I grow acanthus in East Anglia. Our climate is very dry, and the acanthus is well behaved. It hardly spreads. Sometimes I think that a large part of gardening is to avoid those plants that will feel too much at home. In my case I rip out all linarias, as they love the climate here and self-seed like mad. A few summers ago everywhere I looked in the garden linarias were crowding out everything else.
I have two plants, self-seeded from last autumn/summer. I am absolutely sure they weren't there when we bought the house in early summer. I removed some small seedlings (10cm seedlings, 15cm roots already) and kept those two because they are in a good place. They are huge now and I noticed a flower spike forming on one of them. I like them but certainly won't leave them self-seed around more.
@Dovefromabove mine are in half-shade (morning sun), I don't think they'd survive in full sun; perhaps that's the difference? They still produce some flowers, and the foliage works well where they are; a border with among others Japanese anemones, geraniums, lillies, and some polygonatum verticillatum that are toughing it out every year.
Acanthus Rue Ledan looks stunning though, one day one might follow me home. I have A.Mollis in a pot for 2 years wondering whether to plant it but I think I plant it in my mums garden instead
3m high thithonia @Nollie must of put on a impressive show ? Some of my Helenium have been slow to bulk up , I have to groups of sahin early one in the back doing excellent nice and dense one in the front straggly looking thing which are coming out rather soon slugs don't help them ones.
It was amazing, @Perki, a few tithonia plants dotted around as fillers (ha!) took over, looked like a giant orange bomb had gone off in the border. I’m still mourning the loss of an expensive, imported Pittosporum Atropurpureum, the Arbutus Unedo is dead down one side and generally looking a bit like that collie on the specsavers advert and the orange monsters killed off most of the MB Heleniums, now replaced. It’s my Waltraut that are very slow to get going, but maybe they will get there, if the caradonna doesn’t smother them to death first!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
@Dovefromabove mine are in half-shade (morning sun), I don't think they'd survive in full sun; perhaps that's the difference? They still produce some flowers, and the foliage works well where they are; a border with among others Japanese anemones, geraniums, lillies, and some polygonatum verticillatum that are toughing it out every year.
Mine is in a westfacing spot about 12ft from an ash tree and only gets afternoon sun ... it’s amongst lamiums, dryopteris ferns, honeysuckle, iris foetida and arum italicum all of which are happy ... there’s a sleeper hose on that bed which is used in dry spells ... it ought to be happy but it’s taking its time ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Wow! I go to bed and look what happens, so many replies - and I thank you all. I shall wait for the leaves to regrow - as they will - and go for the gel, seeing as I have tried everything else! It's not the spread so much as the fact that it grows so BIG. It turned out to be so much wider and taller than it said on the tin and completely overshadowed adjacent neighbours. Mind you, I should have known a many 'dwarf' plants I have are bigger than anticipated.
Again, my thanks Forkers; I knew I could rely on you all for sage advice (i.e., advice that's wise and also about sage if I look hard enough...:)
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
3m high thithonia @Nollie must of put on a impressive show ? Some of my Helenium have been slow to bulk up , I have to groups of sahin early one in the back doing excellent nice and dense one in the front straggly looking thing which are coming out rather soon slugs don't help them ones.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Again, my thanks Forkers; I knew I could rely on you all for sage advice (i.e., advice that's wise and also about sage if I look hard enough...:)