We're up to number 11 in the 'Flowering in my garden' series already, and the number of things to choose from is growing every day. The challenge is changing from searching for something that is flowering, to choosing the best of the bunch!
Number 11 is another member of the Borage family, Brunnera macrophylla, and this one is 'Jack Frost'.
Brunnera have beautiful, blue, forget-me-not like, bright blue flowers in March and heart shaped silver leaves edged and veined with green, which provide great ground cover all year round.
It likes dappled shade, and under deciduous trees and shrubs is ideal. They like it cool and damp, and they retain their leaf colour best in shade. They can withstand a bit of dryness once established, but can get scorched and tatty looking.
If the foliage does become tired over the summer it can be removed in the autumn and will renew in time for the early spring, but I have never needed to cut mine back - it just carries on looking lovely all year!
I have lots of lovely bunches of tightly closed pinky buds just waiting to burst forth.
And this year there is a bonus - I have a couple of little seedlings coming up, easy to spot with their silvery leaves. Now all I have to do is fend off marauding slugs and my patch of Brunnera will grow and grow.
If you don't want to wait for seedlings, then you can divide plants in the autumn or early spring just like the Pulmonaria that was at number 10.
Brunnera variants include 'Starry Eyes' with blue and white flowers and 'Betty Bowring' with white. Leaf patterns also vary from solid green to solid silver. 'Hadspen Cream' has creamy edges to the leaves and 'Looking Glass' is almost totally silver come summer.
Yet again, having researched the plant for my post, now I want a whole lot more of them!
That wish list of mine is going to be totally unmanageable in no time (AGAIN!).
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