If you're a regular reader, you know I have a soft spot in my heart for self-sowing plants. With more chutzpah than hubris, they are the little plants that could. Take my Thalictrum rochebrunianum or meadow rue, maybe, "Lavender Mist". His pedigree is unknown, hence the hesitation.
Delicate airy blooms of Thalictrum rochebrunianum, Meadow Rue The Garden Buzz
First it is presumptuous of me to refer to him as mine, and worse that I assign gender and call him a he; even though I didn't plant him and I don't think thalictrum plants are dioecious, that is having separate male and female plants. Still he has endeared himself to me and I point him out among other showier flowers in the garden like a proud mom pushes forward a gawky child grown taller than herself.
So slender as to be hard to see in the photo, note the graceful shadows The Garden Buzz
As he grew, his purple-tinged stem would swerve ever so slightly one way and then as leaves appeared at that juncture, the growth swayed back, and so on and so forth in the most subtle serpentine fashion. The leaves resemble columbine or maidenhair fern, sparsely arranged in a shade of matte green. The flowers are almost an after thought, tiny purple singlets on compound springs, with even tinier yellow anthers.
The foliage reminds us of columbine The Garden Buzz
You then, can imagine my horror when the recent rainstorm nearly snapped his slender (or skinny, depending upon your point of view) stem in half. At 6 feet tall and single-stemmed it was bound to happen. I had already provided a number of plant ring supports at increasing heights to bolster him against the wind.
Germinating from seed in between the stone lamp pillar and the gatepost, he had picked a spot that was uncrowded but also precarious in that it was unwatered and subject to small animal traffic. Yet he persevered through two seasons so far, from a few small leaves into a statuesque specimen.
To see him bent over and his stem splayed open with the torn fibers giving a splintered effect, was painful to see. The delicate lavender flowers that normally float above his foliage were dangling inches from the sidewalk.
The thought of snipping the stem at what seemed like his knee, would be an ugly and heartbreaking solution. So borrowing a trick from the tree surgeon's book, I went to work and did a little plant triage. If they can bind bark and broken branches back together to restore the flow of cambium why not the same for a plant stem?
My skill not quite as admirable as my intent, I bandaged the torn stalk with reinforced packing tape while holding him upright with the other hand. It is not the best looking medical intervention but it miraculously seems to be working. With a little water and leaning against the lantern he has been moved from critical to serious but stable condition.
Bandaged stem of meadow rue The Garden Buzz
The patient after treatment The Garden Buzz
My hope is that he will remain vertical until fall and perhaps even toss a few seeds to the ground. At that point he can go dormant and rest, to return again next year. Because what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Well that, and maybe a little help from a friend.
