{"id":149,"date":"2009-05-11T04:26:23","date_gmt":"2009-05-11T12:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=149"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:59","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:59","slug":"bugleweed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/bugleweed\/","title":{"rendered":"Bugleweed"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUGLEWEED<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t know how many times I have heard the old adage, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”\u009d\u00a0 Usually I have no interest in joining ’em, because I don’t like ’em, but every once in awhile I depart from that practice.\u00a0 About five years ago I did so with bugleweed, which is more formally known as Ajuga reptans.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am not alone.\u00a0 Ajuga has become more and more fashionable in the last few years, with a dramatic increase in the number of cultivars.\u00a0 The plant itself is a low grower, creeping along the ground and sending up six to eight-inch flower stalks in mid spring.\u00a0 The small individual flowers are usually blue purple, with the petals fused at the bases into tiny tubes.\u00a0 The blooms are arrayed around the top half of the stalk and sprout from the leaf axils or spaces where leaves and stalks meet.\u00a0 The leaves are a more or less elongated oval shape with neatly scalloped edges.\u00a0 As befits a member of the mint or Labiatae family, ajuga leaves are opposed or paired on opposite sides of the stalk.\u00a0 They are also arrayed in pairs on the numerous runners that each plant sends out.\u00a0 To say ajuga is vigorous is an understatement.\u00a0 They could grow perfectly well on damp linoleum.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lawn grass, on the other hand, is hard to grow–at least for me.\u00a0 This is probably because I do absolutely nothing to encourage it.\u00a0 Fortunately ajuga has moved in to pick up the slack.\u00a0 Up until five years ago I resented this unwanted horticultural help.\u00a0 As a suburbanite I felt guilty about my inability to worship or at least maintain my lawn.\u00a0 Because the ajuga was so vigorous I discounted or even disdained it.\u00a0 Besides, if you give ajuga an inch it takes a mile, moving right into your garden beds and shouldering aside better bred individuals like columbine.\u00a0 I made a habit of plucking ajuga out, noting as I did that the ajuga didn’t even seem to notice and, in fact, the plants appeared to compensate for this slaughter by sending out even more runners.\u00a0 Clearly fighting ajuga was an exercise in futility.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What changed my mind?\u00a0 Reality.\u00a0 One spring day about five years ago, I looked out at my back lawn and saw hundreds of blue-purple ajuga flower spikes, bluebells and common violets growing up among the few stalwart patches of grass.\u00a0 It was a beautiful scene.\u00a0 All the colors harmonized perfectly and the whole thing looked like an impressionist painting.\u00a0 I wished that I had Monet or at least Childe Hassam around to do it justice on canvas.\u00a0 I picked bunches of ajuga and pink bluebells for the house.\u00a0 They also looked stunning and the arrangement lasted for a long time.\u00a0 I realized that I put exactly the same miniscule amount of time into ajuga that I did into lawn grass, but the ajuga flourished.\u00a0 It was time to admit reality and celebrate ajuga.\u00a0 The ajuga did not notice the attitude change or the celebration.\u00a0 It was too busy reproducing.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My backyard ajuga is the most common form of Ajuga reptans.\u00a0 Its leaves are green shading to bronze, depending on the amount of sunlight individual plants receive.\u00a0 The plants that have crept into the beds have slightly bigger flowers and taller stalks than those making their way in the lawn.\u00a0 After the flowers die back, I trim the spent stalks as I go over the whole area with the lawnmower.\u00a0 Ajuga is an excellent green groundcover, forming dense networks of plants that can stand up quite well to foot traffic.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you want to acquire ajuga, the easiest way is to find someone who has it already.\u00a0 It is a classic “pass along plant”\u009d–easy to dig up and give to relatives, friends and neighbors.\u00a0 If you don’t know anyone with ajuga, the catalogs are full of it.\u00a0 Start with something basic like plain old Ajuga reptans or ‘Pat’s Select Variety’.\u00a0 For something showier, invest in ‘Catlin’s Giant’ or ‘Purple Brocade’, which have taller stalks and bigger flowers and leaves.\u00a0 Similar to my backyard ajuga, ‘Bronze Beauty’ spreads quickly and has bronzy foliage.\u00a0\u00a0 ‘Burgundy Glow’ features green leaves with pinkish cream edges, while the hybrid ‘Toffee Chip’ has longer leaves edged in white.\u00a0 Dark foliage is all the rage in modish gardens, and you can get in with ‘Black Scallop’, an ajuga with leaves of such dark purple that they appear black.\u00a0 Most ajuga do just fine with dappled shade, but ‘Black Scallop’ needs more sun to develop the best color. \u00a0I can’t imagine why anyone would want something other than the standard blue or blue purple flowers, but for those who crave variety, there is ‘Torch’, with large pink flowers and bronzy leaves.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All of the variegated ajuga are beautiful, but be on your guard; some tend to revert to green or greenish bronze foliage without warning.\u00a0 If this happens, simply pluck off the green leaves or pull out the young, green-leafed plants so they won’t outcompete their variegated parents.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ‘Toffee Chip’ and possibly ‘Black Scallop’ ajuga will probably be available in garden centers and even mega-merchandisers this spring.\u00a0 For other varieties, try Bluestone Perennials, 7211 Middle Ridge Rd., Madison, OH. 44057; (800) 852-5243; www.bluestoneperennials.com<\/font><\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BUGLEWEED \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t know how many times I have heard the old adage, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”\u009d\u00a0 Usually I have no interest in joining ’em, because I don’t like ’em, but every once in awhile I depart from that practice.\u00a0 About five years ago I did so with bugleweed, which is … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1636,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/1636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}