 |
Pulmonaria rubra |
 |
| Common name |
Christmas cowslip; red lungwort |
| Family |
boraginaceae |
| Life cycle |
perennial |
| Flowers |
pinkish red (April) |
| Size |
12" |
| Light |
part-full shade |
Crazy! I tried to grow pulmonaria rubra from traded seed several years ago, with no success whatsoever. I don't recall what I did with the seeded pot, but apparently, I tossed it in the back area of the shade garden, because yesterday, lo and behold, a plant with a red flower! An ID request on GardenWeb suggested it's indeed the red lungwort, although I can't find online images that seem to match mine - the closest I've found is the 'Barfield Ruby' cultivar. This one doesn't have the variegation in foliage that other pulmonarias display, and has coarser, hairy leaves. Not sure yet how we'll use it in the garden, but I'm sure glad it decided to germinate after all.
Post-lude: it did not return for another season. I'll have to try the variety mentioned by April in one of the comments below some day.
|
This plant used to grow in our garden, but it slipped away... About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Pulmonaria rubra
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| Linda | May 22, 2005 | Hi, in the UK I grow this as Pulmonaria rubra 'Bowle's Red'. I find the leaves quite coarse and not that attractive compared to other Pulmonarias that I grow but I haven't the heart to get rid of it! |
| April Meyers | Jun 05, 2009 | While working for the Chicago Botanic Garden, Richard Hawke (Evaluation Manager) did a trial on Pulmonaria rubra 'Red Start'. The leaves are softer green and there are lots of distinctive red flowers. I love it in my Northern Illinois garden (down to below 20 degrees). I have planted in a more sheltered location and it gets some sun, but not that much. It thrives despite a couple of transplants. I highly recommend this variety. |
I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to
leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors
to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if
appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an
ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including
html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a
comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my
guestbook. If you
have a question that needs a personal response, please
e-mail me.
|
