5 reasons why gardeners love licorice

Licorice plants can fulfill many different roles in your garden. Here's some tips for growing healthy licorice, and how they can add to your garden's look.

Because of their subdued leaf colours and spreading shape, care-free licorice plants fill many job descriptions, such as:

• They're ideal for edging flower beds and as additions to window boxes, containers and hanging baskets.
• When grown with other plants, they interweave nicely.
• Licorice plants look stunning beside blue-flowered plants, such as brachychome or browallia.

• Licorice plants grow best when shaded from the noonday sun.
• For best results water the plants regularly, especially when their roots are confined to a container.
• Even if a plant appears to have perished, don't give it up entirely. It'll make new growth again if you continue to care for it.

• Water as needed to keep the soil moist and take a few minutes now and then to pick off brown leaves. They do not fall away on their own.
• Eager eaters, licorice plants should be fertilized every two to three weeks with a balanced fertilizer.
• Because they don't like cramped containers, repot when the roots fill the pot, graduating the plant to a container that is no more than two sizes larger than the pot it just occupied.

• Thanks to its thick leaves, which insects find difficult to chew, licorice plant is not prone to pest problems.
• If it's neglected, aphids or mealybugs could settle in, but those problems are rare.
• To prevent them, keep plants stress free by watering regularly.

It isn't easy to propagate the licorice plant. If you want to try, here's how:

1. Take eight-centimetre-long (three-inch-long) stem cuttings in spring.
2. To encourage root initiation, remove the lowest set of leaves from the stem. Carefully scrape the fuzzy coating from the lower portion of the stem.
3. Insert the lower portion of the cutting into light, fluffy soil. Keep it barely moist while it is rooting.
4. Don't enclose cuttings in a plastic bag, which can lead to rot.
5. After the cuttings root, in six to eight weeks, they can be planted in containers.

It's a mystery as to why licorice got its name, since it neither smells nor looks like licorice. But the reasons for adding licorice to your garden shouldn't be a mystery. Its beautiful colouring can compliment many parts of your garden.