Chatham Island Forget-me-not
 

Managed to buy one of these plants, Myosotidium hortensia, at yesterdays
Savill Garden Plant Sale and wonder if anyone is growing it and what it's
preferences are in the UK. One person has told my warm, well drained and
some sun yet another has said where ferns grow well, ie. light shade and
always damp but not wet.
Looking at the leaves it looks like it might be slug bait, is it?

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK

Chatham Island Forget-me-not
 

"Chris Hogg" wrote ...
"Bob Hobden" wrote:

Managed to buy one of these plants, Myosotidium hortensia, at yesterdays
Savill Garden Plant Sale and wonder if anyone is growing it and what it's
preferences are in the UK. One person has told my warm, well drained and
some sun yet another has said where ferns grow well, ie. light shade and
always damp but not wet.
Looking at the leaves it looks like it might be slug bait, is it?

I used to grow them about ten few years ago. Mine had full sun in a
south facing corner backed by low stone walls running SE and SW. Bear
in mind that Chatham Island is a rather small island some distance off
the east coast of New Zealand, exposed to all the salt gales that
blow, rather like we are in this garden. It grows naturally on cliffs
and above the strand line on beaches, so often soaked in salt spray.
Seemed an ideal plant to grow here.

I used to give mine a very generous annual top dressing of fresh
seaweed from the local beach, complete with salty sand and remains of
fishing tackle. They grew well, but tended to get rather woody as they
got old, a bit like bergenias. Can't really remember now what happened
to them. I think over several years they had fewer and fewer flowers,
and eventually I dug them up and composted them. Set seed
prolifically, I do remember. Don't recall any trouble with slugs.

Plenty of references on Google: http://tinyurl.com/bvzggt6


Thanks Chris, from what I've read it appears it may need to be grown as a
pot plant here allowing some winter protection from the freezing
temperatures. I would imagine salt spray would not be to the liking of
slugs, or indeed, salty seaweed, so that may be why you had no trouble with
them. Others seem to say they suffer badly with slug/snail damage. Perhaps
I'll just sprinkle a tiny bit of salt around the top of the pot and use
seaweed extract as a feed.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Chatham Island Forget-me-not
 

On Sun, 12 May 2013 16:54:03 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

Managed to buy one of these plants, Myosotidium hortensia, at yesterdays
Savill Garden Plant Sale and wonder if anyone is growing it and what it's
preferences are in the UK. One person has told my warm, well drained and
some sun yet another has said where ferns grow well, ie. light shade and
always damp but not wet.
Looking at the leaves it looks like it might be slug bait, is it?

I had one once, years ago. It did well in a fairly sunny place for
one summer but did not come through the winter.

Pam in Bristol