Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla mollis) is a classic plant that should be included in every cottage garden. This flowering plant, with its texture-rich leaves and lime-green flowers, is convenient for filling out garden beds, can be used as a ground cover, and helps create beautiful borders or lighten up the shaded areas in your yard.
You can pair a lady’s mantle with companion plants like salvias, roses, geraniums, veronicas, alliums, and roses or plant them underneath taller trees to enhance these plants’ appearance or promote a healthier garden.
Look at these companion plants and discover creative ways to combine them in your garden.
What to Grow with Lady’s Mantle
Lady’s mantle is quite flexible. The beautiful plant will grow well in any well-drained soil kept moist and not particular about acidic or alkaline levels. They will also grow well in sun or part shade. In scorching areas, they can become scored by direct sun rays.
Because of its flexibility, you can plant a lady’s mantle with various other plants. Here is a quick look at some of the best companion plants to pair with this lime-green shrub.
Taller Trees
Lady’s mantle is very functional as a ground cover around taller plants. Alchemillas will keep the soil around the trees moist as a ground cover and keep weeds from sprouting in your garden.
It is best to pair these ground covers with tree species that prefer moist soil, like maple trees (Acer), elder trees (Sambucus), birch trees (Betula), willows (Salix), oak trees (Quercus), or hibiscus trees (Hibiscus). The lady’s mantle plants grow very well in the shade created by the tall stems of these trees and will bring about plenty of light in these darker parts of your garden.
Shrubs
Gardeners love pairing lady’s mantles with flowering shrubs to create vivid and charming hedges or borders alongside walls, walkways, or garden beds. The bright foliage of Alchemillas will complement the beautiful flowers of these shrubs and will keep your fences or hedges nice and full.
You can grow lady’s mantle next to all sorts of flowering shrubs like hardy geraniums (Geranium bohemicum), roses, salvias (Salvia), and hydrangeas (Hydrangea).
When pairing a lady’s mantle with these companion plants, keeping the taller plant species in the back with shorter plant varieties in the front so both plants will be visible is always best.
For example, salvias that grow up to six feet tall should be established in the back with the shorter foliage plant in the front.
It is also important to consider the companion plant’s growing requirements. Lady’s mantle can grow well in almost any condition if moist soil is maintained.
If you choose companion plants for a sunny location, it is best to focus on species like hardy geranium, salvia, or roses. If you select a partial shade, you should concentrate on companions like hydrangeas.
Flowering Plants
The lime green flowers and vivid foliage of the lady’s mantle will complement other brightly colored flowers very well and add striking contrast to your garden during spring. It is perfect to pair alchema with other flowering plants. Here is a quick look at some good flowers to combine with a lady’s mantle in your garden beds.
Veronicas
Veronicas (Veronica spp), also known as Veronica spikelet or speedwells, can be planted with Lady’s Mantle because it will add lots of texture to your garden with their long leaves and their gorgeous spiky pink or purple flowers can add lots of vertical accent to your garden beds.
These attractive flowers grow well in full sun to light shade and are compatible with all soil types. They can be drought tolerant but prefer moist conditions, and they can survive in partial shade but need at least 6 hours of direct sun to produce lots of blooms.
Because these plants are similar in height to lady’s mantle shrubs, you can mix them all over your garden for an exciting effect.
Alliums
Any showy or ornamental variety of allium (Allium) is bound to look charming with lady’s mantle. We especially recommend varieties with showy purple orb-like flowers like a giant onion (Allium giganteum), star of Persia (Allium cristophii), or Purple sensation (Allium hollandicum) because the vivid purple orbs will form a strong contrast with the vivid green shrub.
Alliums grow well in any soil that drains well but will need plenty of direct sunlight to flower. The showy plants can also tolerate drought but will grow very well in soil that is frequently watered.
It is best to grow the tall bulb flowers behind your lady’s mantle plants because your garden bed will look particularly striking when many giant purple orbs pee out from behind the shrubs.
Related: Allium companion plants
Roses
Roses (Rosa) and lady’s mantle are also a good combination because the bright blooms in colors like blue or pink will stand out next to an attractive shrub. The lady’s mantle will also help protect your rose bushes from certain pests that dislike the intense fragrance of the herbaceous shrub.
Roses need a minimum of six hours of direct sunlight to produce lots of flowers, but they benefit from a bit of sun protection during the hottest time of the day. The soil should be well-drained with lots of organic matter or compost, and these plants require frequent watering.
The best way to combine these plants is by adding your low-maintenance lady’s mantle around the base of your rose bushes so they can keep the soil cool and moist.
What NOT to Grow with Lady’s Mantle
Lady’s mantle is a very flexible or diverse plant that won’t develop well in extremely hot and dry conditions. It is best to avoid pairing this plant with sun and drought-loving species like succulents, lavender, or black-eyed susans.
These perennials are also self-sowing from seeds and can grow quite vigorously. Because of their vigorous nature, it is best to avoid planting them alongside slow-growing plants like ferns, or they can quickly take over your garden bed.
Landscaping Ideas for Lady’s Mantle and Companions
After discovering many great lady’s mantle companion plants, you probably cannot wait to start working on your garden. But before you grab your shovel and gloves, discussing a couple of landscaping ideas is probably a good idea.
In Front of White Picked Fences
These perennials are perfect cottage garden plants and they will look particularly charming if you grow them in front of a white picket fence. You can also combine them with other flowering species like salvias and alliums to create more contrast and interest.
Mixed borders
Lady’s mantle and companion plants like hardy geraniums, salvias, veronicas, or miniature hydrangeas can be combined to create showy borders. These mixed borders are great for accentuating a walkway or for enhancing the aesthetics of a garden wall.
Container Gardens
Alchemillas grow very well in containers and can look attractive in container gardens. You can pair a bunch of different potted plants on the steps of a patio, next to a door, or in front of your home. These shrubs will also look charming in large containers if you mix them with other beautiful plant species like miniature roses.
Final Thoughts
Lady’s mantle is a beautiful cottage garden plant that can be paired with all sorts of companion species like alliums, roses, veronicas, geraniums, salvias, and hydrangeas. They can also look charming if you grow them underneath taller trees.
We hope this guide gave you more insight into the best way to use a lady’s mantle and all of its companions so you can create a showy spring or summer garden rich in color and texture.
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