Turn your attention to Epimedium

March is the month for tidying. It's also the month to start stretching those gardening muscles, especially those used for crouching. As soon as the snow melts, I'll nip away the tattered leaves of Carex and Epimedium. On the years I've forgotten to do this, I've watched their flowers emerge among the brown remnants of last year's foliage.

We tend to take for granted any plant as tough and forgiving as these two shade-lovers that also are so forgiving about being grown on the dry side once established. Give them their beauty treatment now and they'll reward you with a new flush of spring growth. Although the blooms of Carex don't provide color to write home about, they look much better if they aren't surrounded by leaves that look like strips of wet cardboard.

Epimedium is another story. From white and shades of gold to deep pink, their flowers are gorgeous. Sure they're small, but picture their colorful spurred blossoms atop wiry stems that range from 8" to 20" cavorting with newly-emerging ferns, Brunnera and Thalictrum. My favorite vignette is of Japanese painted fern and Epimedium grandiflorum Lilafee. The fern provides an ideal backdrop, with its rose and silver fronds, for the deep pink "fairy flowers" of the Epimedium.

Another nice partner is goat's beard, or Aruncus aethusifolius, a diminutive (12" tall) beauty with ferny foliage that turns gold in the fall. Aruncus enjoys similar conditions as Epimedium and a partnership of ferny and heart-shaped provides shifting interest from spring through fall. By the time Epimedium is finished flowering, the soft foliage of Aruncus has emerged and in June will feature short spikes of creamy-white flowers. Later on, both provide a welcome shot of color as they change to gold and red.

The genus Epimedium contains several species, many of which are available from mail order or local garden centers. Epimedium pubigerum is one of the tallest, its flowers offered up on stems reaching a foot or more. Emerging foliage is often tinged with purple. Leaves typically turn bronzish in fall and depreciate throughout the winter. Epimediums are also commonly called barrenwort or bishop's hat.

Chicago Botanic Garden conducted an evaluation study of 40 taxa from 1995 to 2001, the results of which can be found at http://www.chicago-botanic.org/downloads/planteval_notes/no20_barrenworts.pdf.

A chart included in the 4-page report lists the floral coverage of each one.

Epimediums deserve to be more widely grown. They are not pushy, take shade and even a bit of sun, and make colorful companions to more lofty plants.

The opinions expressed are solely the writer's. Reach her at jeanstarr@verizon.net.