Plant of the Week: Lunaria rediviva

I hope you all are enjoying your gardens. I've seen on Facebook that some of you are getting snow. I think snow in April is just wrong and you have my sincerest sympathies. 

Speaking of the weather, I'm sure it sounds like I'm bragging when I say that the skies have been clear and sunny here for the past week or so. But it's true, and ironically, we who live in this  part of the world can only take so many days of sunshine without the nagging reminder that April is usually a rainy month. And then we worry that maybe we're going to have a drought. The media helps with this. 

Onward to the plant on the week, Lunaria ridiviva. This is the perennial Honesty, Money Plant or Silver Dollar Plant. There is a biennial Honesty too (Lunaria annua) that is nice in its own right. But when I read about the perennial Lunaria a few years ago, I thought it would make a great permanent addition to my woodland garden.  

Lunaria ridiviva blooming now

I was right of course. But it's taken awhile. Last year It had one little bloom on one little stem. This year the plant has bulked up nicely with lots of stems and flowers. 

The plant is about two feet tall and a foot wide. Check out the big heart-shaped leaves.

Maybe the best thing about this plant is that, unlike the annual Lunaria, these flowers are intensely fragrant. I mean seriously fragrantly delicious!

Purported to be a spring-bloomer, I'm not sure how long this plant will be in bloom but there are still buds forming. 

Just like the annual version, the perennial Lunaria flowers will form silvery seedheads. I don't have any photos of them yet but you can see them here and  here. 

Lunaria rediviva is easy to grow in any shady spot that gets occasional summer water. It is winter-hardy in Zones 4-9. You can learn more about it on Plant Lust. And did I mention that the flowers are fragrant? I wish there was smell-o-vision. Yummy!

Thank you for visiting.