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Acaena saccaticupula |
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| | Second-year plant in early summer (first attempt) |
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| | Second-year plant in early spring (second attempt) |
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| Common name |
goose leaf |
| Family |
rosaceae |
| Life cycle |
perennial (Z6-9) |
| Flowers |
inconspicuous (June) |
| Size |
6" |
| Light |
sun |
| Cultural notes |
well-drained soil |
From seed  |
germinate at room temperature
detailed seed-starting info below
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Low-growing evergreen with silvery blue leaves, native to New Zealand. Burry seedheads are more decorative than the flowers. I've managed to grow them from seed twice – the first time the seeds were misidentified as A. caesiglauca, but a more accomplished gardener pointed out that the leaflet shape and texture shown on my online pictures wasn't quite right (A. caesiglauca has a larger number of teeth per leaflet, and typically hairier leaves), and suggested it was this species instead. That time, the plants survived one winter, and grew on to show the nice blue-green foliage (in photo above left) – but they didn't flower, and succumbed in the next winter. More recently, I grew another batch (this time from properly named seed), which again survived their first full season in our garden. Although I gave them a prime position in our rock garden (photo above right), they did not return the next year; I'm not sure if it was summer's drought or winter's cold/wet that did them in. I'll probably try again some day, ever hopeful to coax some into taking up more permanent residence.
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In the northern range of this plant's hardiness, such as in our zone 6 garden, take the "evergreen" classification with a grain of salt. When I encountered them in our nursery area in mid-April, there was fresh green peeking out out a bunch of dark brown deceased foliage, similar to what you see along the stems in the photo here (I cleaned up the top growth before replanting in our rock garden).
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This plant used to grow in our garden, but it slipped away... About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Acaena saccaticupula
Some particularly helpful links to other websites | NZ Flora | botanical description of this species |
- Seed from '03 trade (identified as A. caesiiglauca). Baggy 65F (60%G, 8d)
- Seed from NARGS '08/'09 exchange, stored cold. Baggy 65F (56%G, 9-16d)
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Last modified:
February 04, 2017
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