A prickle: pulmonaria
Bramble & Briar #97
This, being more in the way of a needle than a prickle, could be taken as a howl of frustration over those plants it seems that everyone else can grow but I, somewhat inexplicably, can’t. A very short, by no means exhaustive list: eucalyptus. Magnolia. And, the subject of this post, pulmonaria.
My friend Jack is a big fan of pulmonaria. He liked them when he lived in London, and now he’s moved up to Yorkshire, he’s growing them in God’s Own Country, with great success. It’s not a hard plant to grow and, true to form, I’ve planted them for other people in other gardens, and grown them perfectly well. I just can’t seem to do it here. Which doesn’t mean, of course, that I won’t be trying again this year.
The thing about pulmonaria – or ‘lungwort’, the common name courtesy of a passing resemblance between its mottled leaves and the surface of that particular organ – is that it does a special kind of blue rather well. That vivid, violet blue that almost seems as though the flower has a light hidden somewhere up inside it. It also does pink (often on the same plant) and white, if that’s your thing but, being a member of the borage family, just like its relatives forget-me-not, brunnera, green alkanet and a whole host of comfreys, the blue’s the thing. It’s also a pretty good herbaceous blob, which sounds thoroughly unappealing but is just what you want when a pillowy kind of volume at around shin height is required towards the front of a border.
It’s not my soil that’s the problem – that desirable moist/well-drained combo is something we can manage without too much difficulty here. I don’t even think it’s our voracious mollusc population. I’m starting to wonder if it’s because I’ve been too inclined to believe the reputation that pulmonaria has for shade tolerance – when I think of where I’ve grow it well, it may not have been in full sun, but neither has it been flourishing in the deepest gloom. This year, I shall be trying it in slightly a brighter spot.
Wish me luck.
My Pulmonaria has survived storm x y and z , the cats, my big foot 😆🤭 and they keep coming back. We love them! Good luck!
I planted various cultivars of pulmonaria, including “Margery Fish”, about 30 years ago. It grows lustily here in US zone 6a in heavy clay soil in shade. Too well, in fact, because it’s invasive for me. I enjoyed its flowers and leaves for about 15 years and then one year I developed contact dermatitis which blisters my skin. I’ve read that’s due to its hairy stems, but I don’t have any reaction to brunnera, which I also grow. I do have 10 year old scars, however. It’s a constant effort for my husband to eliminate it from my garden. I really dislike the plant.