Good Plants with Bad Names

Often times one gardener’s “problem plant” is someone else’s easiest plant to grow. I am pretty opinionated in general, especially on plants. I have often discouraged people from growing Lupines and Delphiniums. The reason, I can not grow them to save my life. Delphiniums are still out, although Lupines may have gained a status change.I was transplanting some oak trees this spring that a client of mine had started from seed several years ago. He wanted them spaded out with our mechanized tree spade. While I was tip toeing around on his turf with the skid loader I noticed Lupines in my work area. I brought this to my client’s attention. “Hey Jerry we got some Lupines in the middle of the work area.” “Don’t worry about them their all over the place they grow like weeds around here” Jerry responded.

Jerry’s yard is a half mile away from my yard. Lupines are beautiful flowers with tropical looking foliage and they are obviously very perennial. I always had a hard time growing them in pots. I think they resented our soil mix, too heavy on the peat probably. I suppose when another client from the Albion area brought a picture of her Lupine with fourteen flower heads in several years ago I should have given Lupines more thought. She told me she put weed fabric around them and did a bunch of other stuff that usually puts most plants to debt. I was just not in to investigating it further.

This is a perfect example of how good plants get bad names. One person or sometimes many people bash a plant because they have problems with that plant. Further investments of time, money and patience keep people from learning how to grow the plant.

Believe it or not, plants do not all grow the same. Sometimes they are like people, you just have to find out what makes them tick. I cannot say I blame people for giving up. Surplus time and money are not exactly prolific at this time. People want something that is going to work easily. The catch is they also want unique, rare, and new.

Just for discussion, a few good examples of plants many people have problems with are Japanese Maples and Dogwoods. Both these plants have bad reputations in the local area. They grow like weeds here at the nursery. Very seldom do I ever lose a Maple or Dogwood. I think poor planting practices are the biggest problem with Maples and Dogwoods surviving in people’s yards. I suppose upon killing a plant or two we need to investigate further before we lay a bad name on a good plant. I must add that we plant hundreds of different plants in our gardens every year. It’s hard not to get disgruntled and just say the plant is a dud. Gardening is an interesting endeavor as I have often written. As your plants grow so do you sometimes. In retrospect I suppose I grew a little bit today. I hope you did too!