Tips for cultivating low-maintenance turtlehead

Naturally damp areas in sun to partial shade are among the hardest sites to landscape. You want to grow plants that will add colour to the area, but you want to avoid having to slog through the wet soil to groom, fertilize, stake, weed or otherwise fuss with the plants. Look no further: turtlehead is the solution to such a dilemma.

• Native from Newfoundland to the southern Appalachians and west to Manitoba, easygoing turtleheads are medium-sized perennials, no more than 1.2 metres (four feet) high and half as wide.
• Tolerant of very wet soil, they thrive in moist conditions, spreading slowly with little or no attention.
• The thickly stacked mint-green leaves are topped in mid to late summer by pink tubular flowers that bear a whimsical resemblance to turtle heads, all with mouths agape.
• Butterflies find them irresistible.
• 'Hot Lips', a new sensation, is a variety whose foliage emerges bronze with a purple tinge, and matures to green with red stems. By late summer, rose-pink flowers appear on short spires crowning the plants. 'Hot Lips' is a bit shorter than its parents, topping out between 0.6 and one metre (two to three feet).
• While you wait a year or two for a handful of plants to establish, or if you just want to give the site season-long interest, try interspersing turtleheads with early bloomers, such as bleeding heart and columbine. Fellow late-season performers, such as garden phlox and ferns, will help showcase turtleheads when they reach their peak in late summer.

• In nature, these perky plants enjoy the damp, fertile soil found in ditches, along the sides of streams and ponds and in low-lying meadows. They do well in similar garden conditions, and are less fussy about exposure than soil and moisture.
• Sun or partial shade are tolerated with equal good humour. However, when grown in full sun or in hot-summer regions, a five-centimetre-deep (two-inch-deep) mulch of rotted leaves and judicious watering will keep the soil from drying out during midsummer droughts and provide all the nutrients the plants need.
• If grown in dense shade or if overfertilized, stems that normally don't require staking can become floppy.
• When air circulation is stagnant, fungal mildew can mar the foliage with gray or white patches. Thin affected plants to increase air circulation and dispose of infected leaves. Otherwise, turtleheads are untroubled by pests or diseases.

• Divide the plants in spring by cutting pieces of roots with a few new stems attached and plopping the pieces into the ground where you want them to grow.
• Or take 10-centimetre-long (four-inch-long) stem cuttings in early summer, rooting them in moist soil or a glass of water and transplanting them as soon as roots show.
• Or sow seeds in fall directly on soil in any moist site.

Turtleheads are easy to grow and ideal for busy gardeners. Consider these simple tips and add the low-maintenance plant to your garden today!