Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian B[_3_]
Last year I planted some stachys, which were sweet little furry things in
three inch pots. I just looked at the pots, they're tiny, and the labels
say, 'spread, 14"x24"'. These things are now gigantic, horizontally far
beyond 14" across and sending enormous furry spikes heavenwards in
abundance, while the rose bushes they're are planted around cower terrified
against the furry grey onslaught. Will these things consume the whole
garden?
On a more serious note, the "low level" leaves all seem to be going yellow
and dying off. Is this normal? It doesn't look very attractive. Is there
something I should be doing? Or is it supposed to be gigantic forests of
spikes surrouded by yellowy-brown mulch?
Ian
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Hehe, no they won't eat you out of house and home, they do get rather tall, but they will only make a clump of around a square yard after around 6-8 years of growth.
They are shallow rooted and so are very easy to pull up if they overstep their bounds.
They may need a little support as they get bigger as the furry leaves soak up rain water and tend to get heavy and flop over.
the lower leaves naturally go yellow and crispy as the plants grow and sould therefore, be pulled off at their bases, just to tidy the look of the plant.
The flowers are nice too, they are spikes of white fluff with little purple flowers poking out of the sides and are worth waiting for.
After they've flowered, cut off the flower spikes to ground level, and you should get another flush, or you get a nice fresh crop of those lovely furry leaves.
hope this helps?
Oh, and another thing....sun...sun...sun!