artemsia powis castle

 I love artemesia ‘powis castle.’  I love the lacy, flowing foliage that softens the garden, releases a soft, herby-scent and can easily fill a large space.

Or, an enormous space.  And never stop growing.

Ever.

Ever.

 It’s great for contrast, texture and form.  But it is eating my garden.

I spend hours pruning this one so that it keeps from swallowing up the Acacia tree behind it.  Well, it used to be behind it.  Now it’s enveloped the entire tree.  And while the artemesia is soft, getting close to those Acacia thorns is no fun.

In the back yard, it’s swallowing up my ‘Lord Baltimore’ hibiscus and the variegated shell ginger that you can’t even see in this photo.

It’s common name is wormwood and it’s an herbaceous perennial that grows well from zone 6-9.  It’s advertised to get 2-3 feet tall and 1-2 feet wide.  (HA!)  It loves full sun, tolerates drought and is deer and rabbit resistant.  Perfect, right?  Well, if you have about 6-8 feet of space for it to take over.

I still love it. But next time, I’ll put it in a larger space where I don’t have to keep it pruned as much.

Sometimes my experience in my garden isn’t quite what’s printed on that little plastic label at the nursery or in my google search!

But that’s part of the fun and mystery of gardening, isn’t it?

What’s surprising you in your garden?