My dislikes have been voiced by others: double daffodils waxy begonias and Busy Lizzie French marigolds peaky-looking variegated plants heathers most conifers palms, bananas and other semi tropical incongruities that look out of place in British gardens speckled or striped petunias astilbes mahonias
What especially interests me is why the plants which get spurned here are often among the most popular with folk who garden under duress. Are these plants common (in the non-judgmental sense) because they’re cheap to grow and easy to cultivate making them a good choice for people who wish to give minimal attention to their gardens? I wonder if in ‘Pig Breeders’ Monthly’ or in ‘Crocheters’ Gazette’ similar opprobrium is placed on owners of Gloucester Old Spots and knitters of blanket squares.
I think a lot of what people like or dislike is probably linked with their memories and what they associate with a plant.
When I (quite recently) got into gardening, I found it bemusing when I would constantly read that lupins were “cottage plants”. Having never lived in a cottage nor have any real memories of cottages… I see lupins as quite dramatic ‘modern’ architectural plants.
When I (quite recently) got into gardening, I found it bemusing when I would constantly read that lupins were “cottage plants”. Having never lived in a cottage nor have any real memories of cottages… I see lupins as quite dramatic ‘modern’ architectural plants.
Bob Flowerdew often gets a little irked when people refer to "cottage style gardens" or "cottage plants". According to Bob, crofters or cottagers would, in the main, be poor so would grow edibles. Ornamentals would be a waste of space, time and money. Things like foxgloves which are often seens as an archetypal cottage style plant would arrive by accident..along with other British wildflowers.
Maybe cottage style gardens should be full of spuds 'n' sprouts?
Bergenia offends my eyes, any grass capable of self-seeding, most conifers apart from some pinus, any type of rose which gets blackspot, any unnaturally trimmed shrub and I've recently started to actively dislike hybrid hellebores for some reason. On the plus side, I keep discovering things which I never really knew existed but quickly become somewhat addicted to, such as epimediums.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Thinking about my dislikes, they are all things that my grandparents had in their gardens. So: garish bedding, hideous pom-pom hydrangeas with lime green leaves, aphid-ridden aquilegia and lupins, awful hybrid tea roses, with three long canes with no leaves because of black spot, and a desultory rose on top.
More recent prejudices: most conifers, but particularly Leylandii (I especially admire those that have been cut back into the brown growth), laurel, Photinia (usually badly maintained so straggly and ugly). Can I also admit to hating tulips?
Posts
double daffodils
waxy begonias and Busy Lizzie
French marigolds
peaky-looking variegated plants
heathers
most conifers
palms, bananas and other semi tropical incongruities that look out of place in British gardens
speckled or striped petunias
astilbes
mahonias
What especially interests me is why the plants which get spurned here are often among the most popular with folk who garden under duress. Are these plants common (in the non-judgmental sense) because they’re cheap to grow and easy to cultivate making them a good choice for people who wish to give minimal attention to their gardens? I wonder if in ‘Pig Breeders’ Monthly’ or in ‘Crocheters’ Gazette’ similar opprobrium is placed on owners of Gloucester Old Spots and knitters of blanket squares.
When I (quite recently) got into gardening, I found it bemusing when I would constantly read that lupins were “cottage plants”. Having never lived in a cottage nor have any real memories of cottages… I see lupins as quite dramatic ‘modern’ architectural plants.
Maybe cottage style gardens should be full of spuds 'n' sprouts?
Thinking about my dislikes, they are all things that my grandparents had in their gardens. So: garish bedding, hideous pom-pom hydrangeas with lime green leaves, aphid-ridden aquilegia and lupins, awful hybrid tea roses, with three long canes with no leaves because of black spot, and a desultory rose on top.
More recent prejudices: most conifers, but particularly Leylandii (I especially admire those that have been cut back into the brown growth), laurel, Photinia (usually badly maintained so straggly and ugly). Can I also admit to hating tulips?
'The power of accurate observation .... is commonly called cynicism by those that have not got it.
George Bernard Shaw'