Dew drops transform this Lady into royalty

By: David Bare | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: June 20, 2009

Lady's Mantle, or Alchemilla, is a subtly refined plant.

It forms low mounds to about 1 foot composed of blue-green leaves that are round and pleated, divided into folds that form a shallow bowl. The combination of lightly felted leaves and the shallow bowl shape makes the plant a perfect vehicle for displaying dew drops.

Each leaf has a saw-toothed edge that dew can perch upon like a necklace strung with diamonds. In the center of the leaf a bead of water will gather and roll, like a restless drop of mercury. On dew-laden days, the morning sun can transform a mound of Lady's Mantle into a puzzle of glass prisms, creating a metamorphosis like an alchemist changing common metals to gold.

Another change occurs when the plant erupts into sprays of chartreuse flowers.

Related to rose

It is hard to imagine that this plant is a member of the rose family when you see it in bloom; the tiny flowers are miniature stars all strung along the branching stalks. Nothing could be further from our idea of a rose. The flowers are apetalous, meaning they have no petals, only the working parts that make a flower a flower.

These would be insignificant at best viewed individually but together, forming sprays and clouds, they are beautiful and fresh. The chartreuse color of the sprays blends and complements any other color it nears, but the best may be blue. Azure Chinese forget-me-nots or mid-blue leadwort make good companions. Add a few yellow foxgloves in the background and the wispy foliage of Amsonia or blue star with its pale blue sky flowers, and you could have a spectacular arrangement.

Lady's Mantle can soften such hard edges as sidewalks and paths, and it is nice tucked among stone work. It also is easy and accommodating. Here in the Piedmont, Lady's Mantle is successful given some protection from the afternoon sun. I first grew it when I lived in the mountains, where it thrives in full sun, and learned the hard way that it prefers some shade down here. Average soils seem to work fine. When it is happy it will reward you with a fringe of seedlings around its perimeter in the spring. Once it the seedlings are large enough to handle, with 3 or 4 pairs of leaves, they can be moved to their own spot.

A large family

There are several species of Lady's Mantle, most with slight variations on the original theme. All have similar blue-green coloration and chartreuse-to-yellow flowers. Some, such as Alchemilla alpina, have deeply cleft leaves shaped like a hand with outstretched fingers. The genus has the rather strange habit of being able to reproduce by what botanist call apomixis; they produce fertile seed without pollination. The result is genetically identical plants that will carry on the slight variants of the parents. This is bad for botanists because it means local variations can become entire geographic populations. So there is much confusion in the genus Alchemilla.

Lady's Mantle's habit of catching dew drops figures into its botanical name, Alchemilla. It was thought that dew drops gathered from the leaves of this plant contained the healing power of the plant within them and they were used in magic potions. The common name is derived from the scalloped leaves being said to resemble the Virgin Mary's headdress and was bestowed in the Middle Ages.

Many garden references shun the plant as common or its flowers as worthless, but this is far from my opinion.

Common does not make the plant ordinary; small does not make it worthless; and cloaked in its morning dew jewelry, Lady's Mantle is undeniably beautiful.

■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening@wsjournal.com.