Lamb's Ears in Your Garden? Not in Mine.
Wednesday April 19, 2006
I confess, I'm not a big fan of Lamb's Ear. Maybe it just doesn't do well in my area, but it always looks too weedy for my taste. Many gardeners will tell you that kids just love to touch the fuzzy leaves, however I have never seem a child who was tempted to reach down and rub them. Still many gardens are graced with these easy growers and they might be a good choice for you. This plant profile will tell you what you need to know about Lamb's Ears likes and dislikes. And there are some newer varieties that have larger foliage and no gangly flowers - nice healthy looking foliage that might even tempt me into trying the plants.
Are there plants you can't stand? Does Verbascum stick out like a sore throat? Leave a note in the 'comments' below, and we'll start a list of less appreciated garden staples.
Comments
Mine would have to be pansies. It’s not that I don’t like the pretty little dainty things. It’s that I can’t get them to grow.
Right now, there’s 24 dying pansy plants in my annual garden. It doesn’t matter if they’re hanging, in a container garden, my perennial garden or anywhere. I can’t grow them.
Am I jealous of my friend’s pansies. You betcha. She even goes as far as giving me seeds. What a gal.
I like the Lambs Ear. I have a Black Night butterfly bush and the silver leaves of the bush, the siver carpet of Lamb ear beloww and the dark contrast of the butterfly bushes flower is very nice to look at.
I don’t like lamb’s ear, but I like minor’s lettuce even less. I makes such a mushy mess when I try to weed whack it in the spring.
I love Lamb’s Ear, but I am crazy about sages in general. I guess I like the fuzzy soft leaves.
I hate bishops weed (agapodium) one little plant and it’s in your garden forever
I have had Lamb’s Ear growing in my garden as a border for the past 5 years. I keep it pruned to a 18″ height. It is a beautiful border that surrounds and edges one of the gardens in my yard. It is easy to propogate. and requires little care and is easy on the water. I don’t stroke the ears
I love lambs ears.I love any plant that will grow:)My advise is to keep trying the plants you like.Try different locations around your garden.I tried three places before Lamb’s Ear decided to “live and prosper” Blush,I do stroke the ears.
I guess Four O’Clocks. My mother brought some over for my garden. They grew quite large, and the blooms never seemed to open. Also, the millions of seeds wound up all over my entire garden.
I have Lamb’s Ear and like it quite a bit. It does reseed readily, but they’re easily dug up, potted, and given to friends. The bees love it. The plant I dislike is Russian Sage. It looks like a big tumbleweed.
Periwinkles…great for sun but, so hamstrung by disease.Until it can be proven to me it is a clean batch I wouldnt even think about it.
Personally I can’t stand Nandina!!
Grows like a weed aeverywhere you look here
Here in California they sell a lot of Mexican evening primrose and advertise them as “vigorous”. That isn’t the word for it. Drought tolerant and bearing pretty pink flowers I can see why someone would be tempted. They should best be described as “invasive”, however. We live on 5 acres and I find them all over the property because of 3- gallon containers I planted several years ago. It is a constant battle to keep them from choking out everything in my perennial garden. Roundup them and more simply pop up. Almost as bad as the dreaded oxalis!
I am so with Deborah. Bishops weed should be banned. I have spent the last five years trying to get rid of it!
I had lamb’s ear in my gardens for 6 years and loved it. Just to clear up from gigi’s comment, lamb’s ear is not from the sage family, but from the mint family and can become invasive if not kept under control. The plant I dislike is hollyhock, too gaudy for me, to each their own.
I really … really … REALLY HATE crown vetch!! Evidentially the homeowner before me took the sales pitch: “rapid-grower” or “spreads rapidly” without thinking it through. So I guess I really hate it when nurseries/catalogues use that sales pitch to sell what amounts to cheap plants for them… do the world a favor and call them what they really are: invasive non-natives.
I don’t think crown vetch should be considered a landscape plant. I know it’s a legume and works well for holding the soil on slopes, but like Bishop’s Weed, it is uncontrollable. Although it does look very pretty when a whole hillside of it is in bloom.
Violets are beautiful but I have been trying to rid my yard of them for more than 15 years! I dig and I pluck every year and they still come up everywhere! I mean everywhere, really…the lawn..the cracks in the sidewalks..even the back yard where none where ever planted! Oh, of course they come back like gang busters in the actual spot I originally planted the cute little buggers!
I wonder if I’d have gotten into gardening if I wasn’t exposed to Lamb’s Ear at an early age. My mom, an avid gardener, used to entreat me to come and explore the garden by showing me interesting plants (like arisaemas)and letting me “pat” the Lamb’s Ear. I would definitely plant it in a child’s garden!
Hi Heavy Petal. Nice to see you here. I enjoy your blog.
Spent yesterday waking up a demo garden with some friends. You’ll be happy to know the Lamb’s Ear ‘clump’ is now a colony and will be divided and shared so that many, many, many children can pat a lamb.
I don’t think I’d have become a gardener if I’d had to dead leaf Lamb’s Ear as a child. To this day I dread petunias after a rain. My childhood joy was the vegetable garden.
I can’t stand Lamb’s Ear either - maybe it would look OK if it had some snazzy plants around it - but by itself it looks like overgrown fuzzy weeds to me. I can understand the dislike for nandinas too - even though I have some, I know what you mean - they are not very glamorous, although some of the low mounded ones are nice, especially the ones that turn red in the fall.
Alot of times I don’t like a plant just because of how I have seen it in a particular garden - but then I’ll see it somewhere else and it looks good, when the gardener has a good eye for placement and companion planting.
I have fallen in love with lamb’s ears and would like to know how and when to plant the seeds. I have several neighbors with them. What do the seeds look like. How far down do you plant them or can the seeds just be sprinkled.
Yvonne
Lamb’s Ear is usually grown from plants and then it self-seeds itself everywhere. It seems to like that period of cold, so I’d suggest either direct seeding in fall or late winter/early spring or placing your seeds in the frig for a week or two before starting indoors or during warm weather.
The seeds are fairly small and shouldn’t be planted deeply. Just a dusting on top to keep the in place. If you have friends with Lamb’s Ear, ask if you can gather some seeds that have dried on the plants.
I have a 3 foot high plant in my back yard right now that I don’t know what it is.
I think it might be a weed……It has the same make up as Lamb’s Ears. Very large, long wide silver leafed that is soft to the touch.
It stands pretty straight like its reaching for the sky. Its very pretty right now so I don’t want to destroy it…..but don’t know what it is…..does this sound familiar to anyone else?
It sounds like a Verbascum (Mullein). Take a look at this photo and compare. There are cultivated varieties and wild forms, some of them very pretty - some weedy looking. The birds spread the seeds.
does anyone know when to plant lambs ears seeds in maryland.
I can’t say specifically for Maryland, but I’ve always heard to direct sow in the fall, for spring plants. If you’re starting them indoors, they need to be soaked first.
do not like lambs ears eitherfind them wierd ….much to everyones amazement the only plant that I cannot grow to fruition is zuccini - so far every other seed I have planted has thrived
If there’s 1 plant to have problems with, zucchini’s a good choice. You can usually find a friend willing to part with 2 or 3 or a dozen.
Linda, I am online looking to identify a plant that sounds just like yours. Mine is blooming now is not mullein. Blossoms are at the end of 3′ tall stems, about an inch across, purple/red in color, having 4 and 5 single wide petals. I may have purchased it from Michigan Bulb Co.