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Cheap Thrills

© Emily Levitt

Several readers asked questions following last weeks' column about making the most of their perennials, and posting the answers is a good way to share more information. There were questions about "crowns." A crown isn't what I wear on my head while doing house work... Crowns are individual clumps of plant material which may be removed from the parent plant, thus creating a division.I am nothing if not thrifty, also known as cheap to some of my friends. A penny saved is a penny earned means--in gardening parlance--undivided plants and unused seeds are wasted money. Money you could save up to spend on a nice massage, or a good tiller, whatever you fancy.

That's why I love to spead my perennials all over the garden. Not only do I have a nice theme of repeated color and texture, it's cost efficient!

"Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things." --George Carlin

Words to live by, are they not?


This quote always makes me think fondly of Lamb's Ears. Please DO pat this wonderful perennial! It is lovely to touch, and sinfully simple to propagate. (Yes, it's a little thrill, but all natural and fat -free.) STACHYS LANTANA is well worth a few strokes. Little kids just love it, and the ease with which it multiplies makes it very easy to divide. Each of its' runners yields a crown, lying in wait to become an individual plant. But, not for long...

It's a mint, so if you make it happy, it will reward you by flopping all over the place. Hack out the crowns in the middle of existing clumps, as they die out first, and the parent plant will fill it in over a single growing season...or maybe in just a month, once spring arrives. Once pleased, it can be aggressive. You will have a gracious plenty of this stuff to share with the neighbors in no time. Stachys makes terrific accent material for window boxes and containers in the spring garden, and when fall arrives, break down the potted plants and put them in the ground to overwinter.

There is nothing like stachys for edging a garden path, as seen here in this photograph by Lynn Purse. It likes six to eight hours a day of full sun, but in my experience it has done well in semi-shade. A long-used herb, it's also known as 'betony' and is semi-evergreen in most of the south. I'm told it may not last the winter above Zone 5, but in Atlanta it takes a prolonged hard feeze to kill off the foliage. Even then the root runners will probably make a comeback. Mints are amazing.

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