Pinellia Self-sown in Gravel
Judy Glattstein (Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:55:02 PDT)

To clarify a bit - this is a narrow area between front walk and garage
wall. Shady, too. So I top-dressed the cruddy, compacted soil with a
couple of bags of red crushed stone, maybe 3/8 inch size. In summer
there are some slatted shelves, two concrete columns, and pots of - the
pinellias, begonias, Mirabilis longiflora at the driveway end where it
gets more sun. Martha Stewart doesn't worry, I'm no competition.

So the tuberlets fell into an inch or so of gravel with yucky soil
underneath. Oak leaves did blow in and weren't cleaned up as promptly as
they should have been - O.K. it was actually sometime in early April.

No idea if it is even possible to delicately excavate the little
plantlets. I think it more likely that I'd separate leaflet from
tuberlet and kill them. Maybe I'll just leave them alone and see what
happens.

This is the only pinellia I let onto the property. I've seen P.
tripartita, P. pedatisecta go wild in other folks gardens. No thank you!

Even if hardy, I think I'd always want to keep some P. cordata in a pot.
One of my Japanese friends said it is traditional to do so. That way, he
said, the pot can easily be lifted up to your nose and you can
appreciate the flowers delicate perfume.

Judy in New Jersey where the weather is playing guessing games. So far
today we've had some sunshine, overcast, drizzle, some blue sky - and
now clouding over again.