Growing Lady's Mantle: Tips at a Glance
Lady's mantle is a perennial for the front of the border, where it will grow in handsome clumps with gray-green foliage and a bright shock of chartreuse flowers in springtime. Sun or shade and well-draining soil will keep Alchemilla mollis happy.
- Type Herbaceous flower
- Lifespan Perennial
- USDA Zones 3-9
- Light Sun or shade
- Water Moist, well-drained soil
- Where to Plant Front of the border
- Design Tips Pals with purples
- Companions Salvias, daisies
- Peak Season Spring flowers
Lady’s Mantle: A Field Guide
Lady’s mantle is a quintessential cottage garden perennial that forms charming, low clumps to spill over the edge of a flower border and onto a path, where it gets attention fro passersby with its foamy chartreuse flowers on gracefully arched stems.
A versatile plant, lady’s mantle will thrive in shade or sun, has a long season of interest (its foliage stays pretty from spring through autumn) and will naturalize happily in well-drained soil.
One of about 300 species in the Alchemilla genus, Alchemilla mollis is a close relative to its cousin, A. vulgaris, which is more commonly used for medicinal purposes. With pretty fan-shaped leaves and gray-green foliage, lady’s mantle is an excellent foil to blue or purple flowers (and mingles particularly well with low-growing Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’). Interplant it with spring-flowering bulbs to hide fading foliage.