Spacing & sowing

Plant spacing

15.7 in

In-row spacing

15.7 in

Between rows

19.7 in

Square-foot density

Not suited to SFG

Growing

Type

Flower · Perennial

Botanical family

Mixed / other

Sunlight

Partial shade; full sun scorches the leaves, and deep shade dulls the color.

Watering

Moist but well-drained, and never waterlogged.

Feeding

Compost mulch in spring, with a light liquid feed for plants in pots.

Frost tolerant

Yes

Flowering

May

Pruning

Take off the spent flower stems, and tidy dead leaves away in spring.

Through the year

• Mar–May Spring Growth
• May–Sep Flowering
• Sep–Nov Growing
• Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
• Jan–Mar Leaf Fall

Companions

Hostas, Ferns, Astilbe, Tiarella

Pests & problems

• Vine weevil Vine weevil, far the worst of its troubles
• Rust Rust on the leaves
• Sun scald Leaf scorch where the sun is unbroken

Garden allies

Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. ★ companion plant

• Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.
  Hunts Vine weevil

  Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.

• Frogs & toads Anura
  Hunts Vine weevil

  A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.

• Ground beetle Carabidae
  Hunts Vine weevil

  Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.

  Plant nearby LavenderMintThyme
• Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus
  Hunts Vine weevil

  A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.