Pulmonaria – Lungworts – A Comparison

There are a huge variety of leaf and flower colours and within the Lungworts, so the easy way to choose which one is right for your garden is to look at them all side by side. I’ve arranged them roughly in strength of colour, from white, through shades of blue to purple and then pink.

  • Evergreen velvety leaves of apple green are handsomely marked with copious white spots. Purest white flowers are borne in early spring. 20cm x 60cm (1×2 ft). Excellent ground cover and a must for the spring garden.

  • Pulmonaria 'Ice Ballet'

    Pulmonaria ‘Ice Ballet’

Pulmonaria 'Ice Ballet'

Pulmonaria ‘Ice Ballet’

  • A plant that is never going to set the world alight, but a subtle beauty for those that appreciate its delicate charms. This is the pure white form of the usually red flowered Pulmonaria. It forms a neat mound of pure apple green leaves with clusters of flowers of pure white in green calyces. This variety was previously listed on the NCCPG Pink Sheets – a list of plants in danger of being lost to cultivation.

  • Pulmonaria Opal ( Ocupol ). A super new variety of Pulmonaria . Its ground covering leaves are borne in neat rosettes and are heavily decorated with bright silver spots. In spring umbels of opalescent pale blue flowers are produced making it a sheer delight in the winter and spring garden. 25 x 25cm.
Pulmonaria 'Opal'

Pulmonaria ‘Opal’

  • This must be the most handsome, almost completely silver foliage I’ve seen. It is set off with a green rim and green leaf base, but is otherwise an even soft greeny silver. In march it is crowded with good trusses of lovely, nicely flared and shaped baby-blue and pink flowers which look outwards rather than down. Opening quite a rich pink it quickly softens to a pastel pink, tinged blue at the edges as if painted in watercolour. the colour changes completely to a soft blue with just a pink eye and the faintest bee lines which are translucent and appear faintly pink. The combination of flower quality, superb foliage and pretty colour combination is sure to make this a firm favourite. Originally from June Blake in Ireland

  • Pulmonaria 'Blake's Silver'

    Pulmonaria ‘Blake’s Silver’

Pulmonaria 'Blake's Silver'

Pulmonaria ‘Blake’s Silver’

  • Pulmonaria ‘Nurnberg’ (Nuremberg). The foliage on this variety is a rich dark green with particularly well defined bright silver spotting. Flowers are a good pale blue, ageing pink. Forms a fairly dense clump with an altogether neat and tidy appearance.
  • Pulmonaria 'Nurnberg'
Pulmonaria 'Nurnberg'

Pulmonaria ‘Nurnberg’

  • Pulmonaria ‘Stillingfleet Meg’ comes from Stillingfleet garden in York where it arose and was much admired and subsequently named after the owner’s eldest daughter Meg. Tight mats of narrow dark green, sparsely spotted foliage and tight heads of good clear pink flowers. Just before the flowers are shed they become washed over with baby-blue but the predominant impression is that this a lovely bright pinnk form with tight bunches of slightly pendant funne-shaped flowers. 30cm

Pulmonaria 'Stillingfleet Meg'

Pulmonaria ‘Stillingfleet Meg’

  • Pulmonaria ‘Majeste’. Remarkable for having leaves that are almost entirely silver; making it excellent for lifting a woodland planting scheme. Flowers produced from Mar to May are pink fading purple. Best in a moist shady position; away from hot sun. 25cm.

Pulmonaria 'Majeste'

Pulmonaria ‘Majeste’

  • Pulmonaria saccharata ‘Fruhlingshimmel’. Translates to Spring Sky which does seem apt as the relatively large flared funnel-shaped flowers are a strong but light blue. It is quite a short little plant which scoots about the spring woodland garden by way of a gently creeping rhizome producing a bunch of evergreen vaguely mottled greyish green leaves here and there, rather than in one big clump. Tolerates some sun. .
Pulmonaria saccharata 'Fruhlingshimmel'

Pulmonaria saccharata ‘Fruhlingshimmel’

  • Pulmonaria ‘Roy Davidson’. An exceptionally good variety which would be worth growing for the startling narrow silver spotted leaves alone. In spring the plant is generously crowned with many stems of pale blue flowers which are small borne in tight bunches. Good ground cover for shade. 30cm spreading.
Pulmonaria 'Roy Davidson'

Pulmonaria ‘Roy Davidson’

  • Pulmonaria ‘Trevi Fountain’. A striking spring flowering perennial forming dense clumps of narrow dark green leaves with bold white spots. The flowers are cobalt-blue with a pinkish cast and long-lasting and borne in tight heads from February to May. Prefers a heavier soil. One of the earlier flowering lungworts and so particularly valuable as a nectar source, pleasing bees and bee-flies alike. More of a clumper than a spreader.
Pulmonaria 'Trevi Fountains'

Pulmonaria ‘Trevi Fountains’

  • Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’. A strong vigorous clone producing masses of deep blue flowers throughout early spring. Indeed one of the richest and most strident of blues amongst the lungworts with a particularly large flower.  Deep mat-green leaves that are completely without spots. Assorts well with bulbs. Best grown in a moist shaded position; away from hot sun. 30cm
Pulmonaria 'Blue Ensign'

Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’

  • Pulmonaria ‘Lewis Palmer’ (‘Highdown’). This Pulmonaria makes a big clump excellent for ground cover it’s large leaves are handsomely marked with large silver spots which make a perfect foil in spring for bunches of large really bright blue flowers. A very floriferous and lovely addition to the spring garden worthy of it’s illustrious name.
  • Pulmonaria 'Lewis-Palmer' leaves

    Pulmonaria ‘Lewis-Palmer’ leaves

Pulmonaria 'Lewis-Palmer'

Pulmonaria ‘Lewis-Palmer’

  • Pulmonaria ‘Diana Clare’. The leaves of this plant look stunning from summer to mid winter being long apple green with almost complete silver guilding. The large violet blue flowers appear in February and continue until May displayed well above the bold clumps of stunning foliage. A excellent all rounder tolerant of some sun or full shade.
  • Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'

    Pulmonaria ‘Diana Clare’ leaves

Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'

Pulmonaria ‘Diana Clare’

  • Pulmonaria saccharata ‘Leopard’. Interesting all year round, whether it be the red buds which open to deep pink flowers that cheer the garden in spring or the broad leaves with their large silver spots. Good ground cover for shade. 30cm high, spreading.
  • Pulmonaria saccharata 'Leopard' leaves

    Pulmonaria saccharata ‘Leopard’ leaves

Pulmonaria saccharata 'Leopard'

Pulmonaria saccharata ‘Leopard’

  • Pulmonaria ‘Margery Fish’. A picture in spring with pale pinky lilac flowers Attractive leaves, white spotted to wholly silvered, make good ground cover. It prefers to grow in a moist shaded position; away from hot sun. 15cm.
Pulmonaria 'Polar Splash'

Pulmonaria ‘Polar Splash’

  • A beautiful variety with compact silver spotted foliage and masses of magenta flowers. Good ground cover for shaded areas where its early flowers (March onwards) are excellent nectar sources for insects. 30 x 40 cm.

Pulmonaria 'Victorian Brooch'

Pulmonaria ‘Victorian Brooch’

  • Narrow leaves and tight crowded heads of flowers in a deep raspberry red. Keeps flowering for a long long time. A bit like a red version of some of the longifolia types

Pulmonaria ‘Raspberry Splash’

Pulmonaria ‘Raspberry Splash’

  • Pulmonaria ‘Bubble Gum’. Good sized rich pink flared flowers do not change colour and are borne above pale green leaves heavily over-laid with silver splashes. Good ground cover for full or partial shade and spreads cheer in the spring garden.
Pulmonaria 'Pink Haze'

Pulmonaria ‘Pink Haze’

  • Pulmonaria rubra ‘Redstart’. Strong clumps of evergreen pale green leaves; and an endless succession from late winter through spring of large pale red flowers. Always the earliest to flower in our Dorset garden and a boon for the early terrestrial bumble bees. Best grown in partial shade. Flowers cut well.
  • Pulmonaria rubra 'Redstart' leaves

    Pulmonaria rubra ‘Redstart’ leaves

Pulmonaria rubra 'Redstart'

Pulmonaria rubra ‘Redstart’

 

 

Pulmonaria

 

 

 

Jerusalem Cowslip,  Lungwort, Soldiers and Sailors, Bethlehem Sage (P.saccharata)

Pulmonarias are chiefly plants of light woodland, and form good ground cover, although they do vary in how dense they grow, some forming tight clumps and others tending more to spread thinly. They are on the whole evergreen, the spotted, or in some cases all silvered, leaves of many being a significant garden feature over winter.  They are easily pleased as to soil type, but will be more prone to mildew in very dry sites, and would prefer a generous addition of organic matter. They tolerate clay soils well. Many Pulmonaria originate from deep humus rich soils over limestone, but Pulmonaria angustifolia (the least evergreen species) grows naturally on slightly acid sites.

All lungworts are excellent early nectar sources for insect.

Give plants a good haircut after flowering to regenerate a good leafy clump and again mid-season if you are of a tidy mind.

The species are apt to cross freely, so there is some argument on the origin of many varieties, as is there with the classification of the red Pulmonaria rubra, which is sometimes placed in Pulmonaria mollis, and at other times in Pulmonaria montana. Once established they will also self-seed, but will not usually come true.

Pulmonaria used to be used to treat ailments of the lung, a situation founded on the ‘doctrine of signatures’ as developed by Paracelsus (1491–1541) and later made popular by Jakob Böhme (1575–1624). The spotted leaves were thought to resemble the lung and therefore indicted its medical use.

‘..every part of the plant is mucilaginous, but its reputation for coughs arose not from this circumstance, but from the speckled appearance of the leaves, resembling the lungs !’ – J.E. Smith (English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society.)

The common name ‘Jerusalem Cowslip’ derives from Pulmonaria officinalis growing in meadows and flowering at a similar time to Primula veris (cowslip). The name Jerusalem was often added to names of plants that resembled, but were unrelated to common plants. Pulmonaria officinalis is more tolerant of sun than other species and will hence grow in open meadows.

Soldier and Sailors refers to the way the flowers are frequently blue (sailors) but can open and fade pink (soldiers). This can be a response to fertilisation and is probably triggered by by a pH change – try flicking the flowers with vinegar to see.

Named first by Linnaeus as Stricta pulmonaria.

Boraginaceae