It was the pot marigolds and i didn't know at the time cosmos. I was about 10 years old. We had a small front garden and there were these marigolds Growing all over it and some firny plants which i knew grew taller. So on the one side of the path, i transplanted the marigolds all around the edge, the firny plants in the middle. It looked really nice when they were in flower.
Not sure where it came from either as my parents weren't particularly keen gardeners. My grandpa was though - very traditional, 'mid wars' style, with roses and carnations. Perhaps that's it. My love of horses and the outdoors possibly come from him too (cavalry during WW1)
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
My mum was always in the garden when I was a child. She had her own name for different plants so still is a nightmare to talk gardening with? And the names bear no relation to the real names or common names.
Bit from that I started my love for gardening but my first love and still one of my favourite garden plants is the hydranger. i love their big flower filled heads, the fact that they are quite happy in a shady area and there is so many different types now.
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
Having reflected on my earlier answer about raspberries, I think that for me, rather than it being one type of plant that hooked me into gardening, it's more the actual experience of being with and growing plants ............ I suppose that's to be expected, coming from a long line of farmers
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Not really relevant to your question aym280 but the smell of tomato plants in the warmth of my grandad's greenhouse when I was a child is something that I still remember to this day. It didn't start me gardening but many years later I now have my own greenhouse and fill it with tomato plants every year and the memories come flooding back.
It has to be passiflora for me, I remember my Grandpa tending to his most amazing passiflora when I was about 10 years old, the combination of his passion and that plant was the basis for my love of gardening today.
When I was a student a friend gave me a spider plant. I put it on the windowsill and ignored it. Then it started to sprout babies and my friend said I could make a new plant out of it. I did this and it too grew and produced babies. This was an utter revelation to me and my room was soon full of house plants. When I finally got some outside space I started growing things in pots. Now I have a large garden that I am always in and love nothing more than working in it Funny how a small gift could lead to this.
I think lawn grass impacts on most people's gardening, partly because it dominates many gardens. A lawn can be tolerated and cut as a chore or meticulously cared for with techniques and treatments - or something in between.
I am not sure if there is one plant that started my passion but I certainly attribute it to the 'tending of the pots' I did with my Grandmother. These were mainly red-flowering geraniums - some in the garden and some in the 'conservatory' (aka: lean-too). There were always tomatoes in grow bags there too - so I also have that smell-memory, fritterer.
I agree that it's almost impossible for me to put down my passion for plants, to one plant, as such....but more a sequence of events and various early intros I had to plants, as a child.
I grew up in a flat in central London, with a titchy balcony where my dad grew red geraniums - I still remember their smell.
At primary school (it was the 70s) we had 'grow your own candytuft' competitions when we were about 7/8 years old. I remember being dead chuffed when I won that year and the excitement of scattering some tiny seeds over soil, in a pot, then watching them grow.
When my sister and I were kids, our parents used to drive down to the rural depths of Languedoc, in southern France, in our old VW camper van - we stayed in an old stone farmhouse down there, for the whole school holidays - bliss - and I remember going out for walks in the countryside every day, amazed at the black and blue malva flowers that were everywhere, picking and eating blackberries all day, and watching the preying mantises crawling over our huge rosemary bush.
Posts
It was the pot marigolds and i didn't know at the time cosmos. I was about 10 years old. We had a small front garden and there were these marigolds Growing all over it and some firny plants which i knew grew taller. So on the one side of the path, i transplanted the marigolds all around the edge, the firny plants in the middle. It looked really nice when they were in flower.
I'm probably unusual as I don't have one.
Not sure where it came from either as my parents weren't particularly keen gardeners. My grandpa was though - very traditional, 'mid wars' style, with roses and carnations. Perhaps that's it. My love of horses and the outdoors possibly come from him too (cavalry during WW1)
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
My mum was always in the garden when I was a child. She had her own name for different plants so still is a nightmare to talk gardening with? And the names bear no relation to the real names or common names.
Bit from that I started my love for gardening but my first love and still one of my favourite garden plants is the hydranger. i love their big flower filled heads, the fact that they are quite happy in a shady area and there is so many different types now.
Having reflected on my earlier answer about raspberries, I think that for me, rather than it being one type of plant that hooked me into gardening, it's more the actual experience of being with and growing plants ............ I suppose that's to be expected, coming from a long line of farmers
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Probably bearded irises for me, I think they are amazing plants.
Not really relevant to your question aym280 but the smell of tomato plants in the warmth of my grandad's greenhouse when I was a child is something that I still remember to this day. It didn't start me gardening but many years later I now have my own greenhouse and fill it with tomato plants every year and the memories come flooding back.
It has to be passiflora for me, I remember my Grandpa tending to his most amazing passiflora when I was about 10 years old, the combination of his passion and that plant was the basis for my love of gardening today.
When I was a student a friend gave me a spider plant. I put it on the windowsill and ignored it. Then it started to sprout babies and my friend said I could make a new plant out of it. I did this and it too grew and produced babies. This was an utter revelation to me and my room was soon full of house plants. When I finally got some outside space I started growing things in pots. Now I have a large garden that I am always in and love nothing more than working in it Funny how a small gift could lead to this.
I think lawn grass impacts on most people's gardening, partly because it dominates many gardens. A lawn can be tolerated and cut as a chore or meticulously cared for with techniques and treatments - or something in between.
I am not sure if there is one plant that started my passion but I certainly attribute it to the 'tending of the pots' I did with my Grandmother. These were mainly red-flowering geraniums - some in the garden and some in the 'conservatory' (aka: lean-too). There were always tomatoes in grow bags there too - so I also have that smell-memory, fritterer.
I agree that it's almost impossible for me to put down my passion for plants, to one plant, as such....but more a sequence of events and various early intros I had to plants, as a child.
I grew up in a flat in central London, with a titchy balcony where my dad grew red geraniums - I still remember their smell.
At primary school (it was the 70s) we had 'grow your own candytuft' competitions when we were about 7/8 years old. I remember being dead chuffed when I won that year and the excitement of scattering some tiny seeds over soil, in a pot, then watching them grow.
When my sister and I were kids, our parents used to drive down to the rural depths of Languedoc, in southern France, in our old VW camper van - we stayed in an old stone farmhouse down there, for the whole school holidays - bliss - and I remember going out for walks in the countryside every day, amazed at the black and blue malva flowers that were everywhere, picking and eating blackberries all day, and watching the preying mantises crawling over our huge rosemary bush.