PUSHING THE BORDERS

My Melianthus major has put on a lot of growth over the last two years but all of it on a single 8ft stem. It cannot support its own weight and uses the neighbouring Tree dahlia as a crutch. Melianthus Major by Andy Cowlishaw, on Flickr
Is it possible to encourage the plant to put up some new shoots or at least branch out lower down the stem? If not then what is the best way to propagate?. It appears to be producing lots of seed pods, how long does it take from seed to garden ready plant?
Thanks.

I haven't grown it since I've been in Cornwall, but in Kent I cut it to the ground every winter.

In a 'well behaved' herbaceous border I needed a 'clump' of the blue leaves and never let it flower so I have no knowledge of the seeding behavior.

I had some success with cuttings from the cut off growths, no where near 100%, but enough to keep a supply of new plants to give away.

Chad

Thanks Chad, I'll leave it to set seed then cut it down and hope it re-sprouts, and also attempt to root some cuttings.

As an aside, it is quite variable from seed and for preference I would always start with a cutting from a 'good' form.

In Kent mine was a cutting from Great Dixter!

From seed you can get a range of colours, most of them a bit 'muddy', and a range of habits. Short internodes with maximum leaf size is what you want if you are going to grow it as herbaceous. If you want it to flower then you may need to select one that does that reliably. There are named clones selected for 'metallic blue' and a purple cast, but I don't know how widely available they are, nor if they 'come true[ish] from seed.

If you grow a batch from seed be prepared to select the best AND dump the rest [do as I say not as I do!].

Chad

I bought one for someone else a few years ago when designing their garden and when it arrived it was totally stupendous. The leaves are hard, like they've been stamped out of plastic - I've never seen one like it before or since. I take cuttings most years but have yet to manage to get one to strike.

Has anyone seen the cultivar 'Purple Haze' in the flesh? Sounds like a plant to have but I've not seen a source. Pic nicked off t'net.

'Purple Haze' looks like one we will all want!

Paul S wrote: I take cuttings most years but have yet to manage to get one to strike.

Basal soft wood cuttings [we used to call them 'Irishman's cuttings', I don't know why. I'm sure we don't call them that anymore!] were often successful but did need bottom heat. Side shoots from below the flowers sometimes worked [according to my tutor at Duchy College]. Hardwood seldom strike. It does layer though.

Christopher Lloyd [Foliage Plants] growing it as an herbaceous perennial wrote;
'Cuttings can be taken from the fleshy terminal shoots on strongly growing plants, made in August or September, but this does spoil the look of the plants from which they were taken. You can very often find some shoots from low down, even from below ground level, appearing in the autumn, and these make first rate cutting material.'

In his later 'Garden Flowers' he recommends taking basal cutting of new growth 'from below ground level'.

I have lodged in my memory but without a clear source, that I was told to plant it 'sideways' [horizontally] so that there was a significant section of stem below the frost line. In the Lloyd books he recommends bringing it in for the winter as not fully hardy in his earlier books, and then leaving it out with a mulch in his later work. He comments that in Cornwall stems may overwinter to flower in their second year. Am I right that if not cut down by man it now usually flowers on old wood even in England?

Chad

Chad, that is all very useful, thank you.

Yes, they certainly flower here on the older wood. Flower colour as you say varies immensely. My best is a strong foxy red. The one I covet is wishy washy reddish but with leaves like it has I don't care. Maybe I should just tell them it has a nasty disease and dig it up completely?

The Books say it can be propagated 'by division' but I have no experience of that.

My recollection of an established root stock is that you may need power tools!

Chad

Might have a crack at that, actually. I dug one up recently to reposition and I can see that working. Probably need to excavate down quite a way to actually see what is going on but do-able, I'd say. The current owner - my sister! - will be fairly amenable to that I think.

Thanks again. :)

There is a Dan Hinkley article here that lays out the origins of the two named forms; ‘Purple Haze' and ‘Antonow's Blue' .

Interestingly he recommends propagation from 'lateral cuttings taken in late summer'.

Chad