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 veritable rainbow of colors, including white to red, pink, yellow, orange, copper and deep, dusky purples. Often, they are bicolored, with the outer sepals being one color and the longer, sometimes "spidery" inner petals a contrasting shade, and they can range in size from the tiny, quarter-inch white stars of E. stellulatum to the dangling, two-inch yellow "spiders" of E. 'The Giant.' Plants can range in size from just a few inches tall to nearly two feet and in habit from strictly clumping, with little to no spreading, to slowly spreading groundcovers that will eventually form nice stands in and around other shade-loving plants.

Epimedium are best suited to bright, dappled shade in an open woodland garden where they will put on their greatest display, but have proven quite adaptable in locations ranging from morning sun to fairly deep shade. Once established, they are drought tolerant and deer are largely uninterested in their tough and unpalatable leaves. For maintenance, all that really is needed is a quick tidying up of old foliage in February, before flowers and new leaves begin emerging in March and April.

For more information, see the Gardens website: utia.tennessee.edu/state-botanical-garden.