Care-free perennials: lady's mantle

How often do you find a versatile beauty that is as easy to please as it is elegant? It's rare, but the lady's mantle is exactly that. Here's a guide to planting the beautiful perennial:

The large, rounded leaves of lady's mantle are soft apple green and velvety to the touch, with edges that look as if they were cut by pinking shears.

• Before they fully open, the leaves are pleated, resembling an old-fashioned lady's cape.
• The leaves catch and hold drops of rain or morning dew, which bead up like teardrops along their surface.
• It was once a popular and romantic notion that a lady who washed her face in the morning dew that had collected on the leaves would have youthful skin.
• Because lady's mantle is a low, mounding plant, standing at most 0.6 metres (two feet) tall and wide, it deserves a front-row position in a flower border.
• Its primary asset is its attractive display of foliage all season, although lady's mantle also produces clusters of diminutive chartreuse flowers on slender stems in spring and early summer.
• The clouds of fine-textured colour are a perfect complement for blue and purple blossoms, such as those of catmint and lavender, which flower at the same time.
• In vase arrangements, lady's mantle flowers hold well for a week or longer.

Lady's mantle is at its best when it is growing in well-drained, fertile soil in partial shade, but it tolerates sun and average growing conditions.

• Set out new plants in early spring and add a thin layer of organic mulch to keep weeds at bay, reduce the need for water and allow the plants to thrive in sun.
• Avoid planting in wet soil, or the roots will rot.
• Although lady's mantle is for the most part pest-free, beware of slugs and snails if it is growing in the shade. These night-feeding mollusks can riddle the handsome foliage with holes. To prevent or control the problem, set out shallow dishes of beer to attract and drown them.
• Dig up and divide lady's mantle in spring about every three years, when the centres of clumps are crowded and have reduced flowering or when you want to increase your stock.
• When replanting, set the divisions at the same depth at which the parents grew. Also keep your eyes open for volunteer seedlings, which can be gently transplanted in spring.

Lady's mantle looks elegant when grown in containers and is versatile enough to blend with terracotta or stone pots.

• Its neutral leaves and bright flowers work equally well in a colourfully decorated ceramic pot.
• Grow it solo or slip in a few bright annuals, such as pansies, primroses or coleus to keep the colour coming from spring to fall.
• This adaptable perennial can survive the fickle watering that pots receive, because it tolerates drought as well as rainstorms.
• When potting lady's mantle, make certain the container has ample drainage. As a guide to watering, stick your index finger into the soil up to the first knuckle. It's time to water when the soil feels dry.

Now you know how to plant this beautiful perennial. Add it to your garden for an elegant touch.