Nice Mound of Lungwort in my Garden today

Another plant from today

Closeup of the Flower

Since I was writing about alternatives to vinca yesterday, I decided that I should highlight one of the plants I listed.

Pulmonaria Saccharata
(Lungwort, Bethlehem Sage, Jerusalem Sage)

Type: Perennial (Zones 2/3-9)
Light Requirements: Part Shade to Shade
Moisture: prefer moist soil, does not do well in dry areas.
Blooms: Early/Mid spring (start to bloom in March here along side the daffodils). Blooms last for several weeks.
Leaves: Green with beautiful polka dots (other varieties have more silvery leaves)! Sprout in later winter and keeps its leaves through late fall.
Size: Height: 9-12″   Width: 12″-18″

Pros: They are very easy to take care of and provide nice foliage for most of the year.

Cons: If you don’t like to divide them, they can start to look leggy after a few years.

'Majeste' variety

Division: Divide in spring or fall. If you divide in the summer (which I have done before) the leaves will tend to die back, but usually by fall they will sprout again. I received mine from divisions from my mom’s garden. I have since divided mine several times in the last 6-7 years or so.

Origin: Native to Europe and Western Asia. The name comes from the spotted oval leaves that were thought to symbolize diseased, ulcerated lungs, and so were used to treat pulmonary infections.

Varieties: There are quite a few varieties with different spot patterns and different colored flowers. I also have ‘Majeste’ which has mostly a silvery leaf and less prominent pink flowers.

Vinca choking out my irises

Vinca flowers close up

Vinca (aka Vinca Minor, Periwinkle, Myrtle)

I use to LOVE vinca. However that love affair is long gone as I try to extract it from my garden. Don’t get me wrong, it has a place in larger yards where you want minimal maintenance in shady spots and you don’t want to grow anything else with it. However in my small plot of land it has got to go! It is my own fault, I loved it at my parent’s house and my mom brought some to our house at my request about 8 years ago.

Things to love about Vinca:

-The beautiful blueish-purple flowers that bloom in the spring alongside the daffodils
-The green carpet that it provides year around in either sun or shade.
-Unlike ivy it doesn’t grow up trees and shrubs

Things to hate about Vinca:

-It is aggressive and forms large tendrils that block out everything else including bulbs and perennials
-It grows into the adjacent beds
-It is difficult to pull up because it attaches to the ground at so many points, you almost always have to come back later in the season and the following year to pull more out

Now I am in year 2 of a several year plan to extract it! In the meantime I have put together a list of bulbs to replace it. The good news is that most of these are easy to grow and fairly inexpensive. They won’t typically provide any  of the “ground cover” capabilities, but in my case I am not looking for a ground cover so much as a flower alternative to the blueish-purple flowers in the spring. In fact most of these will die back by summer and you won’t even know that they are there. The only  downside to me is that with these type of small bulbs you don’t want to put them in until after most of your perennials are in place, otherwise you will be constantly pulling them out by accident (which means I haven’t been able to put any in yet).

Alternates:

Muscari (Grape Hyacinth) from White Flower Farm, 50 for $16.95

Dwarf Iris, Harmony from Brent and Becky's, 50 for $17.50

Crocus, White Flower Farm, 50 for $21.25

Anemone 'Blue Shades', Brent and Becky's, 50 for $14

Fall Bulbs:

–Muscari (Grape Hyacinth): Flowers at the right time and easy to find in the fall,  but I don’t love the appearance of the flowers. Plant in Full Sun to Part Shade.
–Dwarf Iris: I  haven’t tried these but it is definitely a possibility. I grow a number of other irises. Plant in Full Sun.
–Crocus: Comes in purple, blooms at the right time, although the squirrels love these. Plant in Full Sun to Part Shade.
–Anemone Blanda: I particularly like the “Blue Shades” pictured. Plant in Full Sun to Part Shade.

Lungwort (Pulmonaria), White Flower Farm, $17.95

Perennials:
–Lungwort (Pulmonaria): If you are looking for more of a groundcover for the shade I would recommend Lungwort.  It has beautiful polka dotted leaves and has purple and pink flowers in the spring. I use this quite a bit in the backyard. These grow quite easily and can be divided every couple of years. I recommend finding a gardener who has some of this because typically they would be glad to pass some along.
 
 
 
 
 
 

And the Winner:

Chionodoxa growing in my lawn

–Chionodoxa (Glory of the snow): Comes in Blue and Purple, small similar flower shape to the vinca, tends to self-seed (there are a couple growing in our lawn right now!), SIGN ME UP! I think these are perfect and I might even need to extend these into the lawn! If you do a websearch you can see some wonderful examples of large fields full of these. Plant in Full Sun to Part Shade.

My Snowdrops

Closeup of Snowdrops

Galanthus (Snowdrop)

Type: Perennial/Bulb  (Zones 2-9 but prefers 4-7)
Light Requirements: Part Sun to Shade, excellent for under deciduous trees
Moisture: prefer moist soil, although mine grow fine pretty much anywhere in the yard
Blooms: Early spring (start to bloom in February/March here through end of March). Apparently in the south they can flower all winter. Blooms are white with green highlights.
Leaves: Sprout in winter, die back in summer and come back in fall.
Pros: First thing to flower in the spring. Naturalizes both by self-seeding and bulb offsets.
Cons: If you want a large impact you need to grow a lot because they are small.
Division: After they bloom pull and take the bulb offsets.
Origin: Although these were growing in my yard they are native to Europe and Turkey.

When we bought our house there were almost no perennials or bulbs. Mostly there were overgrown bushes and lots of weedy grass. The first spring we lived here I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of snowdrops in the grass. Over the next couple of years I moved them into planting beds.  They must like my yard because they keep multiplying. It may help that I have moved most of them several times, and when I do I divide the bulbs. They are really easy to grow. You only have to dig into the ground a couple of inches and stick the tiny bulb in!