Lady's mantle
Alchemilla mollis
Pleated leaves that catch rain in beads, under a froth of lime-green flower — it seeds itself into every gap you leave open.
- Type
- Flower · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Green · Yellow
- Sunlight
- Sun or partial shade; it adapts to almost anything.
- Watering
- Prefers moist soil, though it takes drought once settled.
- Feeding
- Rarely needs feeding; a compost mulch where the soil is thin.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- June
- Pruning
- Cut it back hard once the July flowers are over.
- Mar–Jun Spring Growth
- Jun–Sep Flowering
- Sep–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 19.7 in
- In-row spacing
- 19.7 in
- Between rows
- 2 ft 1 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 20 in–2.5 ft across, about 1–1.5× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 12 in of soil
A dense mass of roots through the topsoil with a few running deeper after water. Work the bed to a spade’s depth before planting and it will find everything it needs without much help.
The habit is Lady's mantle’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Generally trouble-free No notable pest or disease problems when grown in the right conditions — one of the easy ones.
Roses, Geraniums, Lavender, Hostas
Green-leaved flowers, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com