Effortless beauty

Ligularias perform year after year with absolutely no help from the gardener – just stand back and applaud, says Monty Don

Ligularias are one of those plants I take for granted. Not their beauty or drama – those aspects always delight and surprise me anew every year – but I absolutely assume that they will grow and perform without any assistance from me at all. I confess I completely neglect them and have always done so other than occasionally supporting them if they get a bit floppy.

The one thing all ligularias do demand is damp soil. Put them in dry soil or full sun and they collapse like an exhausted toddler. They will grow in really wet, almost bog, conditions but seem happiest in partial shade in heavy soil, where they thrive on all but the hottest days. At the very least, add lots of compost or manure to the border before planting them to help retain moisture. Like hostas, the shadier they are the more they will tolerate dry feet.

All ligularias are herbaceous perennials and will die back completely in winter, tolerating cold, damp weather and the often fatal combination of wet and cold without batting an eyelid. The foliage dies and rots but the stems become hard and stand much longer and must be removed before spring regrowth starts in late March.

I originally grew mine in our Jewel Garden to make the most of their spires of yellow flowers – or in the case of ‘Desdemona’, wonderful eggyolk orange flowers – and black stems. But they never liked it and once the midday sun took hold they bent almost double beneath the intolerable burden of its heat. So I dug them all up and moved them to our Damp Garden, an area that floods two or three times every year and which now has a pond at its centre. It is also screened by high hornbeam hedges that cast heavy shade in every direction for half the day. They love this and are as happy as Larry, hence the almost total lack of any horticultural mollycoddling. They do their thing and I merely stand back and applaud.

Ligularia przewalskii does not roll off the tongue as easily as some botanical names but don’t be put off by that – it is a wonderful plant. This native of the damp meadows of north-west China has deeply cut leaves and an almost-black stem that grows to 1.8m (6ft) tall and carries a brilliant spire of small yellow flowers that first appear in June and last for weeks. The plant, named after Russian explorer Nikolai Przewalski, looks best when threaded through the border like a dramatic wildflower in tall grass. Indeed it would grow happily in a damp meadow and look spectacularly good.

Ligularia ‘The Rocket’ also has a tall black stem carrying a conical torch of small yellow f lowers, although the individual blooms on this plant are rather larger than those of

L. przewalskii, and it has heart-shaped leaves with ragged, serrated edges. However these two plants do work very well together, harmonising on the same theme.

‘Desdemona’ is a variety of Ligularia dentata that’s also native to China, as well as Japan. In the past I’ve also grown ‘Othello’ from the same species, and all varieties of L. dentata have superb foliage, with green upper surfaces and rich cardinal-purple undersides that reveal themselves every time the wind catches and twists the leaves. Their flowers are the colour of orange peel with petals like chunky daisies. As well as being dramatic, showy and as rich as a chocolate mousse with double cream, they are a magnet for butterflies. The only fault I’ve found is that they’re slowergrowing than the taller ligularias – L. dentata grow to around 1-1.2m (3- 4ft) in height – and are prone to attack by slugs, especially in spring after they emerge, so need extra protection and care at that point.

If you’d like more advice from Monty Don, visit www.mymailgarden.co.uk/monty.

Monty with his ligularia ‘The Rocket’