Let Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare' loose in your shady borders and allow it effectively cover boring, bare soil whilst supressing weeds with it’s patterned silver-speckled leaves and dainty little spring blooms. The enchantment of spring will come early to your garden with this resilient, ground covering perennial, which typically starts flowering from as soon as February. This European native is a favourite with wildlife too, providing valuable early season nectar for hungry bees emerging from hibernation. Considered one of the best lungworts available (stamped and sealed by the RHS, having given it an Award of Garden Merit), Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare' makes a tidy, neat and dense clump of beautiful, long, spotted semi-evergreen leaves that emerge green and fade to pure silver. Starting in late February, the flowers emerge dark violet, aging to a cobalt blue, which looks perfect against those cool-toned leaves.    

The great thing about Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare' is that it’s so adaptable, growing in almost any garden soil, in sun or partial shade. It makes one of the prettiest and best behaved ground covers too, its attractive leaves providing a lovely contrasts with other plants. In a shadier area, try combining it with hostas, brunneras and thalictrums for a colourful, textured and varied show of foliage and blooms. Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare' also pairs beautifully with spring bulbs popping through, such as narcissus and muscari: a border or even a container planted up like this is a true tonic of spring loveliness after a long winter. Lungwort’s semi-evergreen foliage will last through most of the year, and being fully hardy, you won’t need to worry about over winter either.