Gardening with Galligan: What's in bloom — besides hydrangeas

There are hydrangeas in bloom all over the Island and yes, they’re a delight to see. And since I am always telling you that shrubs give you more bang for the buck, I’m certainly not putting them down.

But it’s always worthwhile, or so I think, to look a little further afield than what’s most prevalent at any given moment. If shrubs are part of your landscape theme, have as many hydrangeas as you like, but think about hypericum as well. At this time of year, it’s a welcome bright yellow, which is more than you can say about any other shrub that comes to mind.

Hypericum is a genus of about 400 species of flowering plants in the family Hypericaceae, otherwise known as St. John’s Wort, thought to have a number of medicinal values. Many plants and shrubs have medicinal histories — remember it’s only in recent times that plants are grown for their beauty alone.

In colonial days for example, there was not really any concept of gardens as attractive places. For something to be valued, it had to have a use beyond “sightliness.” If roses didn’t make hips, useful in both medicine and cooking, it’s not likely that they would have made the journey so successfully from the Old World to the new one.

Hypericum was an invariable ingredient of most theriacs, or poison antidotes, and was thought to be useful as an antidepressant as well. It’s quite an attractive shrub. It will manage with half sun and not much in the way of attention. Given its bright yellow flowers, it will certainly be a good partner for those blue to lavender hydrangeas.

Have you noticed what’s blooming outside the library? Those bright yellow, flat-topped flowers? They’re achillea, otherwise known as yarrow, and in recent years have been hybridized to the point that they come in myriad colors and shades. They’re perennial and sun-lovers, as you see from their very appropriate placement there. They’re a genus of about 85 flowering plants, in the family Asteraceae.

The blossoms come in those oddly-shaped, totally flat clusters at the top of tallish stems. The genus was named for the Greek hero of myth, Achilles, and in the Iliad, Greek soldiers use yarrow to treat their wounds. In the 17th century, it was popular as a vegetable. The younger leaves were cooked and used much as spinach is today and it was often used as a base for soup. The taste is said to be slightly bitter.

These flowers can be white, yellow, orange, pink or red. Some of the more popular cultivars include Paprika, Cerise Queen and Red Beauty. Presumably the names will be sufficient to give you the general idea. Apple blossom and Fanal are also popular. If you have enough sun, this is a perennial that it’s hard to find fault with. It’s drought tolerant and disease resistant. Achilleas don’t get black spot.

According to the literature, however, it should be noted that in rare cases yarrow can cause severe allergic skin rashes; prolonged exposure is thought to increase the skin’s photosensitivity, especially when wet skin comes into contact with cut grass and yarrow together. If that’s a downer, a pleasant aspect of the plant is that many species of butterflies use it as a major food source.

In Chinese tradition, proverbs claim that yarrow both brightens the eyes and promotes intelligence. Yarrow is also thought to be lucky, and mountain climbers were assured that where yarrow grew there were neither tigers, wolves or poisonous plants. It was also supposed to grow around the grave of Confucius. Unfortunately, I cannot verify any of these possibilities from first-hand intelligence.