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I've had this Gunnera for a long time and I haven't really paid much attention to it. However, it seems to be walking down the slope and now its leaves are draping into my bath of non-areated compost tea. On the left of the image you can see another smaller plant and I think that's where it started a few years ago. And there's a ground cover of the noxious weed tradescantia that I need to remove one day.

What seems to happen is that each year the plant dies back and then remerges further down the slope as though it's walking.

What's causing this? Can I get it to walk backwards so that it doesn't climb over my paths, and stays instead under the canopy of my ponga grove?

walking Gunnera

Graham Chiu
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1 Answers1

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Gunnera likes moist, quite boggy soil - lower down the slope, away from the roots of your ponga grove, is likely damper, so it puts out roots in that direction, and the following spring, shoots from those roots instead of further up where you originally planted it. In other words, it's voting with its feet and showing preference for a different planting site than the one you prefer. The only way it might stay where you want it is if you can keep that area, higher up, well wetted most of the time.

Bamboo
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  • Sounds like I should build a retention wall so that the moisture pools where it is, and doesn't let the roots proceed further. But it's odd that one part of the plant hasn't followed the leader. – Graham Chiu Jan 11 '17 at 23:35
  • Not odd at all - some of the original root material will still be there, and is still capable of producing a shoot or two. With regard to walling it in, you may still need to water more because of the roots of your ponga grove, which will be sucking up quite a bit. – Bamboo Jan 11 '17 at 23:40
  • I've never watered it and I think it's been there for several decades at least, long before I moved in. The slope gets water seeping out of the ground :) – Graham Chiu Jan 12 '17 at 00:01