Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Purple Pixie’

Barrenwort are superb shade-garden plants, excellent for edging or groundcover, and deserving much wider use in our gardens. In this selection, plants form a bushy, mound of green, heart-shaped leaves, bearing sprays of delicate violet-purple flowers with showy white spurs, in mid to late spring. Although they will take a couple of years to reach a mature size, plants are long-lived and very sturdy. Old leaves should be pruned to the ground in late winter to show the flowers to best effect. Drought tolerant once established. Plants may be divided in early spring or late summer. Semi-evergreen. Discovered by Dr. Richard Lighty in his own garden as a surprise sport of E. grandiflorum ‘Alba’.