Alpine Lamb's Ear blooming in the perennial bed.
I have a lot of the traditional Lamb’s Ear plants (Stachys byzantina) and Stachys Helen Von Stein) in my garden that I grow for the texture and silvery color of their leaves. They look great on the edge of the perennial bed and their velvety leaves add some nice variety to the border. Lamb’s Ear does produce light purple flowers, but I usually cut them back as soon as they look worn.
A few years ago I discovered Stachys byzantina’s beautiful cousin – (Stachys momieri ‘Hummelo’ or Hummelo Alpine Lamb’s Ear). It was called Lamb’s Ears on the nursery tag, but it looked nothing like the plants in my garden and I decided to give it a try.
I found that Hummelo was a beautiful perennial having both excellent foliage and flowers. It started out as a low-growing clump of textured and glossy green leaves and then in mid-summer sent up 20″ spikes of densely packed lavender-rose flowers. These flowers spikes attracted both hummingbirds and butterflies and were a bright spot in the garden. Hummelo blooms for a long time and I found that if you remove faded flower stems, you could prolong that bloom time. When the flowers finally faded, cutting back the flower spikes left an attractive plant to finish out the season.
Traditional Lamb's Ear growing on the border of the perennial garden.
This perennial’s needs were basic – moist well draining normal garden soil. The tag said it preferred sun but it did well in partial shade in my garden and once established, it was slightly drought tolerant. I have Hummelo planted in both full sun and under a honey locust tree and it’s doing well in both places.
In early spring when I am fertilizing the garden, I feed Hummelo a top dressing of compost and bone meal and it is thriving.