The best way to find out if you can grow a plant is to grow it. Although I hate killing plants, it is always worth taking a risk and experimenting. We all have different conditions in our gardens and even different conditions within our gardens and it is always worth trying something if you like it. When you read about plants you are often told that some plants are ‘easy’ and others are more ‘challenging’. But if plants are well suited to your garden, whatever the conditions, even ‘difficult’ plants may be easy to grow.

A new garden provides new opportunities and a new range of plants. And finding the right place in the garden can make all the difference. So don’t let perceived wisdom prevent you from trying a plant if you fancy it. Researching where it comes from and the conditions it likes in the wild will always help.

Lysimachia congestiflora is not a plant that gets much attention. I think it is because it is most often sold as a filler for patio pots and not regarded as a serious garden plant. Native to damp places, beside streams across a large swathe of Asia, it is most often sold, in yellow-leaved or variegated forms, as a patio plant in spring. When I obtained ‘Persian Chocolate’ it was on the understanding that it was not very hardy. A review of sources suggests a range from not hardy to withstands -6c. The first winter I protected my plant and then planted it out and left it to its own devices. I lost interest in it to be honest. Since then it has survived everything the garden and weather has thrown at it. I have done nothing to the clump in three years. It does get cut back a little by winter cold and the frosted leaves go rusty brown but it soon recovers in spring. I think the variegated and yellow forms would look more unsightly when frosted than this ‘brown’ form. It effectively covers the soil and suppresses weeds. And for many months the purple/brown leaves are covered in clusters of bright yellow flowers.

I now need to use the plant more effectively and take the plant more seriously. Although it is in a spot that is often waterlogged in winter, it gets dry in summer. I need to take cuttings or remove rooted stems and make more use of it around the garden, especially around the pond. It grows to about 15cm high in full sun but I expect it would be laxer in some shade. My clump is about 60cm across and it has not moved from there in the three years.

The only thing that prevents me from loving this plant, rather than liking it, is that the colour scheme is spookily reminiscent of Oxalis corniculatus, that horrible weed that is impossible to eliminate. But I need to get over myself. It would be like not eating oranges or carrots because they are the same colour as Donald Trump.

More of a risk was Leptospermum ‘Red Damask’. Leptospermums are Antipodean and Leptospermum scoparium is native to SE Australia and New Zealand where it is common. Flowers are usually pink or white but ‘Red Damask’ is rich, dark pink and double. Leptospermums are not ‘very’ hardy and best in mild gardens or coastal areas. They are not truly calcifuge but prefer acid soils and they need a well-drained soil and hate waterlogging.

So when I planted mine, I planted it in the drive. I had previously planted a hedge of griselinia in another area of the hardcore and chippings that made the base of the drive and they have done well so, thinking that this was another New Zealand native, I thought it might be OK. It is on the south side of the garage so might get a tiny bit of protection from cold and wind from that. Because the soil is practicality non-existent I do water now and then in dry weather and I do sprinkle some fertiliser around it. But it has survived two winters and has grown, slowly, and flowered quite well this spring. I know that anywhere else in the garden it would have died through wet roots. I found the right spot and it has been worth the risk, so far.

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