Cardamine quinquefolia

[mark smyth]

Yesterday I rescues some ?Cardamine quinquefolia from an old garden near my house. Can I grow them in full sun?

Most have purple leaves and flowers but some will be white flowered

[Paddy Tobin]

Mark,

I grow it in semi-shade, under deciduous trees/shrubs though I don't see why it wouldn't do well in a more open position.

Paddy

[mark smyth]

I do have a semi-shade position beside the fence. No direct sun there until after 2pm but some sun through the gaps in the fence.

[mark smyth]

I need new plants for my peat bed. Could they grow there? No sun until after 3pm

[Paddy Tobin]

Mark,

I don't think you need worry about cardamines not growing, the opposite is generally the case, they do too well and spread about with great ease. They certainly would not be the best thing to put over small spring bulbs as they would smother them.

Paddy

[Martin Baxendale]

Mark, Cardamine quinquefolia has green leaves and lilac flowers. Do you mean Cardamine pratensis, the native cuckoo flower or lady's smock, which grows mostly in damp grassy areas?

[mark smyth]

here are two photos

[Martin Baxendale]

Okay, well that looks like quinquefolia. Haven't seen a white flowered form before, and haven't heard of a purple-leaved form either. Be interesting to see how the leaves develop, and what they both look like in flower. As Paddy says, quinquefolia will grow anywhere. I'd be wary of putting it in anything but a pot or a very enclosed bed where it can't escape to smother small plants and bulbs.

I planted it in my garden about 10 years ago from one potful from Robin White, and it's taking over the whole bloody garden, Can't get rid of it. Small bulbs certainly struggle to get their leaves up above its foliage, and it grows at the same time as the spring bulbs then dies down with them. It can be a real pain!!! I'll have to completely remake large areas to eradicate it.

[Martin Baxendale]

Unless it's a different species, maybe the less invasive pentaphyllos, which has never become a  problem here.

[Martin Baxendale]

Mark, my quinquefolia are in full flower with fully developed foliage. Just checked on my pentaphyllos and it's at the same stage as yours and looks more like yours than quinquefolia. I doubt you'd be further behind than me, so I think it's not quinquesfolia but pentphyllos or maybe heptaphylla. How far has it spread in the old garden? If it covers square yards or more then it's quinquefolia, if in smaller clumps then it's not.

[mark smyth]

Thanks for all the info. Once they open I'll take more photos.

[PDJ]

Probably best not planted in the garden, a real menace.  I find it even thrives on glyphosate!

[mark smyth]

  I was hoping to have something nice for post snowdrop season. I need to get Corydalis and Erythroniums ... and ... and ...

[mark smyth]

The white one is now open and the leaves are green. Which Cardamine is it?

[Martin Baxendale]

The white one looks like Cardamine heptaphylla. The lilac one could be a dark-flowered form of heptaphylla or it could be pentaphyllos. Both can spread quite widely in the garden but nowhere near as invasive as quinquefolia.