bit of hunting. So many gardeners stop shopping for plants once summer heat hits but that's one way to assure yourself of having a boring fall garden.

Luckily, a few years ago I began to add Tricyrtis to my garden. Tricyrtis has one of those nicknames you'd rather not hear, it's Toad Lily. I think the name has something to do with the spots.

Anyway, I have a large clump of Tricyrtis blooming in my back shade bed right now.

Here you can see the whole clump. I've planted Tricyrtis in other spots and they've done ok but if you plant them next to something more aggressive, they seem to lose ground. Aparantly this one is in the perfect spot because it's quite happy there.

It took about a dozen trys to get a close up shot of the unusual bloom. Hopefully you get the picture. I do think I'd like to try a few more of these now that I've figured out what they like. Rich compost, shade and not too dry is my guess.

Do any of you grow Tricyrtis?

Filipendula 'Kakome'

Oh no, I think I've fallen head over heels, madly in love with a plant in my garden.

Our lousy cool wet morning slowly turned into a beautiful day. As the weather improved, we started having visitors come to see our open garden. It wasn't until the mid afternoon that I really noticed this plant and then I just couldn't stop visiting it!

One of the first blogs I wrote was about this plant. It was a mystery plant to me, I bought it at a local nursery at the insistence of a gardening friend. Luckily she remembered the name, Filipendula 'Kakome'. (That post is the second to last post under the label "Plant Profile")


When I first planted this in my garden I had no idea what kind of conditions it would need. I planted it in extremely dry shade. Since it's a semi-shade, moisture lover, I'm thrilled that it survived in my garden. While I noticed it before, it wasn't until I moved a piece into a sunnier spot near our sprinkler that I saw what this baby could do. This photo is of the piece that's still in the dry shade area.

Here's a photo from the back side of the sun border with the Filipendula in the lower left corner.

Tonight as I downloaded my photos on to the computer I realized that I took nine different shots of this bloom. I guess I was totally smitten ;-

It looks like cotton candy with little pearl tufts rising above it. Sigh... what a dream flower...

Oh yes, there was another new flower that blew me away today so stay tuned, I'll post about it tomorrow.

Melanie

Aruncus - the perfect perennial

The most well behaved plant in my garden has to be Aruncus aethusifolius. The plant catalog at my desk here describes it perfectly: "10" compact mounds of dense, finely cut foliage, miniature spires of creamy white".

It forms a perfectly round mound, looking as if a garden gnome came upon it in the middle of the night and trimmed it.

Right now (June 10th) it is in full bloom. The blooms last a pretty long time, I'll be watching carefully this year to see how long they are here. Gradually they fade to a tan color and I just leave them on the plant since they remain nice and neat.

I also love the fact they they will scatter a few seeds this way although I never get as many seedlings as I'd like to get.

Last year I added two more types of Aruncus to my garden. This photo shows Aruncus 'Misty Lace' which is described as a " 2' X 2', compact and heat tolerant, deep green Astilbe-like foliage topped with delicate pure white plumes.

Sure enough it too is behaving as perfecly as it's little sister. It's just a bit larger than the athusifolius variety and has even more blooms.

I have this one in part shade, it gets lots of direct morning sun but no afternoon sun and it is as happy as can be.

Here's another angle, I love how it looks against the deep purple foliage of the Ligularia 'Britt Marie Crawford'.


The last variety of Aruncus in my garden is Aruncus dioicus which is the large version. 4-6' tall giant cream plumes in July, foliage looks like a giant Astilbe is just about the perfect description. What the catalog doesn't tell you is how wonderful this looks in the landscape.

For many years I walked past the pots of this giant Aruncus at nursery centers. It looks awful in pots. The blooms sprawled all over and seemed dingy in color. In the garden though it's a whole different story. The creamy white is just dreamy and the soft arching blooms are so much better than I ever imagined.

Sitting here typing on my laptop I can look out my dining room window and see it in full bloom. It looks magnificent and I hope it too gives me some seedlings like the athusifolius variety has done.

Shave and a haircut...

Today's Perennial Spotlight is focused upon a charming little creeper, Cymbalaria muralis which is known locally as Kenilworth Ivy.

These sweet little plant was given to me many years ago by a neighbor, just a little slip that I had in a pot near my garage. A piece escaped from the pot and rooted by the door. When I was looking for plants that would grow in my rock wall, I removed a piece and tucked it into a crevice out back.
Over the past four years the Cymbalaria worked it's way around the corner of the raised bed. It doesn't like the sunny spots, just the most shaded corner of the wall so I really didn't have to do anything to contain it.

Yesterday I decided that it needed a haircut. It looks so lush and healthy here but it was hiding some of the elements of the rock wall that I really like.

See, now you can see the boulder that we worked into the plan.

It was really simple to cut back the Cymbalaria, I just used a basic pair of scissors. The whole area took less than an hour and I also added lots of compost and top dressing to the bed at the same time.

Rather than cut too much, I left some areas with little tufts of Cymbalaria. I know that it will grow back again soon. Look at what I found underneath, a nice little Sempervivum rosette that will now get some much needed afternoon sun.

I think I'll pot up some Cymbalaria and add it to the sales table. Don't you think it's sweet?

Iberis sempervirens - Candytuft

Well, today I planned on writing about seating areas in the garden but all that went out of my head. It's all because of those darn weather forecasters. Being a gardener, the only person I can blame for this crazy weather is a weather forecaster.

Today's feature is a perennial named Iberis sempervirens, it's nickname is Candytuft. Why am I writing about it? Because it's white and looks like snow. Snow? Did you say snow? It's snowing outside!!! What's going on here? The first time it started snowing this morning I called my husband who is in an office only 4 miles from here. It was not snowing outside his office. Are the weather gods only mad at me?

Now it's started snowing again. I came inside, checked the local forecast for our exact zipcode. According to the national weather channel website it's 42 degrees and cloudy outside. There's a 20% chance of precipitation. Don't they look out the window? Don't they even scroll down and look at the rader just inches below which show almost all of Long Island under a green band of precipiation? Duh?

So, back to Iberis. I have Iberis in my garden. I know it's easy to propigate but I just haven't had the right luck with it yet. I haven't figured out if I should take cuttings before it blooms, after it blooms, layer the long pieces on the ground or if there's something better.

One thing I can say about Iberis is that it's beautiful when it blooms here in late April. I'm lucky that it's in a spot where the biennial Lunaria has selfsown. Don't they make a wonderful combination!

Ok, the snow has stopped for now. Back out to attack the garden, brrrrr

If you have any tips on dividing Iberis, please leave me a comment!

Bleeding Hearts by Color

Dicentra spectabilis, more commonly known as Bleeding Hearts is a perennial that I just adore. My gardens are filled with them, they bloom for such a long time in the spring. The only downfall is that their foliage dies off when the temperatures get hot so you are left with a large "dead" spot in your garden. It takes a bit of experementation but eventually you will find companion perennials that will fill in that spot later in the season.

One of the most cool things about bleeding hearts is that you can tell what color they are as soon as they start pushing out of the soil. I wish other perennials were this easy to identify!

The first photo shows the emerging shoot of a pink bleeding heart.


This is what the blooms will look like later in the spring. Aren't they magnificent?


Here you can see the color change in the emerging shoots of a white bleeding heart.

This photo was shot exactly one year ago. Aparently we are a bit behind last year as I haven't seen this in the garden yet.

Going through three years of perennial photos it was amazing to me that I could find lots of photos of the pink Dicentras but this was the only photo I could find of a white Dicentra. I grow lots of both of them so I will have to make an effort to take some better photos this year.

If you've ever wondered how to divide a Dicentra spectabilis, scroll down the right side of my blog and click on "How to Divide Perennials" under the catagory "Labels". You will see what the root system of a bleeding heart looks like. They are quite different from most perennials and so I used to think they were finicky. The truth is that they divide easily as along as you divide them early in their growth stage. In my experience, they immediately take off and bloom like nothing ever happened to them.

Another note I would make about bleeding hearts is that they appreciate more sunlight then I was led to believe. If you live in a warmer climate (I am on Long Island, just east of New York City), you might have a different experience. Here though, I've grown bleeding hearts in full sun and they grow quickly to epic proportions! The ones in the shade bloom as well but take much longer to clump up.

Off to spend some glorious time cleaning up winter debris,
Melanie

Have you ever divided a Hellebore?

Last year was the first that I had Hellebore seedlings bloom. It was so exciting to see their different faces. The bees had done the pollinating for me, I did not hybridize these.

As you can see here, they were a nice size last year. This year I expect to have them double in size as they were planted in a nice rich soil.

One Hellebore that I bought about 5 years ago has grown to enormous proportions. I've never read or seen anything that talks about dividing a Hellebore. The plants that are available for sale in pots are quite large and robust so I would guess that they do pot up well. I wonder if those are seedlings that are potted up or if they were divisions from larger plants.

Many years ago a garden friend gave me two plants of Hellebore foetidus. She warned me that they would sulk when planted in my garden. True to her advice, they never became robust but as they went to seed, their seedlings took over and became large healthy plants. I have moved very young seedlings and noticed that they don't mind this at all. But as for actually cutting into a large clump, well that's something I'd like more information on before actually trying.

Melanie

Symphytum "Langham's Pink"

Brrr, it's freezing outside so there's nothing better to do than sit here and go through some lovely photos taken last spring. One plant caught my interest quickly, Symphytum 'Langham's Pink" also known as comfry.

Now some of you might be groaning out loud since comfry is considered invasive by many people. I don't have any experience with invasive varieties, this pink version is extremely well behaved. I've been growing this beauty in my garden for about four years now and in all three spots it has stayed in a clump.

Here you can see it along with some of it's neighbors. The Coreopsis verticilata 'Zagreb' growing next to it is at least as vigorous a grower. The same goes for the lovely, silvery Stachys byzantine (Lamb's Ears).

Finally, here's a close up shot showing what a nice contrast there is between the foliage of these two plants.

This spring I'd like to divide the Symphytum. I've never done this before so I do hope that it's a simple dig and then chop. If you have any advice, drop me a comment here. Many times it's not HOW you divide a perennial but WHEN you divide it that makes all the difference. For instance, the Coreopsis get's divided extremely early in the spring. If I divide it after it's three inches high it just flops all over and looks lousy for a year. Divide it early and you'd never know it was cut.

By the way, after the Symphytum finished it's first bloom season, I cut it back hard and put the cuttings on my compost heap. About a month later you will be rewarded with another flush of bloom and the cuttings will have already decomposed. What more could you ask for!

Off to put on another layer of socks.
Melanie

It lives!

Last year I bought three Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine'. At least, that's the cultivar name I remember.

It's not the first time I bought different colored Corydalis. For the first time though, one made it through the year and returned. I wonder why they different colors are so finicky to grow when the yellow variety seeds itself into every nook and cranny.

Do you have luck with Corydalis?

Today's post might be a record shorty. It's way too beautiful outside and my calendar for the day is chock full.

See ya!