VIDEO (WEEK 7) Peter Dowdall explains how to get a handle on weeds

Peter Dowdall explains why some plants are classified as weeds in one culture but as flowers in another.

What is a weed? A tough question to give a definitive answer to, considering the definition can vary from garden to garden and certainly from country to country.

Hardy fuchsias and crocosmia have colonised many of the hedgerows in the south west to the extent that we take them for granted and sometimes don’t even notice them anymore. However, travel north and they speak of our fuchsias with jealousy.

Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora has become known as montbretia in this part of world, named after Coquebert de Montbret the French botanist who travelled with Napoleon and who probably brought some of this crocosmia back with him after the invasion of Egypt.

It is a truly beautiful plant with upright sword-shaped leaves and the most elegant and beautiful orange/ red flowers held on sturdy stems and it is of course ... a weed.

One of the most invasive plants in these parts of the world which often stops you from seeing its elegance and beauty, but no doubt a sought-after specimen in a climate where it is difficult to grow.

Fuchsia too, one of the most beautiful flowers of all with the intricate details of petals wrapped around petals and the stamens protruding like legs of a ballerina, could be nearly classed as a weed in West Cork and Kerry and other counties. I could never bring myself to refer to it as thus, though, it’s just far too beautiful.

Travel to the Mediterranean and similar countries with warmer climate and what they call wildflowers are sought after over here, Olive trees, lavender, rosemary, some streptocarpus, jasmine, bouganvillea, agaves, yuccas.

READ MORE: VIDEO (WEEK 6): When planting, work with nature as opposed to against it .

To give it the definition that I learned in college then: ‘A weed is a plant growing somewhere where it is not wanted.’

Then there are the plants which should come with a government warning. They may look innocent and innocuous in the garden centre or on the computer screen but it is only after you introduce them to your garden and they begin to settle in and make themselves comfortable that you notice you’ve introduced a whole pile of trouble like the house guest who doesn’t know when its time to leave.

Think, Japanese anemones and some bamboo. Even rosebay willow herb and the dreaded Japanese knotweed were introduced as ornamental plants by collectors and nurserymen. Little did they know how at home these new guests would make themselves.

One such plant that can and will become invasive is the vinca. Available in several species and many varieties with different leaf shapes and colours and flowers in various sizes and differing shades of mauve/blue and purple. What they all have in common however, is their vigour.

The vinca major types tend to spread by underground root sending up shoots and plants many metres from the parent plant and the vinca minor varieties will spread by developing roots at a node which is resting on the ground and thus another plant is born.

They will spread with such speed and lack of thought for your garden plan as to certainly be termed invasive and maybe a weed.

I use the word maybe because again it depends where you plant them. Why, I hear you call would you ever plant such a thug well the answer is straightforward enough: If the Vinca has spread somewhere that you don’t want it then yes it is now certainly a weed however growing where you are happy for it to have free rein then the aesthetic beauty of the plant is plain to see.

If it has become a problem for you, similar to the Crocosmia, then its visual charms can be unseen by you. The variety ‘Illumination’ works so well in a pot because the stems are so limp they just hang down like draped golden hair, softening the whole planting scheme.

A simple planting of this periwinklein a black glazed pot will result in a striking contrast creating a dramatic effect on the patio.

However you could also plump for a more traditional terracotta pot using either vinca minor ‘Gertrude Jekyl’ with matt green leaves and white flowers or vinca minor ‘atropurpureum’ with similar foliage and a much more muted and understated display.

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