Gunnera

More hard labour in the garden! The Gunnera is on the move and already as tall as me. The spiky bits are the stems and the exotic pink fronds are the flowers - each teeny dot is a single flower, laden with pollen! Also known as Giant Rhubarb this plant will grow to be about 3m high, 2.5m in diameter with leaves a good metre across. Apart from the odd flowers/seedheads it has huge pink budlike things nestling deep within it. We have four clumps in the garden as it loves wet boggyness -this one is near the big pond. When we first arrived at this house, we hacked back one of the gunnera and found a chicken coop inside it!

It is highly impressive but is considered to be an invasive species as it's escaped from gardens and is colonising the countryside, smothering native species. Originally from Chile, it's almost impossible to get rid of - I think you have to burn it. Darwin reckoned it was 'noble' but there's an eradication programme going on in some parts of Ireland and we have to treat ours with tough love occasionally.