Barrenwort: Growing Guide to Perennial Ground Cover Epimediums
Barrenwort: Growing Guide to Perennial Ground Cover Epimediums
Photography by Britt Willoughby Dyer, for Gardenista.
Barrenwort, Epimedium: “Bishop’s Hat”
“Now that’s a good plant,” knowledgeable gardeners will say, on seeing a shapely huddle of epimedium’s heart-shaped leaves in a well-planned woodland garden.
Underneath the covering foliage, barrenwort seems to be constructed on wire.
Red-flowered varieties resemble ecclesiastical headgear, although epimedium’s nickname—bishop’s hat—refers to the miter-shaped leaves. In early spring, older leaves can be sheared to reveal the lower layer of flowers.
A medieval-sounding (and less-used in the UK) common name for epimedium is barrenwort, as well as horny goat weed, and yes, they are connected. A quick trawl of these nicknames reveals that epimedium’s horticultural value is overshadowed by its medicinal worth as a libido-enhancer.
Epimedium x perralchicum ‘Frohnleiten’, a natural partner for wood anemones, also shown.
Cheat Sheet
Columbine-like flowers of Epimedium grandiflorum.
While Epimedium pubigerum is not evergreen, it does put up with a mix of shade and full sun.
Keep It Alive
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