You Won't Regret Meadow Rue in Your North Fork Garden

We're all getting sick of the rain. Still, the cool rainy dawns that clear by mid-day turn the North Fork into a gigantic greenhouse. As I walked the garden the last couple of days, the glistening, rain-drenched foliage seemed to have shot up to its full height, literally,  overnight. Among all that greenery I find myself revisiting a personal favorite in the wildflower department, Meadow Rue.

Meadow Rue didn't wander into my garden on its own. A friend gifted me with a single plant, that in its own modest way over the past few years has multiplied to four. I dug it in next to the picket fence in our front yard, which turned out to be a perfect backdrop. Rue's official name is Great or Columbine Meadow Rue (Thalictrum), and as I write with all this rain, it is shooting up lickety-split toward its full height of 4-5 feet. The plant’s name comes from the fact its leaves superficially resemble columbine or aqualegia, hence its species name, aquilegifolium.

As gardeners, we can learn a lot from Meadow Rue. When we pour over garden catalogs or the tags of perennials at nurseries, it is tempting to go for the flashy bloomers. Rue doesn't qualify in that department. Unlike Columbine itself which is known for its spectacular early spring floral display (huge, solitary orchid-like flower heads), by comparison,  Meadow Rue's tiny clusters of  flowers don't appear until much later in the season (so photos will have to wait). When they do, the subtle, delicate waterfalls of pale pinkish-lavender are easy to miss.  But that doesn't mean Meadow Rue isn't  a keeper. Long after the Columbine's foliage is dwarfed by the garden around it, Rue  stands quietly proud and tall above the rest of the bed. When it comes to creating a woodsy feel in the garden, this unassuming but strikingly tall, graceful plant does the job like no other.