Gunnera Manicata
Hi All
I have recently, after following a link posted here, decided to have a go at making my garden a little more tropical. I have been trying to re-design our garden over the past few years but don't have a blank canvass and already have some very large native trees which as well as provide us with privacy from houses at the back are a haven for birds and wildlife. (one is a native hawthorne, a bedraggled pine and a large beech tree that have all been here in the garden for over 50 years).
I have been doing some research and fell in love a few years ago with the Gunnera Manicata and as we already have a pond I'm thinking well,,, can I?
Our garden is a mid terrace, 7.5m wide and 35m long and I just wanted to know if any of you have experience of this impressive monster and if so, would it just be too big and imposing for my space or would it give us the privacy in growth from overlooking bedroom windows?
Thank you in advance
Posts
It will not provide any screening from the first frosts till spring but yes it is something that I grow and the huge jungle leaves provide childish delight. Easy to look after - next to a pond is perfect. Crown needs to be dry in winter but cutting off a few leaves to cover it is all you need to do.
As blairs says huge leaves. Mine isn't near a pond but in a boggy area, so in the Summer I do have to water it. I also cover the crown in Winter with it's own leaves and in a bad Winter I put fleece over it.
blairs, the crown of mine isn't dry in Winter because the leaves rot, but it's always been okay.
I'll see if I can find a photo. Mine won't be as big as one near a pond.
hi lisa
we have one by our pond and its massive it provides shelter from the sun for fish and the frogs love sitting underneath it. It also is nice when it rains and its like a waterfall with the rain trickling off the huge leaves.It also has big cones that grow from the bottom. we cut it right back each autumn and it grows back fine each year.
..such terribly exciting specimens... daunting and perhaps ridiculous for those of us with more compact plots... but it's a pleasure to hear of them in the gardens of others...
Should I be concerned about the roots from my Gunnera Manicata