Are you a garden trend setter? Do you like to grow the lastest plants that win awards at the RHS shows? Or maybe you don't feel that a plant should be seen as more fashionable than another. Historically did you grow some love/hate plants maybe?

Some new plants such as a Golden Leaved Birch were launched and have been failures they weren't hardy! Other such as Alliums have been a huge garden show success.
There is a recent thread on topiary is this still on trend? Or should we all have a clover lawn?
A few weeks ago the local Aldi had pots of Hydranga Paniculata £6.99 all sold in a day. They ARE watching the latest trends. This was the only garden plant they had for sale.

In the past I have followed trends especially when my clients wanted something exciting and new. Sometimes they would buy plants, ask me to plant them when I knew that conditions weren't right, very difficult!
I read recently that 90% of plants that die in our gardens is because conditions are not suitable , I am sure this is partly weather related but should we stop and think before we buy or just have fun and hope we get away with it? Is having fun sustainable/

Palustris · October 2023

One of the problems with people following trends is that those who come later have to pay for the mistakes. We have a huge Monkey Puzzle tree which is a. dying because of climate change, b too big for where it was planted and c. produces humungous amounts of pollen to which I am allergic. Planting them was fashionable at the time.

Bindweed, Russian Vine are too other plants which were 'in' at one time.

AnniD · October 2023

I must admit that l used to fall for the temptation of anything labelled "new", but these days l tend to look out for things labelled with the RHS Award of Garden Merit 😁.

I used to get confused when l saw plants labelled as new in various plant catalogues when l knew that l'd seen them elsewhere, but realised they were only new as far as that supplier was concerned.

Songbird-2 · October 2023

I've never followed trends of any sort, fashion, hair styles, gardening etc. I think @Fairygirl has always advocated that soil and environmental conditions have to be taken into account when planting any plant and has done so for a long time. It makes sense.
Plus, I buy plants which I like and some new plants that are available are not to my liking. As the song says......" he's ( not) a dedicated follower of fashion"! 😂

JennyJ · October 2023

I tend not to go for new plants when they're first released. Give it a few years and if it proves to be "good do-er" the price will probably come down some and it'll be more widely available. That's when I'll buy it, if I like it and I think it will suit my soil, climate and garden style. If it does well I'll keep it long after the next big thing has come along. So no, I'm not at the cutting edge of fashion (plants or anything else).

wild edges · October 2023

This Sedum https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/plants-blogs/plants/april-2020/sedum-takesimense-atlantis-nonsitnal (Phedimus technically) won Plant of the Year at Chelsea in 2019 but in practice the variegation is really unstable and you're more likely to end up with loads of stems with no chlorophyll at all which just end up scorched in the slightest sun. I got a plant very cheap when Wyevale nurseries shut down and handed out cuttings to some good sedum growers but no one can do much with it. I've got four or five pots on the go and they all grow differently. You'd struggle to win a show with any of them.

nutcutlet · October 2023

no, I avoid them. I've even been known to remove something that had become trendy

amancalledgeorge · October 2023

Ha!ha! Of course people won't admit readily at following any trends, where's the fun in that?

I think we are influenced by what we see, be it online, TV or in flower shows. Pretending we never take all that deluge of information in, is so hypocritical.

Hopefully most people on this forum would have an intimate knowledge of their growing space and the local climate but definitely nothing wrong with the odd experiment after all plants can't read the specifications and can be surprising against all odds.

wild edges · October 2023

This is my best pot of the sedum this year. Brown bits are the dead flower heads.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/um/epldbedi742c.jpg

Fire · October 2023

90% of plants that die in our gardens

I'd estimate it's probably higher than that, the ratio of plants from GCs and supermarkets that die of neglect or lack of research. The amount of retail seed sold that actually makes it to a mature plant must be infinitesimally small. I used to give out seed locally, but I don't bother any more as it's like flushing money down the loo. Retail seeds are primarily an nice idea rather than a practical proposal (gifts / wishful thinking).

As to 'trends', I am an "early non-adopter", as they say. But I find myself getting very into buffs, apricots and corals, and I am alarmed that I am clearly being influenced by current show fashions. I find it disturbing. Someone on the forum said that fashion catches up to them every 20 years or so and they buy clothes at that point. I am like that.

I am no great fan of grasses and prarie planting, I think it can look daft most of the time in small gardens. I don't like the "tonnes of hard landscaping everywhere" contemporary look, black fences, industrial wire and lightbulbs etc. I do like umbellifers and the wild and always have, so it's lucky for me that they came into fashion and plants are widely available.

The idea of "fashion" is an odd one - that we should go and buy what people tell us to like. I can't imagine why that should be attractive, unless we are sheep or very insecure.

amancalledgeorge · October 2023

Fire said:The idea of "fashion" is an odd one - that we should go and buy what people tell us to like. I can't imagine why that should be attractive, unless we are sheep or very insecure.

It's just human nature to be influenced...nothing particularly surprising about it.

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