MAY ALL YOUR WEEDS BE WILDFLOWERS
I LEARNED a lot about Pearlwort this week too.
A client has been “driven to distraction” by a “menace of weed” (her description).
The weed in the dock is Pearlwort, but I was unsure which variety. After a bit of research, I think there are several varieties in her garden.
Annual Pearlwort (Sagina apetala) is, as the name suggests, an annual plant, also known as Dwarf Pearlwort – and is very much in evidence in the cracks in the paving.
However, the Pearlwort that is threatening to take over the bare spaces in the borders looks like a “much posher relation” – one that has “done well for itself”!
I am sure that one is Heath Pearlwort (Sagina subulata) also known as Wild Pearlwort or Irish moss, although it is not technically a moss but belongs to the carnation family. I do love “plant families” – they’re even more complex and complicated than the human type.
The real irony is that this “more substantial” Pearlwort (Irish moss) is the one doing the menacing – and as my research shows – can also be bought at your local garden centre, and is described by the RHS as: “A low-growing evergreen perennial, forming dense mats of slender stems that root at the nodes, with fine, linear mid-green leaves held in pairs along the stems. Tiny white flowers are held up on stems to 4cm high in summer. Excellent ground cover and suitable as a grass alternative for a lawned area.”
It can also be bought as Sagina subulata var. glabrata ‘Aurea’ – a lovely vibrant lime-green/golden variety – and is sold on www.victoriananursery.co.uk with the description: “In our opinion this is the best lawn alternative there is. We have personally seen this growing as far south as a beachside lawn in Athens – where it was baked in the sun and subject to heavy foot traffic –and as far north as northern Norway – where it was happily putting up with snow, cold and heavy rainfall. Once established, these need absolutely no attention at all – no trimming or cutting – nothing! In warm, wet summers it will grow to around 4in (10cm) tall and become a lovely spongy surface to walk on – whilst in a drier summer or over the winter the growth becomes a ‘tighter’ and more compact 1in (2.5cm). Whatever the weather, late spring and early summer will see the lawn covered in a mass of tiny white flowers that later turn into dainty white seed pods that resemble pearls, hence its name – Pearlwort.“
That glowing report definitely makes it sound more of a hero than a menace.
It always makes me smile – one man’s (or woman’s) weed is another man/woman’s flower.
I have had similar experiences with celandines – being asked to dig them out of the border in one garden and then asked to purchase and plant them in another; and the same with the little Mexican daisies, or Erigeron (or Fleabane) – so prolific at self-seeding, they are often considered to be a menace, whereas they will be in another gardener’s trolley at the garden centre.
And of course, their larger, several-timesremoved cousins, the Ox Eyed daisies – hated by some gardeners, loved by others. And which reminds me of that beautiful saying: “May all your weeds be wildflowers.”