Pulmonaria saccharata Mrs Moon - Lungwort

The Pulmonaria saccharata 'Mrs Moon' is an adorable variety of lungwort, both for its green foliage heavily speckled with silver-grey and for its spring flowering in clusters of pretty bell-shaped flowers changing from pink to blue-lilac in a beautiful gradient of colours. This variety stands out for its vigor, it quickly forms a ground cover and is very hardy in cool soil, bringing a lot of whimsy to shaded areas of the garden. The flowering of this perennial often precedes that of primroses and violets!

The Pulmonaria saccharata, also known as Spotted Lungwort, is a fully hardy herbaceous perennial plant, belonging to the same family as borage and brunnera, the Boraginaceae family. It is a botanical species native to semi-open wooded areas of Europe and Asia that has given rise to numerous cultivars with silver-mottled foliage, including the 'Mrs Moon' variety.

The 'Mrs Moon' variety is a recent variety, particularly vigorous, which also withstands heat and powdery mildew quite well. This rhizomatous plant forms a dense mat of flowers and spreads laterally without a theoretical limit. The leaves, gathered in a flat rosette, are very hairy and about 25 cm (10in) long. They are lanceolate, pointed at the top and rounded at the base, while those of the floral stems are alternate, elongated and without petioles. Their colour is a fairly light grey-green, speckled with more or less large light spots, a white-silver colour. From March to May-June, for several weeks, angular, branching stems covered with rough hairs emerge just above the foliage. They bear at their tip pendulous clusters or cymes of tubular flowers, 5 to 10 mm (<1in) wide, which gradually change from red to blue-lilac. As the flowers continuously renew, all these colours are present at the same time. This early flowering attracts the first bees, at a time of year when sources of nectar are still rare. The creeping rhizome of lungworts produces new tufts of leaves after flowering, enlarging the colony. The foliage persists throughout the year, even in winter if the frost is not too severe.

This lungwort, which is perennial and fully hardy, is mainly used as a ground cover in partially to fully shaded areas. In winter, in well-protected locations, its foliage is often evergreen. It quickly adds a colourful touch to exhausted soil under trees, bushes, along north or east-facing facades or alleys, at the base of sunless walls. This plant is a blessing in cool climates, where few plants are willing to grow, such as Symphytum caucasicum and the great periwinkle. It nicely fills in shaded beds and can even grow under conifers. Plant some spring bulbs that will bloom here and there with your lungwort. Also consider mixing your bed with ground covers that flower later, such as brunnera, Waldsteinia ternata, or perennial Geranium nodosum.