Rumex patientia Seeds | Patience Dock
LATIN NAME: Rumex patientia
COMMON NAME: Patience Dock
Plant Profile
Patience Dock (Rumex patientia) grows as a robust, clumping, perennial. Young plant grows into a multi-stemmed clump, to about twelve metres. Site it in full sun, in deep, fertile ground. Together these qualities explain its long-standing appeal to gardeners.
Science & Biotechnology
Research touching on Rumex patientia ranges from the botany of the Rumex group to practical horticulture, including seed handling, propagation and the selection of superior forms. Species has also been studied in ecology, since it is a native of meadows and waysides of southeastern Europe. In the laboratory and trial ground alike, it serves as workable material for propagation research and line selection.
Uses & Benefits
Patience Dock works well in borders, containers and dedicated beds. Ecologically, patience dock is a generous plant of garden and the meadow. Its small flowers feed insects, its seeds feed birds, and its bold, leafy growth covers ground, while it has been a familiar presence in gardens and waysides of Europe for a long time. Its economic value is historic and real. Thereafter it wants only the ordinary attentions any garden plant receives.
Docks and sorrels are lemony, vitamin-C-rich spring greens, and yellow dock root is a classical Western herbal alterative for skin and digestion, rich in iron-repute and anthraquinones.
Growing from Seed
Starting Patience Dock from seed is simple and satisfying. Sow the seed evenly over the surface and cover lightly, using a loose, well-drained seed compost, and keep it just moist in full sun until the seedlings are well up. When the young plants are big enough to handle, space them into pots or a nursery row and let them size up before their final move.
Our Take
Once established, Patience Dock largely looks after itself. Fresh seed sown into evenly moist compost is most of the battle won.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Patience Dock often pair it with these related subjects: