Amateur Gardening – 13 July 2019

20 AMATEUR GARDENING 13 JULY 2019

Corydalis

If you want bright, colourful flowers on neat mounds of foliage then corydalis is ideal.

Anne Swithinbank looks at some common varieties that provide good groundcover

S

HOULD you move into a place

with an established but slightly

overgrown garden, it is possible

that while you are clearing the

groundcover you might encounter a

clump of fine, ferny foliage, joined by

quirky-looking tubular flowers with short

or long spurs. These plants belong to

the genus corydalis, and they have

inspired a variety of descriptions,

including snapdragons, nests of baby

birds, shoals of fish or even tadpoles.

They are also known as fumitories or

fumeworts, and are members of the

poppy family, Papaveraceae.

Mix and match

There are 400 species of corydalis, but

only a few are used regularly as garden

plants. Commonest is the yellow fumitory

(C. lutea), native to the European alpine

regions. From spring to late summer,

short-spurred, canary-yellow flowers

will open against evergreen foliage

that reaches a height of 16in (40cm).

Their ability to seed with abandon

can be viewed as a crime or an asset,

depending on your style of gardening.

Plants will spring up from walls and

mingle with other plants, thriving in

well-drained but moist soil in semi-shade.

I would harness its fragile looks to knit

spaces between plants and complement

larger-leaved hostas and ligularias. If you

prefer cream flowers, C. ochroleuca is

similar but a little shorter at 12in (30cm).

In our garden, we were delighted to

come across smaller C. solida, as its

grey-green leaves are a perfect foil for a

spring show of dusky-pink flowers. Like

cream-flowered C. malkensis, this group

dies back to a tuberous rootstock during

the heat of summer, so be careful not to

uproot plants accidentally while weeding

and planting. They grow well with spring-

flowering bulbs and naturalise in turf.

Some of the showiest fumitories are

those derived from Chinese C. flexuosa

and other blue-flowered species such

as C. elata (a good garden blue) and

C. cashmeriana. With names such as

‘Kingfisher’, ‘Blue Dragon’ and ‘China

Blue’, their long-spurred azure flowers

have set many hearts aflutter, but the

plants need some pampering to thrive.

After flowering in May and June, some

will go dormant in summer; they need

a good humus-rich but well-drained

soil and react well to regular division.

How to grow...

C. ochroleuca has cream fl owers and

grows to a height of 12in (30cm)

All photography Alamy, unless otherwise credited

Corydalis

I will plant my new blue-fl owered

corydalis into an alpine sink, where

good drainage is guaranteed and

I can keep an eye on them

Yellow fumitory (Corydalis lutea) sets seed with

abandon – and once established it’s a real keeper

Corydalis with tuberous

rootstocks, whose growth

dies back in summer, can

be easily uprooted by mistake.

A good plan is to mark

their position by mulching

with pale-coloured grit.

Corydalis

can be used

to fi ll the

spaces

between

plants such

as hostas