Symphytum grandiflorum – Creeping comfrey
This is an unassuming plant and definitely lacks 'wow factor'. However, I love to champion an underdog and find it an invaluable plant for ground cover in shade. Everyone has some difficult shade and I would highly recommend this as a solution. I grow S. 'Hidcote Blue' between shrubs and it seems to thrive in dense shade for much of the year, forming a virtually weed-proof mat. It has clusters of lovely red buds that look a bit like fern croziers and which open to very pale blue and white. This year mine started flowering in early February and are still going strong towards the end of March, really lifting a dull corner of the garden. It retains some leaves through the winter and in the spring the leaves are, in my view, a really good green. I grow it with primroses and epimediums; it would look great with ferns too. Bees go crazy for the flowers. What's not to like?
Some books say that it can be invasive or hard to eradicate once established. I certainly wouldn't want to eradicate it and it hasn't been invasive in our garden. I bought it in a 10 cm pot about 5 years ago (from Swallowfield Nursery) and it now covers an area about 70cm in diameter, reaching a height of about 30cm.
Had I realised that the Symphytum genus includes common comfrey, I definitely wouldn't have bought it, as comfrey brings me out in a painful rash, but I've had no adverse reaction at all to 'Hidcote Blue'. In fact, last year I acquired two more at a plant sale. They were labelled only as ' Symphytum' with no species or cultivar given, and as they are only now starting to flower I can't be entirely sure what they are. I think that one may be 'Hidcote Pink' (a pink version of 'Hidcote Blue', funnily enough) but I'm hoping that the other might be S. ibericum as the buds look orange rather than pink. If it is, then the buds should open to cream.
The RHS recommends propagation by division in the spring and I'm trying that for the first time this year. Fingers crossed that I will have some for this year''s plant sale!