One of my very first garden plants when I was a young boy was Pulmonaria rubra, a very easy and dependable spring bloomer. This species is considered somewhat leafy and coarse, with simple hairy green leaves without the white mottling and speckling touted by the modern hybrids, but I still like it Here are some photos showing plants colonizing the driest of dry woods (under Sugar maples) down at the uncultivated bottom of my yard and woodland where hoses don't reach. The photos show plants in full flower with salmon-red blooms that age blue, the forest floor still strewn with fallen branches from the great ice storm of 2008. The plants shown are from my original stock when I was 10 years old, over 45 years ago! :o :o :o
I googled and found some interesting information on the genus Pulmonaria, Plant Delights Nursery pays homage to Pulmonaria with a separate web domain with useful information on the genus, the page called "Pulmonaria, Pulmonaria, Pulmonaria - The World of Lungworts":
http://www.pulmonarialungwort.com/
A couple of selections from Plant Delights Nursery:
Pulmonaria 'Dark Vader' (looks somewhat similar to P. rubra, which is obviously one of the parents)
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/Detail/04346.html
Pulmonaria 'Silver Bouquet'
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/Detail/08623.html
Take a look at this one, has P. longifolia v. cevennensis in its parentage.
Also found this page:
Pulmonaria in Flora Italiana
http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/pulmonaria.htm
