One of our favorite new perennials of the last 15 years is Sanguisorba officinalis var. microcephala ‘Little Angel’, which is in full flower in the garden currently, as you can see in the photo below. This deciduous North American native groundcover should be in every garden, yet our sales for the last decade were quite poor. Our friends retired Dutch plant broker Luc Klinkhamer and Mr. Chang of Osco Gardens spotted this in 2009, growing in a Japanese nursery in the Aomori prefecture.
Each slowly enlarging clump of creamy-edged foliage matures at 7″ tall x 15″ wide and, starting for us in mid-June, the patches are topped with thumb-sized carmine flowers held just above the foliage. Our patch below is growing in average to moist soils, where it receives 4-6 hours of full sun each afternoon. Not only is it ornamentally attractive, but Sanguisorba officinalis is also used to reduce blood flow, heal burns, treat fevers, bleeding, diarrhea, peptic ulcers, eczema, and as an anti-fertility treatment. That’s quite a plant. Hardiness is Zone 4a-8b.
Wow, what a beauty! I’m so happy to know this plant now.
I bought it from you. It is flourishing in a full sun, dry environment in Central Vermont. It survived our 2025 drought without a whimper, it did receiver a very occasional watering. I love this miniature Sanguisorba, I hope you still list it and customers will decide to buy it. My patch is about to bloom and is covered by buds. Thanks Tony!
Thanks for the report!
wow! I really like it. I think I’ll buy some!