Ajuga Noble Nightingale

Ajuga Noble Nightingale is a variety of creeping bush with a particularly dark and shiny colour. This selection has small shiny leaves tinted with dark green, purple, and black. In late spring, the tapetum is adorned with short spikes of bright blue flowers, displaying a beautiful combination of colours. It is a perennial, hardy, and undemanding ground cover that remains decorative all year round. It is ideal in a shaded or semi-shaded area that is not too dry.

Ajuga Noble Nightingale is a perennial plant from the Lamiaceae family. It grows quite rapidly, rooting itself with its stolons to eventually form a dense carpet measuring 10 to 12cm (4 to 5in) in height, with a diameter of 40 to 50cm (16 to 20in). It develops rosettes of evergreen leaves, which are oblong, wavy, and veined. The foliage is almost black in spring, then develops deep purple and dark green tints. From May onwards, small spikes appear above the foliage, composed of flowers no more than a few millimetres in size. The bilabiate flowers are a very bright blue colour, standing above the foliage. They bloom for more than a month.

Ajuga Noble Nightingale is a less exuberant variety that will happily occupy the space you give it. Its growth is easy to control by eliminating the wandering stolons. You can create beautiful pots by planting it with florist's anemones, alyssums, or campanulas. Bugles are among the best ground cover plants. They are perfect for dressing the base of trees and bushes, in shaded beds in combination with spring bulbs or lamiums with colourful foliage, epimediums with delicate flowers and beautiful foliage, or Geranium macrorrhizum. They are good companions for hostas and shade-loving perennial geraniums. In moist rock gardens, they can be planted alongside Acaena 'Blue Haze' or A. buchananii, Azorella trifurcata 'Nana', lady's mantles, and saxifrages.