Sunday, February 14, 2010

Derwentia perfoliata, Digger's Speedwell


Derwentia perfoliata syn Parahebe perfoliata
  Digger's Speedwell
This small native shrub from the inland and highland regions of New South Wales and Victoria has pretty mauve flowers even though they are a little on the small side for my liking. It usually gets tagged with names such as lax and floppy to describe the way the stems sprawl about. At first I thought it was an exotic plant as the leaves looked very lush and bright green, atypical of most of our flora. It is a good shrub for front of border planting in a casual native or cottage garden especially in cool temperate regions. It is available from the Growing Friends' Nursery at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney but is not common in the commercial Nursery scene, probably because it doesn't look perky enough in a pot.
2017 update: I no longer grow this plant.

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