Polemonium caeruleum Album

Polemonium caeruleum 'Album', also known as Jacob's Ladder, Greek Valerian or Blue Polemonium, is a perennial with an upright but bushy habit, offering panicles of pure white flowers with 5 petals from May to August, enhanced by yellow-orange stamens. They bloom above a beautiful feathery foliage, which is deeply cut and dark green and reminiscent of ferns. This particularly hardy plant prefers fertile, well-drained and moist soils in sunny or semi-shaded exposures. It is easy to grow.

Polemonium caeruleum belongs to the Polemoniaceae family. This herbaceous perennial plant is native to temperate regions of Europe and North America, and particularly well adapted to cold climates.

The 'Album' variety stands out with its pure white flowers. It is a herbaceous perennial plant forming an imposing clump 50 cm (20 in) tall, with a spread of 40 cm (16 in). Its foliage is deeply cut into 25 leaflets, which are intensely green. The Polemonium genus is distinguished by its fern-like foliage, showing dozens of small leaflets inserted perpendicularly to the central vein, like the rungs of a ladder. In 'Album', in late spring or early summer, the green stems rise above the foliage, bearing clusters of cup-shaped flowers with five petals. The heart of each flower reveals yellow stamens, which turn orange when covered in pollen.

Very hardy (-30 °C (-22 °F)) and easy to grow, Polemonium caeruleum 'Album' will be undemanding. It will thrive in any type of soil, from slightly alkaline to slightly acidic, provided it is fertile, humus-rich, moist, well-drained, and damp. Plant it in mixed borders or massifs in association with the wild species, with bright blue flowers, anemones, pasqueflowers, or orange blooms like Potentilla fruticosa 'Hopleys Orange', with which it will form a delightful combination. This variety prefers sunny to semi-shaded exposures. It pairs well with different foliage and flower colours, and adapts well to wooded gardens, rockeries, along pathways, or placed prominently as a specimen in a pot, its flowering attracting attention above the misty mass of its foliage.