Plumbago, otherwise known as leadwort, is a well-known flowering shrub in Australia. It is one of my wife's favourite plants and I often get the question "Can we grow one of those in our garden?" to which I have refused point blank.

The reason: Plumbago just grows too big for most small gardens.

It's the kind of plant that you would expect to find on your grandma's farm. It will either be grown as a screen or hedging plant or dotted amongst large garden beds. In that era of gardening, plants were handed down by cuttings from neighbours and ceremoniously plonked in a spare spot. Landscaping and garden design weren't high on the agenda so it just became another filler shrub with pretty flowers.

Most suburban gardeners seem to have adopted a similar attitude and after a few years of healthy growth they find themselves with an enormous plant sprawling over their delicate flowering beauties. When this happens, they either tear them out of the ground or remove every other plant to accommodate the spread.

So, if you want to grow Plumbago you really need to have enough room to allow it's rampant growth. Plumbago auriculata, probably the most common species, will grow at least 3m (10ft) high and the same, if not more, wide. As you can see, it's not a plant that you want to grow in between a couple of rose bushes.

Yet, while its size is a little daunting, if you have the room then it is one of the best plants to have growing in your garden. It's drought-tolerant. It will easily put up with poor soil and it doesn't need to be pruned each year. Plus, it flowers profusely from early spring through late autumn. What more could you want in a plant?

However, it does appreciate the warmth and won't tolerate the frost. Originating from South Africa, the Plumbago enjoys warm to tropical climates and grows well along the coast.

How to propagate Plumbago

Propagating plumbago is just as easy as growing it. It can either be cultivated by germinating seed collected in autumn or via softwood cuttings during the growing season.

Posted by Stuart | Permalink | Comments (4)

Hedges can be the most beautiful and useful plantings that gardeners could ever turn their hands to. But, they can also be the most infuriating.

Why? For a hedge to work well it relies on teamwork. Every plant in the hedge needs to pull its own weight and grow at the same rate that all the others do. If they don't, you end up with a hedge that looks incomplete.

When we arrived back from our weekend away we discovered that some drunken louts had decided to try and jump our lavender hedge, and unfortunately they failed.

Rather than break a few twigs they left a complete hole in the hedge that will take years to rectify. And this is the problem with hedges. It only takes a single plant to throw the whole hedge into disarray. One minute the hedge looks fantastic - the next it looks like a 6 year-old's row of pearlers when they lost their first tooth.

Is there a way to fix hedges?

Sure. If you're willing to take the time. Here are a few options;

• Leave it to grow - most fast-growing hedges can repair themselves within a season or two if the damage isn't too great. The plants either side of the hole should be able to knit themselves together and cover the gaping void.

  The same may happen with slow-growing hedges but the time needed to repair themselves may be considerably longer.



• Add a substitute plant - this may also be a viable option and would be more successful for those with slow-growing hedges. One of our hedges is grown from planting African Box and while we bought them as small plants because of their cost (A$8 each plant) if we had to substitute one we would pay the dollars for a mature plant. This would considerably cut down the time needed to repair itself.


• Shape your hedges - if your hedge has just been trimmed or allowed to grow naturally in the past, consider shaping it to utilise the hole that's been created. You could fashion it as a topiary hedge or even be creative by displaying another plant through it.

  Turn a disaster into a positive and find ways to use your hedge that you wouldn't normally have considered before.



• Add a feature - a hole in your hedge will obviously open up a new dimension in your garden so why not try and make it a feature? Rather than try and regrow the plant that has been damaged install a garden feature. A bird bath, sundial, gnome (if you have to!) or any sort of garden whimsy could turn your hedge problem into an opportunity to be creative.


• Reconfigure your hedge - up until the point of disaster you were probably only growing one type of plant in your hedges. Why not start replacing some of your plants with another species to mix your hedge up? Use a random pattern or try something more formal and remake the hedge. Try a different foliage tone, or leaf texture. Maybe even add some flowering or non-flowering plants. You could even introduce some standard plants and allow the hedge to grow around them.


• Start again - this is certainly not the greatest option for repairing a hedge. Hedges, even fast-growing ones, take a while to grow so starting again can be more demoralizing than helpful for most gardeners. However, we have been considering changing this hedge for some time as we've found it has just taken up more room than we anticipated it would. So in effect, this act of random vandalism may just turn out to be a God-send.

Hedges can be more maintenance than they're worth some times but if you're willing to persevere they can easily become the 'thing' that sets your garden apart.

Posted by Stuart | Permalink | Comments (5)

In Australia, the privet plant has been on the noxious weed list for quite some time and is unavailable to buy from nurseries. The reason: it grows too well in our conditions and can grow so easily from seed that it is taking over our native Australian plants and kill them.

Each privet plant produces thousands of blue-black berries that are irresistible to birds. They carry them off and wherever the seed falls it will most likely germinate. As the privet is a dense forming plant, the reason we grow them as a hedge, they will block out the sunlight from other plants and eventually smother them.

If you have inherited a privet hedge or you had one growing prior to the privet being registered as a noxious weed the responsible action to take would be to ensure that they are pruned prior to setting seed. If you are hedging your privet already this shouldn't be an onerous task merely part of your current hedge maintenance.

If you want to grow a privet hedge in Australia the species you need to grow is Ligustrum undulatum. This variety doesn't grow berries and is not invasive.

For those who don't live in countries where privets are outlawed read on for how to successfully grow and prune privets as a hedge.

Continue reading "How to grow a Privet Hedge" »

Posted by Stuart | Permalink | Comments (4)