Introducing into the Garden: Lungwort

The next new addition to my garden from my mother in law's is lungwort:

(ok, so it's not at its prettiest here, because the flower show was over when I got it, and I had to plop it in the not most amazing spot... full of spiderwebs now, thus the not usual closeup pics I like to do.  Note the cool hairy leaves though!)  (Also, please look at the other links of the pics of lungwort to get a MUCH better idea of its grandeur)

I've got an eye for striking looking plants I think (meaning I'm only good at identifying those types of plants, more mundane looking plants and I'm worthless) and lately it feels like I've been seeing lungwort everywhere lately (at the Master Gardener's hoe-down, in Botanical gardens, yada) like once you see one red head, you notice 5 of them all at once in whatever location you're in (redheads are a bad example, but I like to insert them in here because my husband is one and I love it).

Bad example, I know, but maybe because I've been seeing them a lot they've become somewhat on the the mind and it's as though they want to be with me!  "Take us home, Persephone!  There you can see us everyday in the garden in our full glory!  Come mid-spring winter we will be full of wonderful glorious flowers that will make you happy! Happier than daffodils or even hellebores can make you!"

Whoa, talk about some siren song those things have got there, so I asked for some of those too from my MIL and she kindly obliged :)

Unlike the Campanula that I blogged about last time, no on Dave's Garden gave lungwort any negatives or warnings about invasiveness, so hurray there, plant on other end of spectrum! (We like diversity here in Persephone's garden).

Besides just having cool foliage, I always thought about having lungwort (Pulmonaria saccharat) as an addition to my garden because I'd heard of its supposed medicinal herbal affiliations, which I soon began to suspect as folklore after much research.  As its name seems to imply, it has to with the lungs, and how?  Well, the spottiness of the leaves made ancient herbalists be reminded of disease lungs, and so they thought best that this was the herb to treat such problems (like walnuts and pecans are good for the brain because they resemble the brain.... which is not so far off apparently... but yes, association does not mean fact)

Still a very attractive flower in the borage family (which I am a fan of the herb) so in it goes!

Lungwort should grow no more than 18 inches high and 2 feet wide and is hardy in zones 4a-9b and is perennial (heart).  It is partial to partial sun to full shade and so I've placed it in my little microclimate underneath a canopy of holly bushes where it should keep a good amount of moisture and leaves (which will become leaf mold eventually) and so it will hopefully stay happy there.

Apparently it is cool enough that someone bought it a domain name which is chock full of good info.  Interesting info such as the variegation that is so loved in lungworts, the silvery bits, are actually air pockets underneath the leaves that keep the plant cool.

Eventually I might move the lungwort to a little sunnier spot, but as I am running out of room a bit... it's gonna stay there for now.

And we're back! Family time means plant trade hoe-down!

I am so lucky to have married in to such an awesomely plant entranced family!

Every visit means we all talk gardenshop, sip alcohol and haul out from our cars a miniature nursery of "extras" we wish to integrate within each others' gardens.  Pity one of the family lives in a tiny apartment with little light, but does that stop us from schlepping plants off onto him? No!  He'll just have to graciously deal, take in the ornamental pepper baby I gave him and try to figure out how to keep it alive despite his protests of "No light! No light!"

Ha, the big baby :)

Really, I'm not that overbearing! I swear! (I just have too many plants and feel less guilty about giving them to others rather than sending them to the composter!)

My mum in law had some extra raspberry plants to replace my rotted and dead ones (damn drainage issues) and also gave me cuttings of this interesting succulent:

That she calls an elephant cactus, but all internet searches seem to disagree with this name.  It reminds me sort of of a cross between a Christmas cactus and a Queen of the Night plant (as it roots randomly at various nodes and has a similar texture leaf, just serrated here).   Spiffy nonetheless and though it breaks with my edible tradition, I can't say no to interesting plants and this will keep me through the winter until spring where I can place it outside for the wolves! Just kidding.  I meant, just until spring where I can neglect it a little until I'll need it again in the winter like a baby needs its bobby.


My sis in law gave me random cuttings of hardy fig from a neighbor of hers, so that was splendid as I managed to kill mine this past spring.  (Well, I would rather not say it was my fault, it was the fig's fault for not being tough enough.  I was told that it was hardy enough for this area!)  So as she lives in a bit chillier of a location than mine and she states this fig is quite happy where she is, we'll assume that this one will survive ("... as long as I know how to love/I know I will stay alive."  this song just keeps popping up in my head when plants are involved!)


One impulse buy did occur at a garden store we went to this holiday:

A Hindu rope (Hoya Carnosa)!  To me, this was very spectacular plant (not edible either, dangit! Help! I'm losing my resolve for only edibles!) This was so unusual and exciting to me and I thought the husband would be amused by it too that I just bought it.  For $8, I figured why not?


Upon further inspection in the car I noticed it had some hirsute growing tips:

 and I sort of exclaimed out loud to my Mother & aunt & sister in laws, "Weird! It has some hairy bits on it! Wait, that sounded wrong."  Big grins all around luckily... I've been known to make inappropriate comments (because I can't keep my big mouth shut) and am still learning that thing called tact.

Anyways, friend in law watered my plants well while I was gone and nothing has died, though one appears to be on its way, but it looked as though it might prior to this trip anyways.  Speaking of which, I am waiting for said friend to write me a birthday column on why he doesn't do plants typically unless I ask him to care for mine while I am gone.  Prepare to read his plant bile soon-ish!