 Growing Gardens
with Julia Hancock
Wild at Heart
It seems an anathema to most gardeners to go against their natural instincts to prune, train, stake, deadhead, divide and generally fuss on the plants in their gardens. The recent drought has forced me to abandon great swathes of my garden in a sort of suburban 'set-aside' - as farmers in Britain have been encouraged to do - to let nature take its course.
I have made some interesting discoveries. By allowing my perennials to run wild I've enabled them to spread themselves with the result that daylilies are producing offspring from their old flowering stems; salvias are self-sowing; dianthus are busy layering themselves; Centranthermum 'Mauve Mist' is springing up all over the place; and tatty old gauras, long past their prime, are still throwing out the odd flower for bees to graze on.
In the shrub department, sprawly hibiscus and abutilons are having a field day, their flowers bursting from the ends of their straggly stems; Camellia sasanqua is producing a bumper crop of ripe seeds; ixora hybrids are thriving on neglect and drought-defying cordylines seem more flamboyant than ever in a garden that is looking otherwise bleached of floral colour.
 Citrus need special care through heatwaves.
On the down side, I have proved to myself that citrus really do need to be nursed through heatwaves. Their reaction has been to go into a state of suspended animation, which means crops this year will be very disappointing. Some members of the ginger family have decided not to bother putting out any growth this year, and have remained underground for their own survival.
Gardens which have reverted to wilderness are always full of surprises, and often the things which we cosset most (roses, lilies, dahlias) are the very things that keep on keeping on without human intervention. It will be interesting to see just what survives the current crisis.
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