MAKING A RUN FOR IT
CAREFUL - SOME GARDEN PLANTS ARE ESCAPE ARTISTS
LAST weekend it was my pleasure to deliver a talk to a great group of avid gardeners at the Maleny Spring Fair, organised by the wonderful members of the Maleny Garden Club.
My thanks to Bill, the president, and the committee for asking me to speak on “Plants for a Changing Climate” on Saturday.
The fair was held for the first time in 12 years, in these uncertain times, but hearty congratulations must go to the club for running
a safe and successful day.
My wife and I decided to make a weekend of it (why not?) and enjoyed two nights at Hillview Cottage which was owned and run by Peter and Jacqueline Lavery.
Jacqueline is an avid botanical artist and has a range of wonderful cottage plants in the gardens of the cottage and main house.
I was interested in a couple of plants in the gardens that had originally been planted in one position, only for them to end up in many spots in the garden, spreading through various means of self-propagation.
It was these rather lovely garden plants that got me thinking about the beauties we choose that occasionally escape their intended positions and spread, sometimes uncontrollably, to many other garden possies.
Now. I haven’t seen these two plants, discovered in the Maleny garden for many years, as they have been overtaken by all of the new hybrids and cultivars we’re bombarded with nowadays.
I noticed the first plant straight away as it had populated the stepping stone pathway down to the cottage but appeared nowhere in the adjacent garden bed.
It was the beautiful Evening Primrose, or Oenothera speciosa.
These plants were very popular many years ago, but are rarely seen in nurseries nowadays. Look up any “official” information on these plants, and the height and width are quoted as 60cm x 60cm.
I guarantee that the 60cm wide is an understatement!
After a year or two within bounds, this plant tends to spread sporadically via underground rhizomes and self-seeding.
Some gardeners love this free-form style of growth, but many others don’t.
It is a plant for a hot, sunny and dryish part of the garden, but will do best if confined to a large pot.
Another long-lost garden plant I was
delighted to find in the Maleny garden was Indigofera decora, or Chinese indigo.
Another of its common names, the bush Wisteria, is probably more apt, as this lowgrowing, suckering plant closely resembles the leaves and stunning pink, pea-like blooms of a Wisteria vine.
Did I say suckering?
Yes, this plant has a tendency to pop up a metre or so from the original plant, with extra suckers appearing even further away each year from then on.
It has a great habit of creeping along the front edge of a rock or sleeper retaining wall. Regardless of this sometime slightly annoying growth habit (which is easily controlled incidentally), this winter-deciduous plant is worthy of a spot in a semi-shaded part of an established garden.
Some ferns will also spread beyond their expected mature width, usually through their underground stems or rhizomes.
I’ll leave the notorious fishbone fern (Nephrolepis cordifolia) out of this week’s collection, but will include the less vigorous prickly rasp fern, Doodia aspera.
This little Aussie native fern will gradually escape the bounds of its intended space, spreading via rhizomes to around 3m in diameter after 10 years of growth.
The new growth of this little toughie has pinkish tones, making it attractive in the growing season.
Great for part or full shade and can handle drying out quite often.
Also an escapee via creeping rhizomes, the Japanese windflower, Anemone x hybrida, can start off as a small grouping of a few stems and rapidly colonise a couple of square metres in three to five years.
However, the stunningly beautiful white to pink flowers held high above the foliage in autumn make up for their wandering habit.
They love a part shade aspect and can handle drying out from time to time.
Best grown in a compost-rich soil, they can be cut back hard in winter, once flowering has finished, after which a spurt of vigorous growth will occur in spring.
Another plant that knows no bounds in a garden bed is variegated Mondo Grass, Ophiopogon japonicus ‘Variegata’.
A great alternative to the normal green strap-leaved variety, this cultivar seems to be endowed with extra growth hormones and will spread fairly quickly in spring and summer via underground rhizomes.
It’s pretty easy to control however, as the rhizomes are usually quite shallow and easily pulled up if the plant sneaks into a spot where it’s not wanted.
These plants rarely flower, relying on the variegated foliage for year-round interest, but the occasional purple flower spike may be seen and followed by small purple fruit.
Best grown in part shade, it’s great as a living carpet under deciduous trees.
Finally, be very careful if you decide to use another creeping plant, Dichondra repens, as an alternative to lawn in shady garden areas, as often touted by some gardening books and websites.
The common name of kidney weed goes some way towards describing the invasive nature of this plant, which creeps across bare and turfed areas with equal ease.
It’s hard to remove from lawns as it resists a number of herbicides, and can invade garden beds rapidly, with plants regrowing from any small, rooted stolons left behind after weeding.