Butterbur

Family Asteraceae. In the height of spring on field margins and along the edges of clearings you may be lucky to see remarkable dense pink or white globular inflorescences emerging directly from the ground.

Butterbur is a very distinctive and ornamental plant, unfortunately not very well known to our gardeners, despite the fact that two of its species occur in Europe. Try to mark the location where you encounter butterbur, and in autumn dig up its rhizome and transplant it to a rockery. Then in spring it will surely delight you with its unusual inflorescences. The most ornamental and rapidly spreading is Butterbur grandifolius (broad butterbur).

The genus includes about 20 species growing in the Northern Hemisphere. All species share similar features and common cultivation requirements. They form extensive, and sometimes impassable, thickets. Leaves are only basal. They are rounded, petiolate, and white-hairy beneath. Rhizomes are subterranean, cord-like, and strongly spreading. They expand extremely quickly. They bloom quite distinctively in spring before the leaves develop.

Location: spreads rapidly in moist, shaded sites, forming thickets. With sufficient moisture they also develop well in sun. Hardy without winter protection. Plant directly on the bank, surrounding with a plastic edging strip or in solid containers. Butterburs — white, hybrid, palmate, broad — successfully tolerate deep shade.

Soil: the plant is not demanding of soils, but prefers heavy, clayey, well-moistened, fertile soils. On poor soils they lose ornamental value. In good fertile soil they grow very quickly and reach large sizes.

Care for butterbur: the plants are aggressive and hard to eradicate, especially the larger species. They require constant attention. Cut off spent inflorescences, which release wind-dispersed seeds.

Propagation: by pieces of rhizome (transplanting in August–September is done directly into the planting site). When grown from seed they flower in 3–4 years. There is no specific technique for seed germination and raising seedlings. They can be propagated in spring by layering leaf buds taken with a piece of rhizome.

Uses: the leaves form a very striking canopy; it can be used to decorate structures and fences. Good in group plantings under trees.