gunnera, good idea or not?

hi guys, looking to get mesen one of these for my border. now, i know these grow mahoosive, but do you think contained in a pot or planted in the ground is a good idea?

thoughts if you please, many fank yoos in advance

Al.

 

ta for the reply

i'll get some pics up later when i'm at home to show where i'm thinking of putting it.

my soil is free draining tho, and does contain quite a bit of sand. it would be in a quite shady part of the garden border, so no worries on the shade there.

my concern is that they can grow massive, although something quite substantial would look great, i don't want an overly huge plant to overshadow everything else.

 

the gunnera would be going at the far rear left, next to the shed (where the green and brown pots are) from the cordyline to the fence is 7ft. is this enough space?

 

thanks Armandii.

i'll forget the gunnera

 

some of our gunnera leaves can measure 5ft across which will be a third of your garden fence lengh and if the wind or frost affect them then they dont look so great..here is ours last may

 

to give you an idea look at those picture.
I`ve only got a small garden and couldn`t resist to it , like many other plant it can be keept under control and when it`s start to spread , just cut the small plant and sell it on EBAY ....what i can tell you it`s that need lots of water , mine is in a shadow position ....

 

I know armandii,our gardens 50ft wide and it takes up 30ft in width( two big clumps of it ) when fully leaved up and prob about 7ft deep,plus the stems are spikey digging some out soon

 

I wouldn't even contemplate planting it in my garden.
Not big enough or wet enough.

My thoughts would be Arundo donax in that situation, give you a bit of height with out being overpowering.

 

I had one in a very, very, very large pot. It looked quite good when small but it was hard to keep it wet enough - it has now passed on to the great nursery in the sky.

I totally agree with the aforementioned advice on size. Even so, it could work as a dominant feature even in a small garden, but only if you were happy with the gunnera to occupy centre stage to the exclusion of all else - doesn't sound as if that's what you want.

 

I do aggree with madahhlia , it may grow big , it may will go to the nursery in the sky , but it can be a master piece in the garden......don`t think of the picture i`ve posted , it will may die or not enough water and look like a rhubarb .......but in case you will manage to grow a 5 feet or even bigger leaves that would be something impressive , it will be the center of your garden.
plus if you want to stop and keep it smaller you can always dig a massive hole , get some pond liner , make few hole and your problem is solved ......water retain and roots contained..