Green Alkanet

[Muse]

Hi, I'm sort of new around here, but I picked a thread up via Google in which someone was trying to ID Green Alkanet. Strangely {or at least strangely as far as I'm concerned!} there were quite a few contributors to the thread who wrote in less than glowing terms about this beautiful creature and wished they could get it out of their garden. My problem is more one of getting it into mine... for love or money I can't seem to finds a supplier. Anyone any ideas? I'd be more than grateful.

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by Muse

Hi, I'm sort of new around here, but I picked a thread up via Google in which someone was trying to ID Green Alkanet. Strangely {or at least strangely as far as I'm concerned!} there were quite a few contributors to the thread who wrote in less than glowing terms about this beautiful creature and wished they could get it out of their garden. My problem is more one of getting it into mine... for love or money I can't seem to finds a supplier. Anyone any ideas? I'd be more than grateful.

I'm certainly a fan of it. It must spread, but it also must be quite odd about being moved, my Mum tried to get it into a neighbours garden (asked to, not prank) and never got it really established. This was on a very poor and probably acid soil ( overlying Millstone Grit).

Saw it growing today on basic soil (OOlitic Limestone, going to leave that OO in), so it can't be that fussy about pH. Dunno.

[Bub-les]

have you tried collecting the seeds and sowing them in your garden?
Barbara

[ron1863]

Is there none growing around the countryside near you. We have it growing all over the place where I live, especially in an old graveyard where it grows next to the old headstones.

Oh! - Welcome to WAB

[Muse]

Gosh that was quick... I only nipped away to make some coffee! Thanks for the replies so far, I note with something of a wry smile the comments about the stuff growing easily on "ordinary soil"- ain't it always the way? Some time ago I put a load of Salvias in. How many are left? Here's a clue, the figure is ever so slightly less than 1. And yet I see the blighters growing out of every bit of brick with as much as a crack in it.....
Seeds are a possibility but {and here's the huge confession} as a gardener I make a great high board diver. As for tending and rearing of seeds I'm sure I could carry my euphemistic jumping from a great hight to international standards. What I do best is planting half established plants and praying a lot, and the combination of those two things has resulted in what is becoming an almost half decent wildflower garden. But I'd be extremely hesitant to say that so far I've been anything other than lucky, skill has played no part, still less any level of knowledge. I take on board the comment about getting the thing to "take"... but I'd say there's a greater chance of that {I have loads of space in shady, well-drained soil which has remained almost unused for almost a dozen years} than anything my inexperienced fingers could achieve in little trays in my conservatory! Should anyone come across my heart's desire in pots {or even plugs} could they let me know?
Oh, and Ron... you don't really live in an old graveyard, do you?

[Susie]

Welcome to WAB, Muse.

I have green alkanet in the garden and it grows very nicely here. I just brought one plant with me when I moved and had no problem getting it established. Before I was on acid clay, now I am on slightly alkaline clay so it doesn't seem to mind things like that.

I would imagine, if you have a look online for a plant company called Naturescape or one of the other wildflower suppliers, that you can get the plant as either seed, plugs or grown plants quite easily.

If you had posted a couple of days ago I could have sent you a load of seed heads in the post but I had a major clear up of the garden at the weekend and they have all gone in the green waste and been taken away.

[Pete Collins]

Welcome to WAB, Muse, and good luck with getting some Green Alkanet.

It is a nice colourful plant. I come across it quite often when I go walking in the countryside, but it's usually fairly close to villages and houses that it's obviously escaped from.

[Ida]

Hi Muse

I don't know where you can buy Green Alkanet plants, but I do know of a plant which looks very similar: Anchusa azurea 'Loddon Royalist'. It also goes under the name of Large Green Alkanet.

You should be able to find Anchusa in most good garden centres, and it's also widely available on-line.

And it's really easy to grow!

[Astra]

Hi Muse.
I have to say that I read with horror your wish to add Green Alkanet to your garden because I seem to spend all my time getting rid of it - along with dock, bindweed and Chickweed.

It self-sets incredibly easily and is impossible to dig up. Any root pieces left behind immediately start sprouting again and it loves to hide in crevices.
It's a THUG!
Last year I tried to get rid of a huge amount of it around my lovely weepingwillow tree. I tried everything and finally gave in and sprayed it with some Round-up.
Suffice to say the alkanet is still there and half the tree died

But if you really want some then try this site here

Wildlife & Countryside Services - Native Wildflowers

They list it as one of their plants but you have to contact them for price - and Good Luck!

[Ida]

I must say, I agree with Astra about Green Alkanet - it can be a bit of a nuisance, to put it mildly! I've spent many hours over the years digging it out of various gardens I've had, and still not managed to get rid of it.

Thought I'd let you know that the I've grown the Anchusa that I mentioned in my previous post quite a lot, and found it to be much more civilised, and just as popular with the bees. It would look very natural in a wildflower garden too.

So now the choice is yours: are you going for the thug or its more civilised cousin?