Lily of the Valley
Convallaria majalis
also called convallaria
Scented white bells in the shade beneath trees — lovely, invasive, and poisonous in every part.
- Type
- Flower · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- White
- Sunlight
- Partial to full shade; it does its best work under trees.
- Watering
- Keep the ground moist; it has no tolerance for drought.
- Feeding
- A light autumn mulch of leaf mold is all the feeding it wants.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- April
- Pruning
- No pruning to speak of; clear the spent foliage in late summer.
- Overwintering
- Hardy through winter without any protection.
- Mar–Apr Spring Growth
- Apr–Jul Flowering
- Jul–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 11.8 in
- In-row spacing
- 11.8 in
- Between rows
- 15 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Running rhizomes
- Working depth
- 4–12 in
- Can reach
- 18 in down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 24 in–4 ft across, about 2–4× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 12 in of soil
It travels underground, and it does not stop where you would like it to. Taking the tops off does nothing at all to the run, and every fragment left behind is a new plant. In open ground the only boundary that holds is a barrier sunk two spits deep, or a container with its rim standing clear of the soil.
The pips run just under the surface and colonise steadily, coming up through anything planted with them. It is ideal in dry shade under shrubs and very hard to get out of a border once it is in.
The habit is Lily of the Valley’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.
- Cats and dogs
- Recorded toxic
Recorded as toxic to cats and dogs by ASPCA.
- Gray mold (botrytis) Gray mold (Botrytis) when conditions stay very damp
- Invasive spread — left alone it will colonize whole beds
- Toxic in every part, so keep it away from children and pets
Green-leaved flowers, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com