Garden Pictures Pictures by AndreaRichter (209 photos)

Hi Andrea - is this a new plant? I'm longing to have a gunnera, but alas have very dry garden :-( How big is the container?

This Gunnera ia an old plant which I split in 2, the other plant is in another barrel.
I blogged about these 2 a few weeks ago offering them to any GoY members that lived in my area but no takers so I was still left with 2 Gunnera which had started to sprout in the plastic compost bags in my shed!
The containers are half barrels which are water proof and they are nearly 3ft in diameter. I have filled them with JI no 3 and compost and have watered them in really well, I then mulched the top with bark chippings. I have been meaning to add a few more photos but shrinking the MBites has proved harder than anticipated! The half barrels are about £25 which is a bit on the costly side, but I got 2 for £40, the plants will cost anything between £6-8.
There is lots of space in the barrels and I'm convinced they will perform really well in there as the containers will retain the moisture which they love.

Hi Andrea - yes I remember now you offered your gunneras away. In fact, I have one that I have had in a 30 cm pot for some years. It never produced any really large leaves, but did produce lots of little offsets. So, I've butchered it this spring and potted up all the babies. So now I've got about 10 gunneras! But alas still no way of growing them nice and big, which is of course the whole point! Your picture gives me the idea of maybe planting one into a really large container like your barrels. Have yours done well previously in this kind of arragement?
Thanks, Sarah.