Pinellia Self-sown in Gravel

Judy Glattstein jglatt@hughes.net
Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:55:02 PDT
To clarify a bit - this is a narrow area between front walk and garage 
wall. Shady, too. So I top-dressed the cruddy, compacted soil with a 
couple of bags of red crushed stone, maybe 3/8 inch size. In summer 
there are some slatted shelves, two concrete columns, and pots of - the 
pinellias, begonias, Mirabilis longiflora at the driveway end where it 
gets more sun. Martha Stewart doesn't worry, I'm no competition.

So the tuberlets fell into an inch or so of gravel with yucky soil 
underneath. Oak leaves did blow in and weren't cleaned up as promptly as 
they should have been - O.K. it was actually sometime in early April.

No idea if it is even possible to delicately excavate the little 
plantlets. I think it more likely that I'd separate leaflet from 
tuberlet and kill them. Maybe I'll just leave them alone and see what 
happens.

This is the only pinellia I let onto the property. I've seen P. 
tripartita, P. pedatisecta go wild in other folks gardens. No thank you!

Even if hardy, I think I'd always want to keep some P. cordata in a pot. 
One of my Japanese friends said it is traditional to do so. That way, he 
said, the pot can easily be lifted up to your nose and you can 
appreciate the flowers delicate perfume.

Judy in New Jersey where the weather is playing guessing games. So far 
today we've had some sunshine, overcast, drizzle, some blue sky - and 
now clouding over again.


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