Ajuga reptans Feathered Friends Fancy Finch

Ajuga Feathered Friends™ Fancy Finch is a variety of creeping bugle with a compact habit and unusual colour combination of bronze, gold, and orange. This small perennial forms a dense, evergreen carpet. The foliage is adorned with intense blue candles in late spring, boasting a lovely contrast of colours. It is slightly less vigorous than most forms. This variety is suitable for border and rock garden ornamentation, as well as container gardening. It should always be planted in partial shade or areas with morning sun only. 

Ajuga Fancy Finch is a perennial plant from the Lamiaceae family. It has a fairly rapid growth rate, self-rooting with its stolons. It ultimately forms a carpet measuring 10 to 12cm (4 to 5in) in height, with a minimum diameter of 40cm (16in). It develops semi-evergreen to evergreen rosettes of oblong, wavy, and veined leaves, depending on the severity of the winter. Their colour varies from golden yellow to bronze, yellow-green, and even orange in the sun. From May onwards, small spikes appear above the foliage, composed of flowers no more than a few millimetres in size. The bilabiate blooms are striped with bright blue. The flowers appear erect above the foliage. They bloom for over a month.  

Ajuga Fancy Finch is a less exuberant variety that will happily occupy the space you give it. Its growth is easy to control by eliminating wandering stolons. It can make lovely potted displays when combined with florist's anemones, alyssums, or bellflowers. 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, delicate flowers, and beautiful leaves such as elfin flowers (Epimedium), or Geranium macrorrhizum. They are good companions for hostas and shade-loving perennial geraniums. In a moist rock garden, they can be planted alongside Acaena 'Blue Haze' or A. buchananii, Azorella trifurcata 'Nana', lady's mantles, and saxifrages.