This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Talkback: Growing gunnera
Gardeners' World Web User
Posts: 17,147
in Talkback
The Bristol botanic Garden has several species of gunnera, not all big. One is small enough to go in a small garden. They are very prickly to weed under but I like them best in the spring when they just emerge from there winter sleep. There stems are red as rhubarb and the emerging furled umbrellas are a loely light green. I wrote a poem once about a mouse family I found under a gunnera plant. I'll see if I can find it.
0
Posts
Under the gunnera sat a wee mouse.
"Right here," she sighed,"is the place for my house."
No gardener likes those dreadful, sharp prickles,
But we thick-skinned mice think they just tickle.
So she scavenged around in the Garden's wet bog
For spagnum and twigs from a decaying log.
She made a fine nest from all of her treen
And when she gave birth, her brood was thirteen.
Under the gunnera sat a wee mouse;
Good, she decided, fine site for her house;
It would keep her nest quite cosy and dry,
Hygienic and private for expected small fry.
No one is willing to weed those huge leaves;
Those spiky prickles do need thorn-proof sleeves.
She gathered some leaves and scraps of old labels,
Also some twiglets to make it more stable,
Ignoring the gunnera, scuttling around,
Its prickles avoided, when once they were found.
Thirteen blind babies arrived the next day.
Mice seem to thrive and evolve well that way.
Those babies grew quickly to venturesome teens;
They soon found the Garden had fine peas and beans;
They deserted their home for lush pulses and grain;
But ran back at once when it started to rain.
A message for folk who are feeling neglected -
If recession hits hard you will soon be respected.
This was written when recession hit and young people who had left home began returning to the family nest when their finances took a hit. It's a longer version of the first one.
The BIGGEST gunnera to be found used to be down Cot Valley, St. Just,W. Cornwall. In it's wisdom, the council, or National Trust, has recently dug it up, with JCB's to reclaim the land to as it was before gunnera. A shame in one way, but there we are. They were there as a fixture for more than 50 years ! But then, it is a ginormous plant, thrives in the right conditions, and like the infamous knotweed, can be unstoppably invasive if left to it's own devices.
Can they be grown from seed? If yes when and how please.