Of course, where there are berries, there are bound to be seedlings and I'm now finding them all over the garden. They conceal themselves rather well under other plants, but once discovered, they are easy to recognize.
This scan is of one I just found today, so it's had a full growing season. You can still see the first seedling leaves at the bottom. The thing that gives them away is their texture; it's the same, leathery texture as the mature leaves and with the same gloss....rather cute, except when they arrive in a spot you do not want covered by ivy. They pull up quite easily at this stage of the game.
Since I have both the species and the smaller leafed unknown cultivar blooming and berrying, I don't know whose child this is. The leaf form is quite similar to the species but considerably smaller. If I were certain it was the smaller leaf cultivar, I'd save some of them. The only way to tell is to grow it on. I may pot up the example in the scan, just for the heck of it, to see what happens.
Still In Pots After All These Years
I think about half my ivy collection still resides in pots. This really doesn't bother ivy as it makes an excellent pot plant. On the left is a tiny leafed cultivar who I have not identified. Any tag is long since history. On the right is 'Green Man'
This is an enlargement of a leaf from the tiny leafed cultivar - probably over two times actual size. I call it a "heart leaf" ivy, for obvious reasons. It's a really cute ivy and a relatively slow grower. I have not put this one in the ground, so I don't know how hardy it is, but would guess it is as hardy as most H. helix cultivars. Because of its diminutive size and slow growth, it would be a candidate for a special spot, as a accent, and not as a groundcover or in a border where it had to fight for existence.
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