F is for Farfugium

Farfugium was not so long ago known as Ligularia, but botanists changed it in the way that they do. It's still sometimes sold under the name Ligularia tussilaginea. Like Ligularias, these hardy perennials make bold foliage statements and bear yellow daisy like flowers, preferring moist, rich, soil conditions.

Farfugiums were introduced into England by Robert Fortune in 1856, from China, but it also makes it's native home in Japan and on the Loo-Choo Islands. As a plain species, Farfugium japonicum can grow to huge sizes, often with leaf stalks to 5 feet tall and leaves to 2 feet across or more. The plain species bears it's flowers under the foliage. Many improvements (mainly dwarfing) have been made to this plant to make it into the garden plant we know today. See Farfugium Varities below for more details.

Farfugiums, despite their exotic appearance, are very hardy. Like their brothers the Ligularias they will grow in zones as cold at 6A, but don't tolerate warm winter conditions above zone 9 very well.

In my area, classed as zone 9, they are basically evergreen and tend to flower very late in the year, sometimes delaying bloom until December or January. The flowers look like those of Dodecatheon (leopard's bane) or glorified ragweed. Some gardeners choose to cut off the flowers.

They grow to 1 to 2 feet tall in leaf, and their flowers can reach 3 feet in ideal conditions; ie: moist soil.

Plants will often wilt on hot sunny days if they are planted in full sun. This is not a sign of dryness of the roots in most cases, so don't water wilted Farfugiums if they are just flagging due to the heat.

Companion Plants
Farfugiums grow particularly well with Hostas, complimenting their plain or striped foliage, and enjoying the same growing conditions. They also look very nice with dark-leaved ligularias, such as 'Othello' or 'Desdemona' and work well with Yellow flag iris and other spikey-leaved flowers.

They don't do much to benefit displays of the coarse-leaved Rodgersia, which also enjoy moist soil.

Farfugiums and Primulas Together? They can look really nice with primulas, especially Primula florindae and others with tall candelabra-type blooms. I would personally stay away from combining pink flowers with gold variegation, but that's my own prejudice speaking there. Mixing Farfugiums with other plants requires that you cut back leaves when required by the space issues of the complimentary plant. For example, in spring, the primulas would be leafing out, and would need the Farfugiums to be out of the way. Some chopping of leaves might be necessary. By the time the primulas come into flower, the Farfugiums would be growing back over them and then give the primulas some protection (and hide them) through the summer months while they die back slowly.

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