Bugle or Ajuga

Family Lamiaceae. Known in cultivation since 1653, when it was first presented at the London Horticultural Show. This genus comprises 50 annual and perennial species, widely distributed in the temperate zones of Europe and Asia, but there are natives from Australia, tropical Africa, Turkey, and the Caucasus.

Almost all of them are easy to grow and adapt well to various soil conditions. Among bugles there are plants that are evergreen, semi-evergreen, or deciduous. The most common in floriculture are the ornamental-leaved, groundcover perennial Ajugas with creeping stoloniferous shoots that root in the leaf axils. Ajuga can grow in one place for a long time without losing its decorative value. It is not prone to overgrowth like many groundcovers (sedums, sandworts).

However, dense plantings aged 3 years or more emerge from under the snow somewhat frost-damaged, while young divided rosettes retain in early spring all the brightness and beauty of their bronze leaves. In any case, there is no need to be upset when inspecting plantings after winter: under the first rays of the sun at the onset of warm days the plants very quickly regrow, restoring their decorative appearance for the whole season. After flowering in mid-May, bugles undergo vigorous vegetative growth, and for this short period the leaves become dull. In an exposed site, mature plantings forming a dense cover can easily go without water for 3–4 weeks. No sunscald is observed on the leaves.