RELATED to Lobelia, Pratia angulata and P. pedunculata are two creeping perennials native to New Zealand. They were originally sold in Britain as rock-garden plants, but, in such sites, they tended either to dry up and perish or to become overwhelming, depending on exposure and water. It’s only latterly that we’ve come to see their invasiveness as an asset, freed them from the rockery and put them to work on the level.
There, they make Lilliputian lawns of dazzling charm, their intricate stems forming dense mats that are covered in tiny, bright-green leaves and spangled with flowers all summer long—white and lobelia-like in P. angulata, more starry and blue in P. pedunculata and a particularly fine cerulean in the vigorous cultivar County Park, introduced by the late Graham Hutchins, the much-missed UK pioneer of New Zealand plants. Both species may also produce an abundance of purple-red berries, to the delight of birds.
I generally use them in moist, sheltered and partly shaded spaces such as courtyards and city gardens. A favourite technique is to make a chessboard whose squares are alternately composed of Pratia and paving slabs. For the impact they achieve, they ask for remarkably little: a few inches’ depth of gritty, acid to neutral soil, watering until settled, then a trim with the scissors and a mild liquid feed if they’re looking ragged. They will also weave their spell in more open and less formal sites: in flower, P. pedunculata is breathtaking, a sky-blue stream when surrounding stepping stones in a snaking garden path.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 25 2017-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 25 2017-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds