Beatrice Hawkins
When I have been reading about plants I came across one called “Obedient Plant”! Of course this really piqued my interest.
Anything that is going to be “obedient” must be a blessing in the garden!
Botanically it is Physostegia Virginiana and comes in a colour range of white through pink to pale mauve and flowers from summer through autumn.
It is native to North America and found from eastern Canada to northern Mexico.
It is a member of the mint family so I wondered about the “obedient” title as I have never yet met a type of mint that could be called obedient!
Generally they run rampant and need to be planted in a pot to contain them and stop them taking over an area.
So more reading and research was done and I found that the “obedient” title comes from the ability that the individual flowers have of being turned to face wherever you want them and then remaining that way.
This makes them ideal for floristry work and great fun for children to play with.
It likes full sun, fertile soil and consistent moisture. I was right in the fact that, like most mints, it can become a problem with its ability to spread by both underground runners and seeds.
In fact it is suggested that to control it, it would be wise to plant it in less than ideal soil or in a container with the bottom cut out and then put into the ground.
Constant dead heading is also recommended to prevent spreading by seed.
Apparently it will grow even in clay soils.
So maybe if you have an area that gets full sun, is constantly moist and you need something to provide colour in summer and autumn, and don’t mind if it takes over, the obedient plant might be an option. However, despite its name, don’t expect it to do as it is told!
The recent welcome rain has things looking green and pleasant in the area and my lawn is going well. The only down side to this is the proliferation of weeds coming up.
Milk thistle is my main problem along with marshmallow. The latter I have managed to pull up as with some of the thistles but it looks like I might have to resort to chemical eradication with some camber or at least a “feed and weed” type of spray.
I have always had marshmallow where ever I have lived, but until recently had not realised it was toxic to animals.
It always came up in sheep yards, but as we didn’t often hold sheep in the yards for any length of time, it never caused a problem.
My wonderful and very practically knowledgeable, father in law always maintained that if you pulled and hung a plant in stone fruit trees it would deter “curly leaf”.
I have certainly done this over the years and found that it worked.
Many years ago I purchased a lovely and unusual hippeastrum. It had green, red and white striped flowers and I couldn’t resist!
At the time I was living temporarily in an apartment and had nowhere to grow it. So I gave it to a family member to plant and it flourished to an extent that it became a problem for this neatness freak and he pulled them all out and took them to the tip! Horrors!
However, at the very successful Horticultural Society’s Garden Extravaganza held in St Mary’s Hall last week, I saw it and once again couldn’t resist.
It will go into my garden this time, among the common red ones that flourish there and I look forward to seeing its contrasting blooms.
Other plants I have in the garden that are doing very well are day lilies and I will definitely get some more.
They seem to be so hardy and forgiving of soil types and neglect and come in such an array of spectacularly coloured and frilled blooms, that I will find it hard to pick a favourite to buy and plant.
My space is limited so unfortunately I can’t indulge myself and buy a number.
The plants of the big frilly red poppies that flourish each year from seeds that my granddaughter sent me years ago, have not disappointed and once again have self seeded and are growing nicely.
I have sprinkled some of the pink ones a reader gave me and also some for “black” and white flowering varieties that I bought, so I hope to have a colourful display in early spring.
One of the delights of these poppies is that they are very attractive to bees.
It’s not unusual to see many bees in each flower in the morning that they open. I have often counted up to 12 at a time in a single bloom.
I see many catchy quotes on the internet but the one that caught my eye this week and resonated in this crazy pandemic situation is a definite truism.
We are all aware of the proven mental health benefits of growing things and being able to look at green so:
“Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get Tomatoes”!
