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Happy Wanderer Hardenbergia Violacea Seeds
Packet of 20+ seeds!
This cute little native ground cover is all through the bush at the moment and we have a few plants up near the chooks that we have propagated from the local seeds. This is the wild form, not the modern cultivars you see in your local garden center, and for that reason it is much better suited to harsh conditions like we get here.
What we did is just rubbed one side of the seed on the concrete then wacked it in a cup of warm water over night. Planted the next day in potting mix and got a great strike rate over the next few weeks.
It is becoming a pretty common plant to gardens and parks all up and down the coast due to its extreme hardiness and it pretty constant flush of flowers and pods. Considered endangered in Tasmania and there are only two populations know.
In the UK it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit which is kinda cool and well deserved I reckon.
Great gap filler for beds where the imported European plants can’t survive and considered edible with the boiled leaves producing a slightly sweet and pleasant tea.
I believe that the vast majority of historical references and pictures showing “Gum leaves” used as billy tea, are in fact this fella instead.
I really like it, especially for a bushtucker. Some folks also say the roots were also used in this manner but never tried them myself as it seems a real waste.
If you look really closely at the seeds, there is a little pad of sugary stuff on either side of the seed. This is there to attract ants which help to spread the seeds and bury them.
Ants want a sugary snack, and take the seeds down their burrows to share with their mates, and the collected seed gets planted in place ready for the next rains. As the ants feed they even scarify the seed coat meaning when the rains do come the seed is in the perfect spot, and the shell has been weakened, so they are 100% ready to germinate.
Pretty cool system they have!
Anyway, if you’re after a native vining ground cover that can handle frost and drought, and still produce a consistent flush of purple blooms, then this fella is a pretty good choice!
Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!
