Pulmonaria Roy Davidson
A welcome sight in the garden in March/April is the Pulmonaria Roy Davidson
Pulmonaria was one of those plants which never really thrived in our Aberdeen garden. Here in Cheshire, Roy Davidson is making its presence felt.
Roy Davidson in our garden
Last February I spotted this Pulmonaria in several positions in our North facing back garden. The odd positioning of them convinced me that most of the plants had self seeded.
The colder January and February of this year, meant that our Pulmonaria held back until the second week of March before starting to bloom.
I never really got to grips with Pulmonaria in Aberdeen, although in the last couple of years whilst we were there I was hearing a lot about one named Blue Ensign many said it was the best blue available, however when it died back after flowering in Spring, it was gone and didn’t re-emerge until early Spring in the following year.
Roy Davidson, I am pleased to say is behaving very differently here in our Cheshire garden.
After flowering this Spring I intend to split some of the larger clumps and find spaces in our woodland path for them.
plant description
The semi evergreen leaves may well die back in a severe Winter, however before the season is finished you will likely see them start to show again. Here in the North West coast of England the small powdery blue flowers start to show colour in late February or early March.
As the pale blue flowers age, they transform into a soft shade of pink, this results in a plant with blue and pink flowers at the same time.
As well as the benefit from a Spring plant with a long flowering period this Pulmonaria has distinctive and attractive mid green foliage splashed with silvery white spots.
Take advantage of these leaves at their very best by cutting the whole plant down to ground level when the blooms have gone over. You will be rewarded later on with a fine foliage display, almost Hosta like. This bonus is often at its best in late Summer.
The clumps can grow quite large, take advantage just as the flowers are going over by dividing and replanting where you can enjoy even more of them next year.
Common name *** lungwort (yuk)
Hardiness *** fully hardy
Height *** 30cm/12″
Position *** at their very best in a woodland or semi shaded spot
Soil *** any soil type, doesn’t like drying out
Pulmonaria Roy Davidson *** 
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I have spent a lot of time recently making changes to my page A to Z of our plants. Previously they were set up as one long straight vertical, line which did not look very appealing.
I now have them sorted out in a much better manner. Take a look and see what you think, each thumbnail shows the name of the plant when highlighted. Only problem is, if a visitor is using a tablet, the plant name is not apparent, now how am I going to overcome this obstacle. WordPress have a means whereby a caption can be added to each thumbnail, I gave this a go but unfortunately it resulted in the thumbnails returning to a vertical manner, so had to abandon that idea. Oh, if the thumbnail is clicked/opened then it reveals my post on the subject.
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Our North facing back garden can get pretty squelchy in Winter. In fact we decided to get rid of the grass completely, leave the flower beds as they are and gravel the rest of it.
We started to think it may look rather harsh so decided to lift the plants in the border nearest the house which gets very little sunshine and gravel this area only.
It used to get really messy when there was a downpour, what a difference the gravel has made. As you see we have pots set out with plants which prefer the shade. It will take a little time to sort this out to the best advantage for all seasons. I am thinking a few Hellebores will add a bit of interest for Winter
When purchasing perennial plants for the garden in the past I have had a tendency to go for those in 2ltr pots. It works great when you are looking for instant effect but can be rather expensive. Here in Cheshire I have found that small perennial plants come away very quickly catching up with those larger ones in the second year.
Take a look at Jersey plants, you get 12 for £9.99 or 24 for £14.99 Perennial plants from Jersey
Rick, I initially thought Blue Ensign was objecting to the Aberdeen climate, looks like what you and others have said it is just the habit. I am pleased with the gravel, I am beginning to wish I had left a little more width to the grass and created a gravel path around the garden, it is so boggy in Winter.
Donna, I picked up on the term Bethlehem sage, must check it out sometime.
Alistair, this is an important plant in my spring garden. It dies back quite a bit here in winter sometimes blooming with few leaves which come out later. We also call it Bethlehem Sage here…not sure why. I like how you added the gravel to the back garden. Looks wonderful. Here using small plants will take years to grow in but I still use them.
Hi Alistair, you certainly seem to have saved yourself a lot of trouble by introducing the gravel and giving a perfect foil for your containers. I have a few young plants of P.’Blue Ensign’ and although they are in flower now they certainly disappeared completely during the winter so do not provide the ground cover of the more “evergreen” forms.
I often persevere with borderline plants Debs. With the abundance of foliage due soon, I am hoping the neatness will be less obvious.
My climate is a bit too far south for pulmonaria, but that did not keep me from trying it! It went dormant in summer as yours did in Aberdeen. It came back weakly for several years. I have not seen it yet this year, but I am hoping. I love the leaves!
Your garden is looking wonderful. I like the gravel area with your great selection of pots; everything is so neat!
I didnt put down a grid matting Sunil but I did put down a good quality membrane to stop the weeds coming through. Also I sunk in metal edging around the grass just low enough to allow the mower to run over it.
Thanks Diana, the affect it has had on Myra is my biggest concern.
Still a chance of the remaining grass going, a little uncertain at the moment.
I will be sure to check this out Janet.
P.S. sorry, meant to say, Plant Me Now (http://www.plantmenow.co.uk/) has good value large plugs of perrenials and bedding plants, impressively healthy.
I very much doubt you will regret getting rid of that grass Alistair! I suspect that, were you to add patches of toning pebbles and larger rocks, together with some plants growing through it, you would find you could replace the rest of the grass quite easily too, its what I did in my last garden, much more room for plants, which although people assume is more work, really isn’t if you plant densely and choose good performers, as you know yourself!
Love pulmonarias, a new discovery for me, there were clumps here when we moved in which I duly split and relocated. I’ve since bought severy more. And incidentally I’ve found the same as you viz perennials, and now prefer to buy in 9cm pots, much more affordable when you want to plant in threes or even fives. Happy Spring!
blue glazed pots are on my wish list as soon as the builders are gone.
Been sidetracked reading your about. Hope the ache for Aberdeen will ease as the garden seasons bring you, and your readers, fresh joy. Yours has good bones and I can’t wait to see it fill out and in.
Hello Alistair, your garden is looking stunning, as always, especially in the spring sun. For the gravel – have you put grid matting down to stop the gravel migrating – especially onto the grass? You might have to take care when mowing the edge of this as the lawn mover could suck up the gravel too.
Cant go wrong with blue containers Donna.
A plant I added a few years ago. I love blue in the garden and if it is blue it gains entrance. I also love your blue containers. It is what I have also.
Thanks for the thumbs up Jennifer and a happy Easter to you and yours also.
I am a big fan of Pulmonaria. It always does well here and self-sows all over the place. You know spring has arrived when it starts to flower. Your A to Z listing of plants is impressive and a great resource for anyone who wants to know more about particular plants. Happy Easter to you and your family Alistair!
mums the word Jane.
Hi Pam, I found a lot of information about the lung stuff, which perhaps I should have shared. My A to Z has built up over the years, how it looks now was pretty time consuming.
Pulmonaria is very useful in the woodland garden I find, Alistair. It needs little attention and is easy to divide and move around. I agree the common name is yukky, but if you recall your high school Latin, pulmonarius means ‘of the lungs.’ One of the few bits of Latin I remember. Your A-Z is very impressive and looks like a lot of work went into it. The garden is looking great! P. x
Pleeeeeze don’t tell anyone…I bought 5 new Pulms’ at the weekend. It’s our secret ok!!
Thanks Angie, interesting to hear that you have similar experience with Blue Ensign. Since January I have been watching the temperatures in the East of Scotland and to be honest it hasn’t been any warmer here. The more marked difference seems to come from late Spring through till Autumn.
Your garden is looking wonderful Alistair, I love the gravel. I have a similar in my garden and find it useful for pots – just as you have.
I love Pulmonaria Blue Ensign but find exactly as you did in Aberdeen that is disappears in summer. The others I grow I have no name for and do stay evergreen and as you suggest, cutting them right back after flowering ensures they look great for the rest of the year.
I’ll bet you are glad to be down there this spring, it’s still very cold up here yet! Happy Springtime to you both 🙂
The Pulmonatia is a great plant for the Spring Helene, To be honest I have to work on the Spring garden show, at the moment its all about Summer.
Thanks for your observations regarding my A to Z plant list, some of them do have numbers it simply relates to the fact that I may have taken say 12 pictures and deleted most of them without removing the numbers on the existing ones.
Off to see if there is more news on your new house.
Oh, forgot to say, thumbnails for new plants that I add are easy to set up.
Pulmonaria is yet another plant I haven’t had in my garden yet – well, there are MANY plants I haven’t grown yet, not because I don’t want to, but simply for lack of space. With a slightly bigger garden soon to be started I might find space for this beauty, especially since it is blue, I have very few truly blue-flowering plants.
I had a look at your plant list, great work! Do the numbers behind the plant names refer to how many you have of each or is it something else? What will you do when you get new plants and have to put them in between these to keep it alphabetically, will that be a problem? I know the issue of catering for tablets and phones from my own website, you really can’t win….not until there is a browser that truly is cross-platform and that’s probably unlikely to come. But if you add a sentence like “for phones and tablets: tap to reveal plant names and info” – at least you have made it obvious for people what they can do 🙂
Jersey Plants is a great place to get cheap plants, especially now when they have started to sell jumbo plugs and starter plants – I have shopped there for many years.