Lady's Mantle

Lady's Mantle - Alchemilla mollis.
Decorative foliage and delightful inflorescences.
Few plants require so little care and are therefore widely distributed.
Groundcover perennial, reaching 45-50 cm in height during flowering, strewn with amazing lemon-yellow clouds of small but numerous flowers.
A favourite plant of the British, who call it “Madonna’s blanket”.
Winter hardiness zones: Z3 - Z8.
Decorative all season due to the huge number of carved, emerald leaves covered with fine hairs. Tolerates partial shade, and on loose, moist soils forms a continuous carpet of amazing beauty.
The plant is bushy and erect. The leaves are rounded, pubescent with 9-11 concave lobes, very decorative. Greenish-yellow flowers, about 3 mm in diameter, are collected in loose inflorescences up to 6 cm in diameter. Often grown in herbaceous borders. Looks great in a flower arrangement and on an alpine hill.
Sowing: March - April for seedlings. 1,0 g = 3100 seeds.
Seeds require preliminary stratification: sow the seeds, cover with glass and place in the refrigerator (+5+7 °C). The crops are kept in such conditions for a month, then transferred to room conditions. At a temperature of +16+18 °C, seedlings appear on the 10-14th day. In the phase of 1-2 true leaves, seedlings dive onto the seedling beds. A double pick is desirable. Before planting seedlings in open ground, it is necessary to fertilize twice with complex mineral fertilizer. After the end of frost, the seedlings are planted in open ground, leaving 30-45 cm between plants. It prefers well-lit places, fresh soil fertilized with humus. Tolerates partial shade normally. Avoid planting under trees, because the cuff is susceptible to the disease “black rust”.
Care: watering in hot weather. Trimming faded inflorescences results in re-blooming in the fall. For the winter, it is advisable to mulch with peat.
Flowering: from June to August. Leaves die off at the first frost.

* It blooms profusely and for a long time (from June to mid-August), the seeds ripen in September. In addition to seeds, the soft mantle also reproduces by dividing the bush (in spring).
The leaves open in April, when warm weather sets in, and die off in October, at the first frost (-5 °C). In other words, it is a consistently ornamental plant that pleases the gardener’s eye from spring to autumn.
Seeds sown in greenhouses in March germinate quickly and amicably. The seedlings are pricked out and then planted in the ground in a well-lit area with loose, close to neutral (pH 6), humus-rich soil. Fertilizing is carried out once a year in the spring with complex mineral fertilizers. Water the plants as needed.In the summer of next year, the plants bloom profusely and for a long time. In another year, these will already be large bushes up to 60 cm wide and 60–65 cm high with 50–60 peduncles on each.
They grow quickly, forming a dense ground cover. Weeds do not develop under such cover, so the plants do not require expensive care.
No diseases or pests are observed. Winter-hardy without shelter.
An important condition for the good condition of the soft mantle is sunny or slightly shaded areas with loose, fertile, and normally moist soils. The plant reacts negatively to stagnant moisture; judging by published data, it is quite drought-resistant.
By planting Lady's Mantle together with red heuchera, white chamomile, blue delphinium, blue cornflowers, etc., you can get a colourful, consistently decorative, sustainable flower cover that does not require much labour, which will please the eye from spring to autumn and add brightness to the garden, comfort, uniqueness. The basis, the background of such a flower garden will be a soft cuff.
A useful quality of this species is its ability to stand well when cut. Therefore, both fresh and dried soft mantle inflorescences are ideal for arranging.

Recommendations for sowing and care:
- in early May, sow in seedling beds with loose, structured soil, avoiding thickening, or in early April, sow seedlings in seeding bowls with a drainage hole;
- ensure regular watering, loosening and shading from direct sunlight;
- for intensive growth, it is useful to plant in more nutritious soil;
- plant the grown seedlings in a permanent place in the evening or in cloudy weather, water well and mulch;
- in the spring, fertilize with a complete mineral fertilizer with microelements; in the summer, it is useful to add wood ash several times;
- remove faded flower stalks in time (leaving a small amount for seeds), which helps maintain an attractive appearance throughout the season;
- at the end of the flowering season, it is advisable to cut off the vegetative mass and remove it from the site; at this time it is useful to add well-rotted compost.

Lady's Mantle. Bot. syn.: Alchemilla acutiloba Stev.