[pbs] Hesperantha coccinea
Paul Tyerman
ptyerman at ozemail.com.au
Fri Nov 3 07:22:45 EST 2006
Howdy All,
I have to laugh at this conversation. This is another one of these
"One man's treasure is another's trash" stories........ I used to
grow the white, pink and red forms of Hesperantha coccinea (at that
point Schizostylos or something like that) until they became invasive
weeds for me. The red one expanded the second year by about a foot
in radius within 12 months which was when I decided they were a bad
idea. Neither of the other two were as bad, but they were still
multiplying a bit too healthily for my liking. It took me 3 years to
eradicate the lovely little dears. Even then about 2 years after
that I discovered a couple of small pieces that appeared about 2
metres away (seedlings? Don't know). They've never appeared again
since then thankfully.
One day I might try them again, in a similar setup as I grow
Crocosmias.... i.e in a pot which is carefully protected to make sure
they cannot escape out the drainage holes! LOL It really goes to
show just how much difference different climates can make to how easy
or hard something is to grow. I can definitely vouch for the fact
that -8'C with no cover is definitely not going to affect them, or at
least not the ones I used to grow anyway.
Good luck to those of you who are trying to grow them
unsuccessfully. They are rather pretty flowers at the right time of
year, and a large clump of them can look rather impressive. They
were just a little too boisterous for my liking here!!
Cheers.
Paul Tyerman
Canberra, Australia - USDA Zone Equivalent approx. 8/9
Growing an eclectic collection of plants from all over the world
including Aroids, Crocus, Cyclamen, Erythroniums, Fritillarias,
Galanthus, Irises, Trilliums (to name but a few) and just about
anything else that doesn't move!!
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