Monday, January 5, 2009

Elephants of Winter

It has been awhile since I have written anything- holidays and computer problems are my excuse. But now it is a new year so lets start with a bang of a plant. This hunk of a plant is called Farfugium japonicum 'Giganteum' or F.reniforme , either way it is one spectacular plant.

It has just finished blooming after a two month season but even without the 30" high yellow daisies the plant is still striking. The foliage is 2' tall, shiny and so large it looks tropical. Those big leaves demand shade and a good supply of water as they will wilt even in winter. Keep the hose handy!


The plant can be divided every spring and soon you too will have a herd of elephants in your garden. They call attention when massed better then any plant in the garden so use them with care. They can easily create a visual barrier that can act like a hedge and hide smaller plants. Plant them so they lead the eye into the distance.

The herd pictured started as one plant six years ago and with careful dividing has grown into a mass of twenty-five plants. Start your herd today!



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love the farfugiums - and have just had them in my garden for two years now. I was happy to hear that they can be easily divided - I was hoping to do that this spring. The foliage of 'Giganteum' is really striking - I just love it. I've got one 'Kaimon Dake' (from Plant Delights I think) in the garden, a new one from last year - and I think it'll be interesting too.

I'm curious about your experiences with the flowers - do you have any of the others, beside 'Giganteum'? I'm finding an interesting differences with respect to their flowers:

http://talesfromthelaboratory.typepad.com/tales_from_the_microbial_/2008/12/a-farfugium-hypothesis.html