MUST HAVE plants
This under-used gem of a plant is admired by gardeners and is of huge benefit to the natural world, says Sue Fisher
From winter to spring, the jewel-like flowers of pulmonarias or lungworts transform the garden floor with masses of beautiful bee-attracting blooms. Compact in habit, easy and hardy, thriving in sun or partial shade, these low-growing perennials are brilliant for many different spots around the garden.
Clusters of bell-shaped flowers are freely borne in a wealth of blues – gardeners really swoon for exquisite azure and cobalt shades – plus there are reds, pinks and whites. After the flowers, attractive foliage takes up the baton with oval or lance-shaped leaves.
Maximum garden value is given by long-lasting, highly decorative varieties with silvery-white, pewter-marbled or silverdappled leaves that create weed-smothering clumps, and can even remain semi-evergreen in mild winters.
Pulmonaria has been grown in UK gardens for hundreds of years and the common name of lungwort is a clue to its rich history. The name arose from its centuries-old medicinal use, at a time when the Doctrine of Signatures held that a plant could help cure ailments of the body part that it resembled: in this case the spotted leaves that looked like diseased lungs. This would have been the oldest-grown species, Pulmonaria officinalis, still used by herbal practitioners today to tackle respiratory complaints.
Other common names include ‘soldiers and sailors’, from the tendency of many flowers to morph in colour from pink to blue, Jerusalem cowslip,‘Our Lady’s milk drops and spotted dog.
Because pulmonarias often breed and self-seed freely, there’s an abundance of named cultivars that have arisen from the 15 or so different species; the latest edition of the RHS Plantfinder lists more than 100. Their compact size – around 30–45cm in height, wider in spread –and amenable disposition, makes pulmonarias ideal for lots of planting sites. Beneath and between shrubs, roses and trees, so long as soil is retentive; at border fronts where silvery and pale-spotted varieties thrive in sunnier spots; or as mixed-border components to make the most of seasonal bare spaces.
