Lewis County Herald - Serving Hohenwald, Lewis County Tennessee Since 1898

Submitted by Troy B. Marden, host of Nashville Public

Television's Volunteer Gardener

Bishop's hat and fairy wings are charming common names for Epimedium and if you look at the flowers and newly unfurling leaves in early spring, it is clear how they came by them. As the tiny, wing-like leaves emerge from underground rhizomes in March and April, they are accompanied by clusters of delicate, dangling flowers which, with a bit of imagination, could be reminiscent of certain ecclesiastical headwear.

The flowers are equally diverse, appearing from very early spring to early summer in a verit...