Do you have a plant you wouldn’t be without in the garden?
My mother in law loves poppies and much to her husband’s
irritation will happily let them self-set all over the vegetable garden. They
come and go in a flash of purple and soon die back so don’t really get in the
way.
Julie loves her marigolds but this year for some reason none
of the seeds that fell from last year’s plants germinated. The garden does lack
that rich orange colour I must admit. We
tend to go more for the annuals for a splash of colour and have bulbs in the
front garden for early colour in spring.
Favourite Plants
My favourites seem to change often and this year my plant of
choice would be the chamomile, mainly because it’s given me a revenue stream.
It is the most relaxing plant I have ever dealt with because of the fragrance
and I am at peace when putting the plantlets into envelopes to post. Even
weeding out the rogue nasturtiums and chickweed in between the plants is a
meditative experience.
These are the types of plants I would dig up or divide and
take with me if I moved again. I think that is an indicator that the plants
mean something to you. I would take herb cuttings I think and also a few bay
tree cuttings to grow on.
There are plenty of lists for plants you shouldn’t be
without in the garden. A lot of them concentrate on attracting bees and other
beneficial insects. So many in fact they are split into the different seasons.
In spring you might like to see wallflowers, cyclamen, daffodils, tulips
pansies and violets. The summer could give you alliums, clematis, bellflowers
and geraniums. Autumn gives us asters, red hot pokers, penstemons and smoke
bushes and there’s colour in winter too. Winter aconites, dogwood, hazel,
skimmia and cotoneaster all give lovely shows.
It all depends on personal choice of course and some plants will
be on the favourite list because they hold a reminder of something, evoking
memories in much the same way that music does a smell can take you back to a
happy place. Useful plants are good to take with you into a new garden too.
Bamboo for poles, comfy for fertilizer all come in useful and can save you
money in the annual upkeep for the garden.
What’s your
Favourite?
I couldn’t let this opportunity go by without asking you
which plant you would always have in the garden or take with you when you move.
Here are some of your replies:
Kelly - Peonies!
They smell heavenly and remind me of my childhood.
Merry -Old roses
for their delightful smell.
Andrea- Peonies
they remind me of my grandma. Actually have some growing that were taken from
roots of her plant. They are over 60 years old.
Tracy- Tulips of
all colours but especially the black are favourite flowers.
Karen- I love
daylilies. I always plant sunflowers, they are so cheerful looking and my bird
and I love the seeds.
Nikki- I live in
Portugal and it's really dry here, so my favourite plants are globe artichokes
as you can eat them, they are really beautiful and quite drought resistant.
Laurie-
Hydrangeas are profuse bloomers with beautiful green foliage...a must have in
my garden.
Heather- Chinese
lanterns. Reminds me of my grandmother's house when I was growing up.
Trudy- Clematis!
My favourite is the old fashioned Jackmanii. I love the profusion of purple
blooms! I planted one every time I moved to a new location. There is a trail of
clematis vines behind me in several different gardens!
Bob- Lavender, we
distil our own oils.
Janet-
Gardenia... my grandparents had one outside of EVERY window in their house.
Rebecca- Old
favourite peas....my dearly departed dad would not let my mum go to the
hospital and give birth to me until all the peas were shelled.
Frances-
Hydrangeas are my favourite flowers. They take me back home to my Grandmas
farm.
Looking around my garden I realise that a lot of plants we
took for granted haven’t made the journey with us from older gardens. We have
lost a lot of herbs and shrubs as well as some lovely flowers such as the large
daisies. Our relations still have some that we gave them years ago so it looks
like we need to make a list of plants we want to get back and go visiting some
friends where the plants still flourish.
