"John McMillan" wrote in message
...
In article ,
small new potatoes.
Kewl!!!! Was it easy to grow??
Stunningly easy, though you need patience.
I bought a packet (or two, forget now) of seed from
Chiltern. It was fine-ish so I probably mixed it with a bit of
fine dry sand so I could see what I was doing. Dug round the roots
of the ivy till I exposed some fibrous roots and sprinkled the seed
sand mix in. Covered it up and forgot about it. Assumed it didn't
work. A couple of years later I noticed these odd looking pinky brown
flower spikes round the base of the ivy in summer. Later in the year
the flower spikes had dried - and hey guess what, more seed.
So now I've managed to develop three or four colonies around my site
and maybe more are busy developing underground.
Sadly, it appears to have no impact whatever on the vigour of the ivy.
Wow! Well done that man. They are pretty when the flowers are fresh.
Having said that, I have talked to other people who've tried it with no
success at all. Maybe it particularly likes my soil/site which is
free draining 10cm soil on a rubble base at an incline of thirty degrees.
If you put "orobanche hederae" into google images you'll get lots of
pictures. When I said they were like orchids I meant things like common
spotted orchid rather than those huge garish things that live on trees
in jungles.
Flushed by the success with this, I've also tried Purple Toothwort
(Lathraea clandestina) on the roots of goat willow - without any
sign of success yet. It grows at a number of sites within 50km of me
so it should be OK. RHS Hyde Hall
I have seen wild Lathraea squamaria (native) a few times and it is nice. I
saw L.clandestine once in teh Dublin botanic gardens where it was presumably
introduced. I vaguely remember it as being fairly bright pink and small.
It would make a very good converstaion piece (all that lack of chlorophyl
and parasitism business).
Thanks for the information about the broomrape; I will add it to my list of
things to try.
http://www.rhs.org.uk/WhatsOn/garden...hallpom04apr.a
sp have the useful tip; -
"This is not the plant of choice for instant effect in the garden as it
is sometimes 10 years before a flowering shoot emerges above the ground."