Soldiers and Sailors

Pulmonarias are shade-tolerant, excellent for ground cover, blessed with a rich history and have garnered some charming common names, says Anne Swithinbank

- Anne Swithinbank

PLANTS blessed with an abundance of common names usually have interesting histories to match and for pulmonaria, the list is long. To describe these hardy, hairy-leaved perennials we have soldiers and sailors, Abraham Isaac and Jacob, Bethlehem sage, Jerusalem cowslip, spotted dog, Mary-spilt-the-milk or lungwort. Some are references to spring flowers that open rich pink and change to blue, with both colours showing together, like rubies and sapphires. Others refer to the oval leaves often spotted or blotched with silvery-white. To early herbalists the foliage resembled diseased lungs at a time when the appearance of a plant was seen as a divine clue to its medicinal use. This became known as the Doctrine of Signatures and just as yellow-flowered plants would indicate a cure for jaundice, pulmonarias were prescribed for troubled lungs and therefore known as lungworts. I’ve always preferred the cheerful name soldiers and sailors and remember what was probably Pulmonaria saccharata growing among primroses and grape hyacinths in my childhood garden. This is one of around 14 species between them native to Europe and Asia. They belong to the borage tribe and you can easily see their close relationship to forget-me-nots and comfrey. Pulmonarias are a promiscuous lot, readily hybridising and seeding themselves into undisturbed soil.

New cultivars arising

Finicky gardeners deadhead to prevent this but many of the best cultivars have arisen randomly in the plots of horticulturists canny enough to spot a winner and propagate it by division. P. ‘David Ward’ with white leaf margins, and pretty pink ‘Stillingfleet Meg’ are good examples. Recent breeding work in the USA has brought new cultivars like ‘Raspberry Splash’ and ‘Victorian Brooch’.

Weed-proof ground cover