Less exciting and dangerous than having an actual leopard in the garden, we have a leap of spotted leopard plant (Farfugium japonicum ‘Aureomaculatum’) lurking under the camellias, and another on the jungly bank. Their location is pretty haphazard so I’m not sure they were all planned. They’re native to Japan (known there as tsuwabuki 石蕗), but they’re not noted as invasive here in NZ.
At first I mistook the spots on our leopard plants for a plant pox, but they’re healthy apart from a few nibbles! They’re sometimes known as ‘tractor seat plant’ given their similarity to where you might perch on a John Deere (and in the right colours, too).
kōwhai 