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Garden Thugs

I don't know if this is a good time to raise this old chestnut again,
but a dry day after two weeks of almost constant rain and chill has
raised my spirits enough to put electronic pen to virtual paper.
The Thug I would like to propose is Solanum sisymbriifolium which I
first grew from seed supplied by the RHS about three years ago and
described by them as an annual.
It has large pale lavender to white flowers with a boss of yellow
stamens, followed by small tomato like fruit. The whole plant including
the leaves is covered with thorns that tear to shreds the leaves of any
other plant in its proximity.
Here in the Midi with a zone 8 climate it behaves as an evergreen sub
shrub in the average winter, flowering from April to July and, if then
cut back, again from September to November.
In a severe winter it dies back to a woody rootstock from which it
reshoots in late May.
 It is totally wind and drought proof and self seeds readily, soon
filling any empty space in a bed and, it must be admitted, none-empty
spaces also!
However unwanted plants are easily pulled out if gloves are worn during
the operation.
A thug in the right place is not necessarily a weed

--
Regards,
Gordon Walker
Cat Bells
Chemin de Ferrals
11170 Villespy
France
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