Description
One of the foliage Persicaria tribe – P. runcinate Purple Fantasy is a cultivar of a species native to the eastern Himalayas – it’s easy to grow in full sun to part shade and creates an exciting, attention grabbing focal point.The main things to know about the plant are that it grows best in some sun though can handle a fair amount of shade. Persicaria are tough, vigorous plants & this one is no exception. A hardy plant too, dying back in winter, with new shoots emerging with the warmth of April until frosts. While many Persicaria are grown for their flowers, this and others like P. ‘Red Dragon’ are grown for their leaves. They do flower but they’re tiny little white things and best ignored or removed. By the time they flower the plant can be quite leggy and tall (50cm), and even begin to lose some of those dark chevrons as they fade to green. At this point, we cut it down almost to the base and it will spring back within a couple of weeks with fresh flower-free foliage. So tough is this Persicaria that you can slice out a chunk to form a new plant at any point of the year and it won’t bat a leaf. From a tiny one shoot plant, by the following spring you will have a colony of shoots at least 50cm diameter. By the following year four times as much. It’s quite a vigorous spreader but easy to control by digging out large chunks to reduce its size in winter or early spring.It grows well in pots of any size as long as you can keep up with the watering, Persicaria never like to dry out though I find this one is fairly drought tolerant, wilting before any crisping happens. It’s a fab, weed smothering and low maintenance plant for adding to a tropical or foliage garden. (credit: https://www.jackwallington.com)
Position: Sun / part shade
Soil: Moist but well drained
Rate of growth: Fast
Flowering period: Late summer
Hardiness: Hardy
Pot size: 2L
Eventual height & spread: 30 – 60cm x indefinite
