Twinkle Toes Pulmonaria - Spotted Foliage - May 2022

There are some plants that I've bought at various nurseries that seem to have done well and others that don't make it.  Then, there are the plants and perennials that I've bought at the Morton Arboretum plant sales.  I'm pretty sure that aside from some Huecheras that I planted in full Sun and were trampled by workers building the house next door, just about everything that I've brought home has worked out well.  The first time I went to the Morton sale was in the Fall of 2020 - they had a Fall Sale due to COVID - and I brought home some new-to-me perennials.  The first of those were three Twinkle Toes Pulmonaria - or Lungwort - that I planted in our backyard in late September 2020.  They survived their first Winter and emerged for their first Spring a year ago - in mid-March 2021.  

Ever since, they've just performed and had some nice growth along the way.   The last time that I showed these were in Fall of last year when they put on some new, post-Summer growth.  

These three have been mentioned in the Lilac transplanting posts from earlier this Spring.  In late March, I mentioned that as I move the four Lilac shrubs and plant some upright evergreens, I'm going to have to move these to a new location.  However, everything that I've read tells me that I should wait until AFTER they flower this Spring before transplanting them to their new home - closer to the edge of the bed. 

Here's how they look currently (below):

I've been pretty happy with these and that has me thinking about where ELSE these could go in the garden.  I mentioned in this post from last year that one of the plants that COULD survive under our Norway Maple are Lungwort as they can manage the 'mat of roots'.    I've come across these "Spot-On" Pulmonaria at the Big Box nursery this Spring that might fit that role and provide some of that mid-bed height (these get 14" to 16" tall) in front of the (last Fall) transplanted Karl Foerster grasses in front of the Norway Maple. 

I'll head back and see if these go on sale as the Summer perennials start to show up - and if they do, I'll bring home a few of these to try under the Maple tree.  They were on my 2022 plant 'wish list', so that's something I should track as we had into the heavy plant-buying season.