Cardamine

Cardamines offer the worst and the best. The worst, in the form of the little annual weed with white flowers (Cardamine hirsuta), whose seed capsules burst if you have waited too long to weed. We offer the best among the species, which are perennials, very cold-resistant and thrive in heavy and moist soils. They are among the first to flower alongside daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, lungworts... in any cool to moist, clay and humiferous soil, in full sun or preferably, in partial shade. Some species (e.g. C. quinquefolia) disappear quite early in the season, but they are not dead: it is their way of protecting themselves from summer heat and drought. The stumps produce suckers or underground rootstocks that spread slowly, without becoming invasive.