A Weed Not -Revealed
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
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| Echinops ritro 'Veitch's Blue' |
By some sort of strange paradox, my wife the Master Gardener tends to show enthusiasm for plants that in a short time become invasive weeds. She showed preference for epimediums, lamium, viola labradorica and, of more recent vintage, the aggressive clover-like oxalis. My own roses and hostas grow to maturity and know how to keep their place with the possible exception of a most vigorous Rosa sericea subsp. omeiensis f. pteracantha.
The problem with
Rosemary’s “weeds” is that they show their vigour early in spring and prevent
slower plants from getting light. This means that many plants in our garden
have succumbed, overcome by lack of light and invasive roots. Plants like Viola
labradorica, epimedium and oxalis have a root structure much like that of an
iceberg under water. What you see does not compare with what is underground!
Now some plants may
look like weeds and not be so. Two of those are the thistle, Echinops ritro and
the thistle-like Eryngium. The latter and in particular Eryngium giganteum ‘Miss
Willmott’s Ghost’ is a lovely biennial. This means that it flowers on its second year and then goes to seed. Somehow it has not reseeded itself and
we have lost it. The current garden depression means that we cannot replace it.
Of the former we have a very nice clump of Echinops ritro 'Veitch's Blue'. Once
I had found in a plant sale a white version but it disappeared, overwhelmed by
its more aggressive blue relatives.
Echinops, is tall,
stately and very blue. It attracts bees. You might not like its foliage. You
might say it is weed-like. And yet through a scan I have discovered a beauty
that was unseen up to now. It all began a few days ago when Rosemary, who was
re-doing her sunny perennial bed instructed me to cut off a few of her
marching-forward echinops to find room for other plants. I brought one of the
pieces in. It was not yet showing any growth of the globe-like flower. Instead
of scanning it from the bottom as I do most other plants and flowers, I closed
the lid on it and treated it like a transparency/slide.
