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Aconitum austroyunnanense



Archive entry 28.08.11

Aconitum austroyunnanense

28th August 2011


I have tended to avoid Aconitum in the garden - I don't really like the idea of poisonous foliage around the place because I know I will be hacking around in the undergrowth one day without remembering they are there. I'm sure it takes quite a lot to actually poison yourself but it is a tiresome thing to have to worry about.
On the other hand, I am seeing more and more spectacular plants in gardens around the place and when they are good they are really good and they seem to do well in the misty, damp conditions of Cornish gardens. I bought this as a seedling, one of a range of new species recently introduced from China. I planted it under a young Rhododendron, hoping that the climbing stems would scramble through the shrub and give a second season of interest in late summer much as it is said to do in Yunnan.
So far, the Rhododendron has shed the climbing stems like water off a ducks back and these flowers have formed in a mat of collapsed stems at it's base, but perhaps next year the Aconitum will be stronger and more determined.