megaherbs from seed

[Mark Griffiths]

I think I read (maybe in the Archibald catalogue) that it likes alot of rotting vegetable matter. In the Oxford Botanic Garden it's in a deeply shaded corner, high walls each side and had lots of garden compost on it.

[Paul T]

Cool, thanks for that info.  I'm trying to work out whether to keep in a pot or put it into the fernery and try to keep it extra watered.  The fernery is not as moist as the name might imply.  Mostly tougher, hardier ferns.

[David Lyttle]

Myosotidium hortensia is a great garden plant especially if you have favourable conditions for it.



However you need to be careful that weeds like nettles and sow thistles do not get out of control.





Gardening with megaherbs can bring its own problems.

[Anthony Darby]

I wish I had space to grow nettles. I tried Urtica ferox in a pot, but it died after two years. I still don't understand why they don't grow it in the wild areas at Butterfly Creek, the butterfly 'farm' (actually they are banned from breeding the tropical butterflies, so farm it isn't) by Auckland Airport! The NZ red and yellow admiral butterflies need all the help they can get. I've seen one yellow admiral this year!

[johnralphcarpenter]

I wish I had space to grow nettles.

I never thought I'd hear anyone say that!

[Tim Ingram]

All you need is some megatulips to go with that border of Myositidium and you'd end up with a new type of bedding scheme on a bigger scale than using forget-me-nots! What a fantastic sight - I've grown Myositidium in the past from JJA seed, and tried Anisotome latifolia (without success), and they are extraordinarily interesting plants.

[Lesley Cox]

Frost already Lesley?  Yikes!  When it your first frost normally?

I've recently bought a Chatham Island Forgetmenot to have another attempt at not killing it.  I've had no successful attemps at this so far.  I know of someone up in the southern highlands grows it in their shady bog garden where it seeds around.  I wish!!  I have no shady bog garden though.

Hi Paul, Pleased you're back with us again. Our frosts usually start late autumn, maybe April/May depending on the season and I remember a few years ago not having any at all until well into July but that is rare. It's not just the new, more southerly garden as last year there had been none by the time I left for Europe in late April and when I was home again in late May, Roger said there had been just a couple. It's been a cooler year altogether in the south, since the very wet late winter of 2013. But primulas and other cool things have loved it.

[Lesley Cox]

The NZ red and yellow admiral butterflies need all the help they can get. I've seen one yellow admiral this year!

Anthony, we had masses of yellow admirals this year, or rather, late in 2013, from October onwards until the end and in January. Not so many now but a few red. The yellows were sometimes 6 at a time around the edges of the bowls which catch the sugar water Roger puts out  in bottles for the bellbirds and tuis. Sometimes as I walked up the path to the back door, I had to wave them out of my face there were so many. We have a few regular nettles behind the garage where the chooks have their night quarters but I didn't see any eggs or caterpillars on them.

[rosa]

Tim, I would like to find out more about your lack of success with Anisotome latifolia - my seed of this and Bulbinella rossii germinating from spring 2013 sowings. Any advice on how to proceed gratefully received.

[Tim Ingram]

Rosa - the seed I had of Anisotome latifolia was not really fresh but Jim sent me a large batch in the hope of just a little germinating. Generally umbellifers do much better from freshly collected seed even if they don't germinate until after a cooler period. All I can suggest is that you grow the plants in as cool and humid conditions as possible - I would love to hear how you get on with it (and the Bulbinella).

[Paul T]

Those Chatham Island Forgetmenots I mentioned getting a little while back are already looking sad.  I think I'll repot them and see if that helps.  lol

[Excelsior]

Anyone that have tried megaherbs in Norway? Seems that the climate is rather similar to the coastal environment in Western parts of Norway with humid cool summers and frost free winters!?!

[Maggi Young]

Anyone that have tried megaherbs in Norway? Seems that the climate is rather similar to the coastal environment in Western parts of Norway with humid cool summers and frost free winters!?!

Good question!  It seems that some Norwegian members have not been around here much lately, but I hope you will get an answer.

[Lesley Cox]

The value of being 'big, dark & hairy' on sub-Antarctic islands: megaherbs general article here, original paper here.
Is it that we have overlooked similar adaptations in the NH?

Ashley, can you expand on your post above please? I'm trying to think of possible far north islands or other habitats with huge plants and nothing comes to mind but I don't know the Arctic flora well enough anyway. There seems to be nothing in the SH equivalent to the northern tundra.

Having said that, maybe the introduced flora in northern Norway (Tromso for example) could be said to resemble a megaherb population. I'm thinking of the meconopsis, cemanthodiums, aconitums and others we've seen in Norwegian gardens.

[ashley]

Ashley, can you expand on your post above please?

Hardly at all Lesley, but isn't it a fascinating subject?  For example Campbell Island at 52.54°S is only slightly closer to the Pole than I am here in Cork, and at similar latitude to e.g. Birmingham, Berlin, Lake Baikal, N Sakhalin/S Kamchatka, S Aleutian Islands, Edmonton & S Labrador.  This indicates a similarly low angle of winter sunlight but of course the asymmetrical distribution of landmasses, oceans & oceanic currents between the hemispheres means that other climatic conditions vary greatly.  Persistent wind & cloud cover in the sub-antarctic islands that strongly affect growing conditions may be closer to conditions on the windward (west) fringe of southern Chile & Tierra del Fuego but perhaps the outer Aleutian islands and some other places in the NH too. 

The original paper compares NZ sub-antarctic megaherbs with large/hairy-leaved plants at lower latitudes but higher altitude, such as giant lobelia in East Africa or Rheum, Saussurea etc. in the Himalayas.  However one obvious difference is temperature range, with much less fluctuation on oceanic islands than on mountains within large landmasses.  Nevertheless plants with large pleated leaves come to mind such as Gentiana lutea in European mountains and Veratrum spp. in Alaska or across Eurasia, as well as introduced species from other temperate ‘hyperoceanic’ areas like Gunnera tinctoria from southern Chile that thrive on the fringes of NW Europe.  Here’s another interesting article with musings about parallels with NZ megaherbs among large-leaved plants in N Japan, the Kurile Islands & Kamchatka.  Incidentally the young Kiwi photographer Edin Whitehead has a really wonderful series of travel logs here showing NZ’s sub-antarctic flora and fauna.