Why barrenwort is no longer one of my most loved plants

In the early 1990s, I suffered, as did most other young gardeners who were starting out on their first major gardening project, from a serious case of plant lust: I felt I just had to have all the great plants in the book.

Of course, I ended up with a hodgepodge, a disjointed jumble of plants, some of which obviously did not like their companions and promptly up and died. 

One of the plants everyone was banging on about back then was epimedium aka barrenwort.

It was esteemed for its lovely heart-shaped leaves that changed slightly in colour in the fall with a drop in temperature.

These plants were also admired as stylish hardy, groundcover specimens that produce small, red star-shaped flowers.

Everyone said epimedium was a must have plant for woodland/shade gardens.

I was in no position to disagree, so I dutifully went down to the garden centre and and bought a variety of epimediums for my garden, particularly one called E. rubrum.

That was more than 30 years ago. This week, I finally admitted to myself that epimediums don’t mean a lot to me.  I have no idea why I planted so many in such a prominent location.

I lost interest in epimedium many years ago, but I just left it to do its thing every year. It has always been a pretty boring plant. And the foliage is not as exciting as some made it out to be back in the 90s.

Yesterday, I decided to relocate these plants and replace an entire long border filled with them with another plant that, for some reason I seem to have a lot of – variegated sedge, Carex morrowii Ice Dance.

I think a long drift of this grass will look better and add more drama to the garden year round than the barrenwort, so I feel it is an improvement that costs me nothing but a few hours of heavy labour, digging and lifting.

I have always said that every spring we need to go and look all our plants in the face and ask: What have you done for me lately?

And if we don’t get the answer we want, it is time to get the spade out and do some digging and lifting.

Anyway, my spring renovation work is far from over.

I’ve been moving azaleas around and some rhododendrons and making space for a few new plants that will give me more structure and evergreen foliage year round.

swhysall@hotmail.com