Digging deeperPlant Library

Other Names:  Siberian Bugloss

Description:

Striking carpet of variegated yellow-cream foliage, perfect for naturalizing woodland areas; tiny, dainty, forget-me-not-like sky blue flowers; ox-tongue roughness to the leaves gives interesting texture

Ornamental Features

Hadspen Cream Bugloss features airy cymes of sky blue flowers at the ends of the stems from early to late spring. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its attractive textured heart-shaped leaves remain light green in color with showy creamy white variegation throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Hadspen Cream Bugloss is a dense herbaceous perennial with a ground-hugging habit of growth. Its relatively coarse texture can be used to stand it apart from other garden plants with finer foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and should be cut back in late fall in preparation for winter. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Hadspen Cream Bugloss is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Hadspen Cream Bugloss will grow to be about 12 inches tall at maturity extending to 16 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 18 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 12 inches apart. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an herbaceous perennial, this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter, and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen!

This plant does best in partial shade to shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone over the growing season to conserve soil moisture. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America. It can be propagated by division; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

Hadspen Cream Bugloss is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its spreading habit of growth, it is ideally suited for use as a 'spiller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the edges where it can spill gracefully over the pot. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.