Re: Pulmonarias/hellebores

I also grow several lungworts without mildew
problems..I would think soggy western Oregon would
also be a spot where, were it a big issue, mildew
would take hold. So far I've not seen any sign of it.
Gene perhaps your lungwort doesn't sell because people
are giving away starts, like I do every late winter!
I have one unknown named creamy white flowered
pumonaria that spreads like mad and which I dig up,
throw in old pots with some dirt and which takes root
no problem.  They go out in front of the house on
weekends, along with my huge yearly supply of " Oregon
Ditch Orange" daylily and any other plant I have extra
of and that I cant convince my kids to take - with a
FREE sign .  
I have also found this lungwort to be a great 'under
tree' where nothing else will grow but grass  and a
good substitute for weeds.
If only the lovely delicate blue pulmonaria (also
unknown named) that I have, which clumps nicely and
blooms forever, would spread just a bit more like the
creamy white one.

When I began serious gardening, about 4-5 years ago, I
was lucky if I remembered the name of the plant, much
less the cultivar names...and of course I did buy from
some growers who don't label the actual cultivar, just
call the plant "Pulmonaria" or even Lungwort!
 Of course, as Graham writes in"Hardy Perennials",
which I was just snuggled up with this rainy morning,
many these plants like to cross polinate and who the
heck knows what the actual name of the seedlings is
(Americanized version of his actual paragraph on
confusing pulmonaria germinating).  And of course I am
not good at dead heading , except for my roses.


Now of course I keep a list of what I buy, who I
bought it from and when and even where I planted
it...much more organized... but I wish I did know more
about these older plantings so I could pass along the
real name.  Especially now that my first perennial bed
is finally coming into it's own glory!  6 years ago
this bed was a compost heap on top of a gravel
driveway made wider and wider due to teenagers and
cars.  Then the teens grew up and moved out and I
reclaimed my former growing area but instead of lawn
again, I made a raised bed and started plunking in
anything called perennial.  A real hit and miss
proposition but I've gotten it refined over the past
few years!

As for the hellebores, I feel so fortunate to have 4
healthy large clumps of them now-again these are older
plantings and again not named... 2 purple and 2 white
- but this year I am going to try and self polinate
them and collect the seed.  I have read so many horror
stories of people who tried to divide their hellebores
and lost the whole plant for some reason and now that
they are well established and looking really beautiful
with the daffodills nodding in the back ground, I'm
not about to dig them up!  Instead I'll play Crone
Elle and buzz while polinating (I buzz while
polinating my tomato plnats too-it's a strange thing
but feels right).  OK- I'm wacko this morning but it's
been so nasty weathered here-hail and thunder and
lightning and of course constant rain - that I am
allowed to be a bit wacko...right???

CroneElle just outside of Portland Or...Z8, Sunset Z
6b
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