OMPHALODES CHERRY INGRAM
Named after a famous ornithologist and plant collector, Ompahalodes Cherry Ingram is a delightful little plant, forming a clump of evergreen lance-shaped foliage, above which dangle from spring into early summer, and often much later, loose clusters of intense blue flowers. Gorgeous. Pot size - available ex 9 cm pot.
Position : likes a shady spot.
Soil : any reasonable soil.
Height : 15 to 20 cm / 6 to 8 in.
Named after a famous ornithologist and plant collector, Ompahalodes Cherry Ingram is a delightful little plant, forming a clump of evergreen lance-shaped foliage, above which dangle from spring into early summer, and often much later, loose clusters of intense blue flowers. Gorgeous. Pot size - available ex 9 cm pot.
Position : likes a shady spot.
Soil : any reasonable soil.
Height : 15 to 20 cm / 6 to 8 in.
Named after a famous ornithologist and plant collector, Ompahalodes Cherry Ingram is a delightful little plant, forming a clump of evergreen lance-shaped foliage, above which dangle from spring into early summer, and often much later, loose clusters of intense blue flowers. Gorgeous. Pot size - available ex 9 cm pot.
Position : likes a shady spot.
Soil : any reasonable soil.
Height : 15 to 20 cm / 6 to 8 in.
This omphalodes sounds like it ought to have flowers of a reddish shade, given the name, but - as indicated above - Cherry Ingram was a person. Collingwood Ingram, in actual fact. The Cherry bit was a nickname bestowed on him because of his specialism in Japanese cherry trees.
This is one of those occasions when the botanical and common names are pretty much the same. Omphalodes is from the Greek and means navel-like (on account of the hollow-sided shape of the seeds), and this is reflected in the common name of navelwort. Cherry Ingram is a more compact and larger flowered variety of the species O. Cappadocica, which is named after the region of Turkey it is native to.
Grow Omphalodes Cherry Ingram in a shady spot with reliably moist (but not soggy) soil. The only care we find necessary is to tear or cut off older over-wintered leaves around the edges of the clump to allow fresh new growth to replace them: we do this in early spring.
There is a newish variety called All Summer Blues which, as the name suggests, is reputedly longer flowering than others, though the flowers look quite pale in photos. We have yet to see this one for ourselves but find, in any case, that Cherry Ingram can put on quite a lengthy show, certainly into mid to late June in our experience.
The following short video shows the parent species growing in the wild (on what sounds like a rather wet day!).
Omphalodes Cherry Ingram is a hardy evergreen perennial plant with pointed leaves and blue forget me not flowers in spring and early summer suitable for shade.
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