Don't be fooled
March 27, 2009
Question: What’s wrong with this picture? (click on it to enlarge it)
Answer: This is not a plant growing in a pot.
This is an attractive nicely weathered, terra cotta pot (I’ve got one just like it myself). Inside is a block of Oasis, or potting soil straight out of the bag. And someone has gone round the nursery cutting foliage and flowers of Ligularia 'Little Rocket' and made an impressively unnatural arrangement.
What is so bizarre, is that a plant that really is growing in a pot looks so much better (even with a mark or two on the leaves)! As you can see here… So what’s the point?
Well, I suspect that what the first image tells us is that someone hadn’t been able to grow a plant that looked sufficiently impressive to photograph and so “made one up”. You may conclude that it’s not a very good plant in the first place, but no.
This excellent, shorter-than-usual ligularia, good in a large container, was raised in the Netherlands by Marco Fransen and is fine perennial for moist soil and is unusually prolific. It’s hybrid between the old favourite 'The Rocket' and 'Lanternchen’ (Little Lantern).
But expect it to look like the second picture – and not at all like the first!
Ligularia ‘Little Rocket’ is available in Britain from Suttons and from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries.
Ligularia ‘Little Rocket’ is available in North America from Big Dipper Farm (scroll down) amongst others.