Brunnera
Brunnera macrophylla · a silver-leaf brunnera
A shade groundcover with big, heart-shaped leaves and sprays of tiny forget-me-not blue flowers in spring, lovely massed under trees, and deer and rabbits leave it alone. It's at its best where nights are cool, in moist, rich soil out of afternoon sun; hot, humid summers and dry soil make it struggle.
- Mature size
- 1.5 × 2 ft
- 0.4 × 0.6 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Apr–May
Brunnera at its mature size
A mature Brunnera grows to about 1.5 ft tall and 2 ft wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Brunnera looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Below ground · Nov–Mar
Dies back to the ground.
In flower · Apr–May
Airy sprays of tiny sky-blue forget-me-not flowers above the silver leaves.
In leaf · Jun–Oct
Mound of heart-shaped silver leaves with green veins, no flowers.
Photos
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Growing Brunnera
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Shade garden and deer resistant
- Leaves
- Dies back in winter
- Native to
- Turkey and Caucasus
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Brunnera, that’s about 2 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Brunnera in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.