PUSHING THE BORDERS

I love the various tree dandelions and have grown a few. I was disappointed when my greenhouse plant was cut to the ground last winter but it did sprout. It’s a pity because you can see in the photo that it was starting to make a proper trunk. Hopefully with a bit of heating in the coldest periods it will regain its size next year.



I bought it as either canariensis or arboreus, can’t remember which and I’ve stopped keeping a diary so can’t check. I’m sure some of those members who can identify a plant from leaf detail will oblige.

Anyway, by chance I saw this plant on EBay which I’d never heard of. There is limited advice (none really!) on the net as to how to grow it but the wispy nature of its growth really appeals to me and the one or two pictures of it in its tree/shrub form made me want to give it a go. He only had two left so I bought one. Does anybody grow it or has grown it and have any advice? I assume like the others it will be quite frost tender so at the moment it is on the kitchen shelf.

It isn't one I've grown, but it used to be a subspecies of Sonchus leptocephalus, and that I have grown. The comments below refer to that one.

It is one of the small flowered ones, but makes up for it by having flowers in huge heads of many blooms.

Like most of the Canarian ones, young plants come back from the base if the top was lost to a moderate frost, but older, woody plants just die. It pays to overwinter a cutting indoors if you want to be secure.

The novelty of the fennel like leaf wore off, and I decided I preferred the larger flowered ones. If I want a filiform leaf, I'll grow a fennel, or [and I am] Ferula. 

Sonchus is an addictive genus, even if half of them are weeds, and now that Dendroseris has been sunk into it there are even more to try.

Chad

Thank you Chad. I also like fennel and indeed lots of other plants with filigree foliage. It was images of the old woody, tree-like trunks and branches softened by such contrasting foliage such as you don’t get with fennel which attracted me. I’ve just searched for leptocephalus, which I also like the look of, with one UK supplier reporting it to be hardy?

Like you, I like many of the daisy type flowers. Dendroseris litoralis used to flower for me but grew too big and the replacement cutting I took died in a severe frost. I’ve seen pinnata seeds for sale and was tempted, but didn’t. I like the palm-like appearance of such plants.