Lamprocapnos spectabilis
Archive entry 03.04.11
Archive entry 25.03.12
Archive entry 27.04.14
29th March 2009
Lamprocapnos spectabilis is a lovely thing, I have visions of thigh high thickets of glassy stems with their dangling pink flowers festooning
the undergrowth. Feels like I have been growing it forever, and yet the best plants I currently have are some rather sad dwarf
lumplets in the woods which barely flower but persist.
Richer, lusher, larger plants can be short lived.
3rd April 2011
Last year I spent some time in the woods thinning out the canopy, and the additional light has aided the Lamprocapnos.
It fills a useful niche, flowering after the snowdrops and as the Erythronium are ending so it extends the season usefully.
It also dies away fairly early in the autumn, so I can get in and clear out any weed growth before the snowdrops
resume growth. I have been so pleased with the way the two plants up there have done that I added
another three this year, to make a big clump.
If I got my act together I would raise a lot of seedlings and carpet the woodland with them.
28th April 2012
17th May 2013
27th April 2017
25th April 2020
It continues to persist under the trees rather than expand. I have cleared more overgrowth this year which may help it
but I think the main problem now is that it remains in leaf after the spring bulbs have died down and so it gets a set back
when I clear the undergrowth in August.