Corydalis solida ‘Purple Bird’

Corydalis solida ‘Purple Bird’ is a natural follow on to ‘Purple Beauty‘. With the same deep purple colour to it’s flowers, but a later flowering time, it carries on the colour theme well into mid-Spring.

‘Purple Bird’ is a mid-Spring flowering cultivar. Just as the earliest forms of Corydalis are starting to wane, it comes to the fore with it’s excellent colouring taking the attention away from the retreat of the other Corydalis. The mid-season Corydalis also tend to set seed slightly better due to the higher availability of pollinators.

Here in Birmingham, I grow all of the C. solida cultivars in raised beds enriched with leaf mould every year. An oak tree provides shade at the tail end of spring, but for most of it’s growing period, the plants get full morning sun. I have found Corydalis to be quite forgiving of soil type, but moisture retentive but well drained soil seems to serve them well.

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Corydalis solida is one of the most straight forward Corydalis species, and ‘Purple Bird’ is a strong growing cultivar that adds a touch of class and interesting colour to the spring garden. It’s beautiful, bold colour stands out well, and it’s ease of cultivation means it comes highly recommended.