Yesterday's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post for May shows our garden has its fair share of flowers, but it's the foliage that makes the garden interesting on most days of the year. Thanks to Pam at Digging for giving us a special occasion to celebrate our garden's foliage.
May favorites include the leaves of Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis). They are the classic shape we first learn to recognize and to draw as children; though most gardeners, myself included, would also admit that these lilies can be pretty aggressive plants. Above you can see the standard variety is fighting it out with Sweet Woodruff for control of the dry shade under a pair of old Spruce trees.
But there are also Lilies of the Valley whose wonderful leaves make up for any less-than-lovable tendencies. I found this variety — 'Hardwick Hall' — at Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery in 2005 (above). It is just now starting to make a goodly show, but by no means out of bounds or control. As an Anglophile and history buff, I also bought this because of its associations. According to Klehm, it has been "grown for generations" in the gardens at Hardwick, one of England's most magnificent house Elizabethan houses, and home of the legendary Bess of Harwick.
Klehm describes the 'Hardwick Hall' Lily of the Valley as "an outstanding selection distinguished both by the extra broad leathery leaves each margined with pale green and extra large sweetly pendulous flowers." I am in complete agreement.
This is a yellow-striped variety of Lily of the Valley that I mail-ordered from Seneca Hill Perennials in 2007. When it arrived, I was so taken with the plant that I immediately ordered two more — at $16.99 each! This is a bit more aggressive than the 'Hardwick' variety but it is also planted in better soil with less competition.
Best of all it holds this variegation; no disappearing act in midsummer. The flowers are a bonus because this is clearly a plant you most definitely grow for its spectacular foliage.
