Wait and watch before pulling out ‘weeds’
Some of my best plantings are not my doing. My role, in these cases, has been to recognize the plants’ qualities and then leave well enough alone. Those pastel pink columbines that look so pretty in front of the dark green leaves and flaming red flowers of my trumpet honeysuckle vine? I planted the honeysuckle, but the columbines just appeared one year and have remained.
A few years back, I almost pulled out what I thought might be a weed growing in front of some yews near the east side of my house. Luckily, I stuck to my philosophy waiting and watching.
This “weed” grew into a neat mound of slightly bluish leaves, each one small, lobed and grouped in threes at the ends of long stalks. The whole effect is dainty, something like a combination of maidenhair fern and columbine in a compact mound 45 centimetres high and wide.
But this plant is more than just pretty leaves. The ends of the stalks are capped by clusters of yellow flowers sized just right to the mound of greenery and the individual leaves that create it. In shape, the flowers resemble snapdragons. The very best thing about this plant, though, is the way the foliage and the blooms look as exuberant in late summer as they do in spring. So what is this plant? With the yellow flowers and the shape and colour of the leaves, the plant could be mistaken for some kind of rue. But the leaves lack that distinctive, strong rue aroma. The plant is yellow corydalis (Corydalis lutea), and it keeps on blooming and looking fresh into autumn.
I have no idea how the plant got where it is, but the location is evidently to its liking. Corydalis abhors high summer heat, but otherwise enjoys full sun or part shade and soil that is welldrained all year. That east-facing bed near my house gets cool morning sun and is shaded from hot afternoon sun. The soil there is gravelly and raised, so it drains well, and a leafy mulch locks in moisture.
Rock gardens and crevices in stone walls suit this plant perfectly, as long as they are protected from hot sun. The plant has no pest problems worth mentioning.
Despite being finicky when grown from seed by gardeners, corydalis self-seeds quite readily where conditions are to its liking.