Product Description
Natural form with wrinkled, a bit shiny leaves with purple hue and purple-blue flowers. Underused native perennial.
Grows to mounds 1-1.5' tall x 1.5-2' wide, well branched stems, spreads moderately fast with thick tuberous rhizomes. So far what we could observe in our motherstock are, this is still quite well behaved plant.
Starts to bloom towards the end of June and continues till August.
Requires some shade during the day, so dappled sun, half shade to shade are the best. Adaptable to any soil type (from clay to rocky or shallower soil), with average moisture (medium, medium-moist, medium-dry).
Established plants tolerate droughts.
Hardy in zones 5 to 8. Native to MD, VA and WV and potentially to some locations in Illinois.
Resistant to heat, humidity, black walnuts, deer and rabbits (the leaves are bitter).
Flowers attract native bees (long-tongued bees - bumblebees, short-tongued bees) and Syrphid flies. Ocasional visitors are Swallowtail butterflies. Host plant for larvae of some moths and small beetles.
Best in shade garden or woodland garden, half shade borders where some spreading is allowed. It can be useful filling plant.
Can be combined with native woodlanders like Actaea, Anemone, aquilegia, Asarum, Aster (divaricatus, macrophyllus and other woodland asters), Geranium maculatum, Heuchera, Iris cristata, Penstemon digitalis, Penstemon calycosus, Phlox divaricata, Polygonatum, Spigelia. Or with native spring ephemerals (Arisaema, Dicentra, Jeffersonia, Mertensia, Sanguinaria, Uvularia, Trillium).
Goes well with clump perennials with good root competition like shorter hybrids of Aruncus, Dicentra spectabilis, Euphorbia amygdaloides, Geum, Helleborus, Hosta, Persicaria (P. virginica, P. amplexicaulis), Primula, Nepeta subsessilis, Phlox carolina hybrids, Pulmonaria, and grasses like Deschampsia, Carex, Chasmantium, Hakonechloa.
Pot size : square 3.5" x 5" deep pot
Picture copyright : US Perennials