Cardamine pentaphylla

Cardamine pentaphylla, (syn. Dentaria digitata), is a pretty perennial with small clusters of delicate pink flowers in the shape of a flared tube. It forms a slowly spreading clump with the help of its rhizomes. It displays a mat of light green compound leaves with 5 leaflets, like a horse chestnut leaf.

Cardamine, (syn. Dentaria), have good and bad plants among them. The worst ones are in the form of Cardamine hirsuta, a little annual pest with white flowers whose seed capsules burst in your fingers if you have waited too long to weed. The best among the species we offer are perennials. They are very cold resistant and thrive in heavy and moist soils. They are among the first to bloom alongside daffodils, daisies, lungworts, and Omphalodes. They will grow in moist, clayey and humus-bearing soil, in the sun or preferably in partial shade. Their foliage disappears quite early in the season, but they are not dead: it's their way of protecting themselves against summer heat and drought. The stumps emit slowly spreading stolons or underground rhizomes, without becoming invasive.