APART from the common comfrey, Symphytum officinalis, with its well known horticultural and medicinal properties, there are a number of other comfreys that can provide you with colour and interest across the seasons, starting now.

The early spring tubular flowers come in various colours from pink to crimson and blue and are not only delightful for us to enjoy, particularly if they are planted in amongst dwarf narcissi, scillas, chionodoxas and wood anemones in a woodland garden setting, but they are a very important source of pollen and nectar for our queen Bumble bees when they emerge from hibernation in March.

Symphytum ‘ Goldsmith’, with its large, richly variegated foliage and blue, cream and pink flowers, is a superb groundcover plant for a sheltered site in dappled shade, never reaching more than 30cm (12”) high and eventually forming a dense carpet of foliage that is semi-evergreen and so excellent for weed suppression.

Cut back old flower heads after flowering to help encourage strong foliage for the summer.

Symphytum Hidcote Pink forms a dense carpet with pale pink and white flowers as does S Rubrum with its deep crimson-red flowers. S Lambrook Sunrise has yellow foliage and clear blue flowers in spring and early summer.

Symphytum ibericum, with its naturally creamy yellow flowers in spring and summer has given rise to a number of valuable cultivars, including All Gold, with its golden foliage and lilac flowers in early summer and Blaueglocken with light blue flowers.

Don’t forget that, apart from the medicinal value of Symphytum officinalis and S x uplandicum, the foliage of these larger, summer flowering types can be used as a green manure for crops needing high nitrogen fertilisers and are also important food plants for bees throughout the summer.