Thalictrum delavayi Splendide Album - Meadow-rue

Thalictrum 'Splendide Album', with its pure white flowers, completes the delightful collection of giant meadow rues. It is a variety of beautiful stature, with finely cut and chiselled blue-green foliage, and a generous summer flowering, which crowns its vegetation with a cloud of small pure white flowers. An elegant but hardy and robust perennial. Wonderful in partially shaded or sunny beds, in moist soil. 

Thalictrum delavayi, also known as Thalictrum dipterocarpum and sometimes called Delavay's meadow rue, is a rhizomatous perennial plant native to the Himalayan region of Asia, from eastern Tibet to western China. It belongs to the Ranunculaceae family. It is found in the wild at high altitudes, in forests, scrubland, and grassy slopes.  'Splendide Album', also known as 'Splendide White', is a white-flowered clone of the beautiful cultivar 'Splendid'. It is an herbaceous perennial, with an upright and erect habit, forming a bushy clump, from which flexible stems rise, reaching a height of about 1.5m (5ft) (sometimes more), with a width of 30 to 40cm (12 to 16in). Its finely cut and very light deciduous foliage resembles that of a columbine. It is composed of pinnate or ternate leaves, 15 to 35cm (6 to 14in) long, with entire or trilobed leaflets. They are glaucous green on top, with a bluish hint below. In July-August, large, loose, well-branched, terminal and axillary panicles appear, composed of small star-shaped flowers with four pure white sepals, enhanced by prominent yellowish-green stamens. They do not like competition from nearby roots so respect a planting distance of 40cm (16in) around its base. Meadow rue is quite slow to establish, but will become increasingly beautiful over time. 

Thalictrum delavayi 'Splendide Album' provides the same ornamental function as baby's breath, but it prefers the cool and shaded areas of the garden. With its size, its delicate and elegant foliage, and its airy appearance, it will be perfect for adding height and lightness to beds. Despite its size, it can be planted at the front of flower beds. It will be particularly effective in contrast with less delicate perennials (rodgersia, hosta), as well as on the edge of shrub beds. It will naturally find its place alongside hostas, hydrangeas, shrub or climbing roses, fuchsias, Japanese anemones, aconites, astilbes, campanulas, alder buckthorn, snowberries, ferns, hellebores, foxgloves, grasses, perennial geraniums, elderberry, and Sacred Bamboo.