Covering the ground with Pulmonarias

The March 2022 issue of the RHS magazine includes an article on colourful ground cover plants celebrating, among others, pulmonarias.

I consulted my garden diary to see if I could find when we bought ours but I found no record.  It's strange when I noted the purchase of a Phlox reticulata and a fuchsia in July 2020; the reordering of various borders in summer 2020, autumn 2020's bargain supermarket tulip bulbs and my winter display tub planted up in October 2020 which is still looking well.

The RHS article describes pulmonarias as 'low-growing' and 'low maintenance' which could be why they were overlooked.  All I can remember is that the pink and blue one was in flower when we bought it and the 'electric blue' ones were cuttings that had been struck by our local nursery.  They did not look very strong.  As advised, they stayed in their pots for some months before being planted in damp spots in or near the patio border bed.  At one stage all their existing leaves withered - at that point I feared that it was 'touch and go' - but my husband assured me that they were robust and they now have clusters of new leaves around the base of their flower stalks, with more to come.  

He associates the spreading habit of pulmonarias with older customers of traditional taste.  I too may be turning into a lower maintenance perennial alongside the primulas, snowdrops, anemones, daffodils and the fritillaries that we discovered under our raspberry bushes.  I have traditional iris and Dutch iris, and am watching to see the first signs of growth from the latter.  The delphiniums are reappearing, and later will come the Nepeta, the mint and the Astrantia.  Back they go to their roots, corms or bulbs and every season they are refreshed and spring up again.