A friend was up here from london the other day. We had a meeting in Liverpool which I needed him to attend. I ended early so we drove the scenic way back to my flat (that means my apartment for all you Americans). Along the way we drove past this massive plant growing in someone’s garden. The thing was so big that we stopped the car to look at it.
Neither of us are garden experts but we concluded it had to be something tropical as we hadn’t seen anything quite like this before in the UK. It had huge spiky leaves and stems and was growing very close to a ditch which was damp.
The question is what on earth is this great big plant? My Dad might know so I’ll email Mom some pictures (my Dad is a technodunce). But in the meantime I thought maybe some of you might know what this plant was.
To get a true idea of the dimensions of the plant check out the video below.
Wrote the following comment on Jul 17, 2006 at 6:36 pm
Dinosaur Food
https://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/perennials/dinosaur_food.html
Wrote the following comment on Jul 17, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Well done for finding that Shell! Did you already know that, or did you Googlize it?
Wrote the following comment on Jul 17, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Wow!! Just amazing!! See ya, hot stuff! ;-)
Wrote the following comment on Jul 17, 2006 at 10:02 pm
I like to watch gardening shows and I saw it on one recently. Yeah.. Imma geek.
Wrote the following comment on Jul 18, 2006 at 12:28 am
whoa! that’s crazy huge!
Wrote the following comment on Jul 18, 2006 at 3:51 am
You are right – that is an enourmous plant. And I’ve never heard of Dinosaur Food before but after glancing at the description of it in the above link I can see that it doesn’t like a hot climate. I doubt it grows down here.
Wrote the following comment on Jul 18, 2006 at 7:45 am
hmmm it looks like some kind of squash or pumpkin leaf….and yes, they are spiky/fuzzy. go back and look for the blossoms or the squash/pumpkin/gourd itself…under the leaves. the plant gets gynormous….
Wrote the following comment on Jul 18, 2006 at 7:14 pm
That plant is a gunnera. It is one of my FAVOURITES and last year I bought one for my garden. It’s grown really big, even though it’s still a baby. There’s a park near my home that has loads of them planted together, they’re so tall that you can walk underneath the canopy they make, it feels so prehistoric.
You can easily grow gunnera in this country even though they are exotic. They die back in winter, and as long as you cover the stump with the big dead leaves they will survive the frost. I would recommend one if you have a garden.
Wrote the following comment on Jul 18, 2006 at 7:22 pm
See I’d like one Alex, but in a post I made last week you can see pictures of my garden and from that you’ll be able to see why it’s a very bad idea. Plus there simply isn’t a good enough supply of water in my garden to keep the plant happy. But hey, thanks for letting me know what it is.
Wrote the following comment on Jul 18, 2006 at 9:39 pm
I want one. It would be fab right behind the diving board of my pool.
Wrote the following comment on Jul 18, 2006 at 10:03 pm
whoa. I think I’d like to live on that street.
Wrote the following comment on Jul 19, 2006 at 1:42 am
It is a nice street Ashley, that’s for sure.
Wrote the following comment on Jul 19, 2006 at 12:34 pm
I am not sure why, but the video had me giggling? That is one huge ass plant! If really want to know that bad, take a leaf into a garden nursery, and they should be able to tell you. Thanks for the making me giggle today!
Wrote the following comment on Jul 19, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Pay attention bubblzinthed old chap. We already know what it is now. It’s Dinosaur Food, more commonly called a Gunnera. :-)
Wrote the following comment on Jul 19, 2006 at 3:21 pm
i’m with david. i want one. i wonder if texas is too hot though. it sounds like it might be, according to the link wookit put up.
Wrote the following comment on Jul 20, 2006 at 8:11 am
Hi, bumped into your site through google when I searched for something and, voila, I decided to bookmark your page.
Nice entries !!
*and nice huge plant too*
Wrote the following comment on Jul 20, 2006 at 10:35 am
Hi Silverlines, Glad you enjoyed the posts. :-)