I’ve always been a sucker for silver foliage. So naturally, lamb’s ears Stachys byzantina is one of my all-time favorite perennials. Available in many forms, including nearly flowerless “Silver Carpet,” extra-large “Big Ears” and chartreuse-on-silver “Primrose Heron,” all as soft and pettable as the Velveteen Rabbit.
Valued primarily for exceptionally pretty leaves, their inconspicuous magenta flowers are nonetheless charming. I would never cut them off as some garden writers advise.
Lamb’s ears are practically indestructible (except possibly by overwatering). As is often the case, when one member of a perennial family is this tough, other lesser-known relatives also are a good bet.
Stachys thirkei looks exactly like a smaller version of the garden-variety lamb’s ears and though it is not quite as robust, this is not always a bad thing. Stachys byzantina is the plant equivalent of urban sprawl, relentless in its spread and swallowing up everything in its path. More polite Stachys thirkei, on the other hand, always inquires: “Excuse me, is this seat taken?” This easygoing lamb’s ears requires only good drainage and a sunny site.
Many of the prima donnas of the furry-leafed stachys clan hail from Greece. The flowers on these tiny lamb’s ears look- alikes are disproportionately large at 1/2 inch in length on plants only a few inches tall.
Stachys candida has white flowers spotted purple. Stachys chrysantha and S. iva are yellow. These are connoisseur plants for rock gardeners back East and in England, where they are grown in greenhouses to keep their leaves dry. Here they do just fine outside in well- amended soil with infrequent but regular watering. A patch of S. chrysantha has resided in the flagstone in front of my home since 1992, making it one of the longest-lived perennials in the garden.
Equally persistent pink-flowered shrubby lamb’s ears Stachys inflata, a gift from Panayoti Kelaidis of Denver Botanic Gardens, has survived drought and benign neglect since 1991 in my xeric garden with only occasional watering. A shy spreader and seed producer, this plant has, just this year, become more widely available in commerce, distributed through High Country Gardens of Santa Fe (highcountrygardens.com).
Other stachys species don’t have furry foliage and so are not called lamb’s ears. Not quite as drought tolerant as those previously mentioned, but equally sturdy, are a pair of green-leafed kin, Stachys monieri (sometimes sold as S. densiflora) and S. officinalis. Both come in white and several shades of pink and have showy flowers. Also green-leafed, but requiring regular irrigation, is rosy-purple flowered Stachys macrantha. At 18-24 inches tall, these three are suitable for borders.
I’ve grown a number of other stachys that didn’t really stand up to the rest, in either foliage or flowers, but one little oddity has won my heart in spite of its wandering ways. Stachys lavandulifolia makes a pest of itself in one of my dry rock gardens. But what a pretty pest it is – with mauve flowers surrounded by a haze of fuzzy bracts. Very difficult to grow in other climates and so, of course, highly prized, in Colorado this plant needs no attention whatsoever.
Marcia Tatroe is a garden writer and lecturer. E-mail her at rltaurora@aol.com.
