The Rural Voice, 2003-08, Page 43Gardening
Beautiful plant - but what a pain in the garden
Rhea
Hamilton -
Seeger and
her husband
live near
Auburn. She
is a skilled
cook and
gardener.
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
Plant breeders today are having a
heyday with all the wanna-be
gardeners and the gardeners who are
seeking the unusual and the native for
their gardens.
But the gardeners to watch out for
are the collectors. You know the ones
— the incredible gardeners who see
the beauty in growing all 500
varieties of one plant. They know
their selections inside out and you
can identify these gardeners quite
easily in a garden centre. They look
disdainfully at a
wide selection of,
for example hostas,
and then name
another 10 or so
that are not
represented on the
shelves but that
they grow in their
garden. They know
the Latin and once
you get past your
own sense of
intimidation you
can learn a lot from
a gardener who
collects with a
passion.
1, on the other hand, am a busy
gardener, popping things into my
garden as I find holes, buying on
impulse and without plan. And my
garden looks like it. One day 1
happened to notice that I had three
different kinds of lamium. The leaves
were different and the flowers were
white, pink and mauve. Wow, that
could be termed a collection. Well I
got cocky and scouted around until 1
saw another lamium, only this one
was brighter looking and had yellow
flowers.
Well that is when I got greedy and
1 got caught not doing my research.
The hot little number I introduced
into the garden was Lamiastrum
galeobdolon or Yellow Archangel.
Let me first introduce the lamium
family to you. The first valuable
piece of knowledge is that they are
from the mint family. They have the
same square stems and the flowers
are hooded and double lipped in
whorls of 5 - 15 flowers around a
stem. Lamium or Dead Nettle are
termed old world herbs and do not
sting like regular nettles do. But like
a lot of members of the mint family
they do like to multiply and move
around.
The particular lamiums that are in
my garden are quite attractive. They
have green and silver leaves, and
creep along the ground. They like
their soil a bit more moist than what 1
can offer and that is why they are not
as invasive as they could be. Beacon
galeobdolon, has fallen from the cart
and grows more like an unruly
member of the mint family. Visitors
are captivated by the striking deep
green leaves with splashes of silver.
It seems to bubble out of the garden
with whips that reach up and then
point down to root in the next area of
garden.
Last summer when I planted this
lovely leafy specimen I thought it
would take its time filling a sizeable
area under a Japanese maple tree.
This spring when I went out I
realized that I had planted a monster.
Had it grown through the winter? No,
but I had not noticed its activity
quickly enough in the spring. My
lovely Targe Lady's Mantle was now
a spindly single leaf stretching
valiantly to get above the yellow
archangel. Tucked under the edge of
this engulfing menace was my new
Raspberry Lungwort.
But I had the
solution. Move the
Yellow Archangel to
a place where such
ambitious behaviour
could be enjoyed.
We have been
struggling to get
some sort of
perennial growing
off the patio under
the ash trees where
rain is hard to come
by. The Archangels
have been moved
and so far so good.
But like all quick
growing plants, this
one is hard to eradicate from its old
plot so I have to be careful and keep a
close eye that it does not come back
to take over those less aggressive
plants.
On a final note. I had the pleasure
of joining the Lucknow Horticultural
Society on their annual bus trip. This
year they toured four gardens in the
Bruce Peninsula. We checked out
Lavender Forest which is a
remarkable spot that shows what
elbow grease and persistence can
wrestle out of the rocky wilderness.
They have a captivating outdoor
Lamiastrum gateobd
(Yellow Archang
40 THE RURAL VOICE
Silver has wonderful silver leaves
edged with dark green topped with
pastel pink flowers. White Nancy as
you may guess has more green on the
leaves with silver markings and, yes,
has white flowers. 1 have yet another
unnamed variety of lamium that
shows mauve flowers above leaves
that are marked with a wide silver
streak down the centre.
Now for my new discovery. Not
all lamiurns are sedate in their
procreating pattern. The Yellow
Archangel, or Lamium galeobdolon
also listed as lamiastrum