Epimedium grandiflorum Purple Pixie - Fairy Wings

Epimedium grandiflorum 'Purple Pixie' is a variety of Epimedium with large flowers that will delight enthusiasts of this pretty shade plant. It combines an exceptionally vibrant flower colour with rapid growth, allowing it to form a lovely clump of leaves and flowers within 2 or 3 years. This Fairy Flower is not very tall and won't suffocate its neighbours. Perched above a cushion of pink and red tinted leaves, its beautiful spring flowers, an outstanding pink-purple, with a white spur, bring life to the partially shaded areas of the garden like few other plants can. It will live for many years in any well-drained, fairly moist soil.

Belonging to the barberry family, the 'Purple Pixie' Epimedium is derived from the Epimedium grandiflorum, a species native to northern China. This delightful variety was discovered in the 1990s in an American garden, growing in a huge clump of Epimedium grandiflorum 'Alba'. This rhizomatous plant establishes itself quickly, forming a dense cushion, 25-27 cm (10-11in) tall and spreading very little, occupying 35 cm (14in) of ground. It produces delicate small flowers, about 3 cm (1in), in late spring (usually in May), bicolour, with an original shape, reminiscent of columbines. They are composed of 4 pink-purple petals with long white spurs, surrounding a white-pink calyx, perched on slender and flexible stems. It is from this elegance and finesse that it gets the name "Fairy Flower". Its foliage is often deciduous (evergreen in mild climates), and composed of toothed, medium-blueish green leaflets, taking on a beautiful pink-red colour in spring and bronze at the end of the season.

The Fairy Flower thrives in cool conditions and withstands root competition from other plants, which allows it to be used at the base of trees and shrubs. A plant for light woodland, it is hardy down to -15°C (5°F), preferring humus-rich soils, but adapting to almost all ordinary soils. The 'Purple Pixie' Epimedium is more beautiful scattered in sparse clumps than as ground cover, and is a useful plant for shaded areas which are often neglected. It would be a shame to confine it to a utilitarian ground cover role: accompanied by Hepatica nobilis, Ferns, Hostas, shade-loving perennial geraniums (nodosum and macrorrhizum), Foxgloves, Candelabra Primroses, and sweet woodruff, the fairy flower will create a superb group in light shade.