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Phlomis 'Grande Verde' (Large Jerusalem Sage) - A medium-sized shrub that grows to 4-5 feet tall by at least as wide with large (2-3 inch long) lance-shaped, soft woolly green leaves that are wooly white beneath. The 1 inch long, bright lemon-yellow flowers appear in whorls on erect stems spring through summer.
Plant in full sun to light shade. It is cold tolerant to at least 18 degrees F. A great large shrub for the dry garden.
We have grown this plant since the early 1980s when it first mysteriously appeared in the nursery trade in California as a form of Phlomis fruticosa. It had such large green leaves and was so different from typical Phlomis fruticosa that we gave it the name "Grande Verde" to differentiate it from Phlomis fruticosa. Under the name 'Grande Verde' it has become a very popular landscape plant in California but through conversations with other horticulturists, and from information gleaned the book Phlomis by Jim Mann Taylor, it appears that this plant may actually be a cultivar called Edward Bowles that was first introduced in 1967 by Hillier Nursery in the UK and thought to be a cross between two other species that we grow, the shrubby Phlomis fruticosa and the large leaf perennial Phlomis russeliana. It reportedly originated from seed collected in the garden at Myddelton House that formerly had been cultivated by the famed British horticulturalist Edward Augustus (E. A.) Bowles (1865-1954).
Because we have long grown it under the name 'Grande Verde', and our customers know if by this name, we continue to list it as such but cross reference it as possibly being the same as the cultivar 'Edward Bowles'. Phlomis fruticosa has a wide distribution from the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia, Crete, Cyprus and Malta north through Greece, Italy the area formerly called Yugoslavia, Turkey into the southern areas of the former Russian states. The other possible parent, Phlomis russeliana, is endemic to Turkey. The name for the genus dates back to the first century AD from the Greek physician Dioscorides use of the word to describe some plants in the genus and it thought to originate from the Greek word meaning "flame" because the leaves of some species were used for lamp wicks. We first received this plant in 1983 and have offered this plant at our nursery continuously since 1989.
The information about Phlomis 'Grande Verde' that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.
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