Lady’s Mantle – Shade Perennial MVP

Lady's Mantle with Water 'Pearls'/ MyShadyGarden

In my book, Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla mollis) is a shade perennial MVP.  It is a terrific border plant – providing elegance to bed lines.

The light gray green leaves are ruffled and of different sizes reflecting when the leaves last emerged.  Besides the pretty shape of the leaves, the best part of the plant is the tiny hairs on the surface.  Not only do the leaves feel velvety, but when water collects on the leaves pearlescent drops roll along the surface.  This holds true throughout the growing season even after the flowers have stopped blooming.

Lady’s Mantle grows quickly but is not invasive.  It grows in clumps and it is easy to break off a side “plant” and grow more individual plants or just grow into a bigger clump.  This makes it one of my favorite friendship plants as well.  My gardener friends, who have been recipients of this prized plant, feel that they really have scored!

You will note the landscape paint we sprayed to define the bed line earlier in the spring.  I had a ready supply of Lady’s mantle and used it to edge the border.  See how quickly it has come in?  They have grown more so than the grass in this cool spring.

Lady’s Mantle is getting ready to bloom in my garden.  It sends out yellow flowers that gracefully sway in the breeze seeming to say – “look at me, aren’t I pretty?”  They come into bloom when my peonies do – and I love creating bouquets with Lady’s Mantle and false baptisia as accent flowers.  When my girls were little, we would bring bouquets to their teachers at the end of the school year as thank you gifts.  This year I plan on surprising some friends with these fragrant flower arrangements.

I feel positively rich – having enough flowers for arrangements in every room of my house. Stay tuned because I’m guessing next week everything will come into bloom and many beautiful bouquets will be made.