Bergenia ciliata subsp. ligulata
Bergenia ciliata subsp. ligulata • common name: bergenia
• flowering season: early to mid spring
• height: twelve to fifteen inches
• Light requirements: partial shade or morning sun
• Soil requirements: average garden soil that is well drained
• Water requirments: water a young plant regularly until it is established, after that it is drought tolerant
• Growth habit: slowly creeping
• How to propagate: dividing rooted side shoots
• Leaf type: large rounded leaves with soft, fine hairs along the edge of the leaves
• Ways to use it: long lived and undemanding for shady locations; very lightly colored flowers show well in the shade
Little information can be found on the internet about this Bergenia. So we fall back on the 1982 edition of Graham Stuart Thomas's book, Perennial Garden Plants, or The Modern Florilegium. To quote him, “the leaves have a hairy margin and are broad and rounded... The flowers appear early in dense heads, opening out into graceful sprays; they are nearly white but have a pretty contrast in the rosy red calyces.” He lists ligulata as a subspecies of ciliata, and they are, in truth, very much like one another in their flowers, their deciduous nature and their degree of hardiness. They are also both hairy but not to the same degree nor in precisely the same manner. Ligulata has much sparser hairs on its leaf surfaces, with more of its hairs on its leaf edges. Whereas ciliata has a much thicker blanket of hairs over its leaves and to a lesser extent, hairs on its leaf edges. You will find quite a thick covering of hairs on the stems of the leaves on ciliata but few hairs, if any, on the leaf stems of ligulata. The leaves of ligulata are ruffled at the edges as shown in the photos. USDA Zones 5 - 8, and zones 9 & 10 in the West.
Limited quantity.
