Water's Edge Gunnera

Some Gunnera seedlings have made their home in Middle Garden by the water's edge. How cute they were when small - and how nice that they'd done all the planning and planting for me! And such stylish waterside plants, too...

So Cute!

Baby Gunnera look so cute and neat! With leaves and stalks of perfect size and proportion, they are like children - how we wish they could stay little and cute forever, and not transform into awkward angry teenagers.

 This is probably three years old.
Gunnera Seedling

Oops... From little seedlings mighty Gunnera do grow. It wasn't long before they started to - well, dominate is the word that springs to mind!

 One of my surviving Phormum tenaxes, and some spring sprouting Gunnera.
Garden by the Water Race

Their huge leaves hung dramatically over the rippling water in summer, and took some robust handling in winter when it was time to cut them down.

The Sweetest Plant

In springtime Gunnera is the sweetest plant. It unfurls its leaves so shyly and slowly, with no hint of the expansion which is to follow. What a fabulous plant - as long as it has the space!

This spring I took some slices off the roots and planted a new batch further down the water. This will probably lead to another gardening 'oops'. Technically Gunnera in New Zealand is a semi-menace. Where I garden it cannot be sold, or propagated. Oddly I am still allowed to grow it - so I do!

 My lovely big-leafed waterside plant.
Gunnera

I've decided that the floating seedlings must recognise a good, well-nurtured garden, as they bob down the water course. And so they stop, and take root - and who am I to send them packing?