Top Ten Pulmonarias

Pulmonarias are great ground-covering plants that provide beautiful flowers and foliage, says Graham Rice, as he lists his top ten favourites

- Graham Rice

STEADILY forming dense low cover, pulmonarias are easy-to-grow hardy perennials that bring us the best of two worlds. In spring come the flowers, which resemble giant forget-me-nots, and at the same time that the flower stems are stretching the new leaves are developing, often enhanced by their silvery colouring.

Pulmonarias for flowers

In late winter or early spring, and sometimes through into early summer, the short flower stems of pulmonarias emerge, usually not reaching more than about 30cm (12in) high. The flower stems unfurl as the flowers open, the buds usually begin pink and develop a wide range of blue and purple shades, sometimes in pastel tones and sometimes in richer colors. Varieties with mature flowers in more intense red shades are now becoming more widely available.

The flowers usually stand just above the foliage and provide valuable early nectar for bees.

Pulmonarias for foliage

Pulmonaria leaves vary from lance-shaped to heart-shaped and are rough in texture. They are mainly dark green, but usually feature silver spots, either in the form of a scattering of spots, densely spotted or sometimes almost completely silver.

These plants make a dense overlapping cover and suppress weeds effectively and, although the clumps may become thinner in winter, as older leaves die off they usually maintain at least a partial covering.

6 award-winning pulmonarias