Lady’s mantle, the woman’s herb

Lady’s mantle, also called Alchemilla, is a cute summer-blooming perennial.

Lady’s Mantle short facts list

Name – Alchemilla
Family – Rosaceae
Type – perennial

Height – 4 to 20 inches (10 to 50 cm)
Exposure – part shade, full sun
Soil – rather cool

Foliage – deciduous
Flowering – May to September

Easy to grow, its foliage is what is particularly interesting, especially for its medicinal properties and flavor for spice!

Planting lady’s mantle

Preferably in spring.

Lady’s Mantle rejoices in all kinds of soil, but it most prefers it cool.

• For that, simple mulch at the foot of the plant will suffice.
• Propagate through crown division at the end of winter.

Pruning and caring for lady’s mantle

• It doesn’t need any pruning.
  If your plant grows very quickly, it may be worthwhile to prune it in fall.
• Remove wilted flowers regularly to increase the second blooming, in fall.
  That also keeps the plant from re-seeding itself too much, which would make it invasive.

All there is to know about lady’s mantle

Lady’s mantle, also called Alchemilla and even “woman’s herb” for the many health benefits it brings to Ladies, was in the Middle Ages a key ingredient in many “magic potions” of the time!

• As beautiful when it blooms as it is when it simply spreads out its leaves, it is a plant that goes very well along edges and in perennial flower beds.

The main varieties are Alchemilla mollis and Alchemilla erythropoda.

Using lady’s mantle

• Skin lotion – Boil 1 ½ oz (50 g) dried plant for 1 quart (1 liter) to prepare skin lotion.
  This potion soothes small inflammations, acne and helps remove benign scars.
• Infusion – the dried plant can also be used in infusions during painful menstruation and blood circulation disorders.
• Herbs and spice – Thinly chopped Alchemilla will season mixed salads deliciously.

Credits for images shared to Nature & Garden (all edits by Gaspard Lorthiois):
Single leaf by Elizabeth West under © CC BY 2.0
Butterfly on flower by Ilia Ustyantsev under © CC BY-SA 2.0
Two leaves by Ann-Marie under Pixabay license