plant personalities

Being a beginner gardener with only a couple years experience I have discovered that I need more help in deciding what to plant besides color, bloom time, sun/shade, height etc. So I have set up three categories that I think most plants fit into.

Piggies - Plants that are strong and aggressive but not invasive. Tough, confident, monopolizers. Wave petunias are an example because I learned not to plant other things with them in a container because they get totally dominated. Tomatoes are another piggy.

Gentlemen - Plants that grow exactly as advertised, are uncomplaining and undemanding, reliable and well behaved. Play nicely with others. Can take a joke. Pansies, sweet alyssum and marigolds are examples.

Critics - Plants that have an opinion. (Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too crowded, too sunny, too shady,
too humid, and so on. ) They can be great but they tend to be unforgiving and cranky. I put Zinnias in this category because even though they grow easily they can look ratty in a heartbeat if they are not happy.

It really helps me to think of these categories when I am planning next season's plantings.

That's quite imaginative! I never thought of them that way. You're right, though. Of course, my favorites are the Gentlemen, but the Piggies and the Critics are what I seem to have a lot of! lmao
Gail

Great, I am surrounded by critics.

Tell me more about your critics.
I think critics can be very rewarding but I think you have to be mentally prepared (kind of like visiting NYC). I love Gerbera daisies but they are always sending me memos like " you gave me just a touch too much water three days ago. If it had been sunny as forecasted I would have been happy but it was a little cool and cloudy and with that tad too much water...................mmmmmmm mildew anyone?"
On the other hand my long suffering stoic begonias survived our September drought with narey a curled leaf edge.

OMG this is too funny, but you do know that my critics could be your gentlemen?? Ex. bee balm is supposed to be SO EASY(read piggie), well mine is half dead, so don't know how, but I've got a critical one (actually two, but told not to get too many, it would be too much, yeah right!)

I agree, beebalm is on my critic list too. Anything that gets mildew FNGR (for no good reason) is a critic in my book. It also acts like it wants some artificial support, another critic trait. But I love the way one flower grows on a stem coming out of another, really cool, so I'll put up with them. I actually have all three personality types at different places in my garden but I tend to put the gentlemen around the entrance to greet me with their honest, earnest, well behaved faces. They raise the spirits after a tough day and require zero patience.

What a great way of categorizing plants. Love it!

I think my purple cone flowers fall into the gentlemen category. They are not demanding in care( once established they don't take much care) nor complainers( when it's very hot and dry or wet and cold). They are reliable perennials!

cuckoo

Russian sage and little bluestem turned out to be gentlemen, once I stopped watering them!

This message was edited Oct 22, 2005 7:52 PM

what is little bluestem ?
I agree about sage and coneflowers, very gentlemanly. I also think that the one type of zinnia that is not a critic is creeping zinnia. I've had them get along well with portulaca, also a gentleman.

edgeman - little bluestem is a native prairie grass, now considered "ornamental", it changes colors from steel-blue to pinkish to orangey tones, here's the only picture I currently have, from this past August. Its next to the lamp-post.

Well, my coneflowers have been Critics for two years now, but this year may have decided it wasn't getting them anywhere and have become Gentlemen. The shasta daisies were gentlemen to begin with but are turning into Piggies which is fine with me because I can divide them and spread the wealth. I love these descriptions, they are so appropriate. Has anyone had their wave petunias come back spring by self seeding? I had several that did that, what a pleasant surprise! Came back like the original too, which surprised me even more because they are a hybrid.....

Edgeman - you are too funny!

M5 - I've had wave petunias come back year after year
but I think they were just not quite as floriferous and tough
with each generation. I had blue waves go 4 yrs and decided
to give up on 'em 'cause they weren't so hot (got a leaf
disease of some sort and didn't last for more than a couple
of months.)

Tam

edgeman, what great categorizing! Love the list!!!!

Great way to catagorize plants! I talk to them all the time anyway, because they certainly do have personalities. I think Asiatic lilies are very gentlemanly. Most are short enough not to need staking and increase effortlessly. In my loose soil, a lot of things are quite piggy, but that's ok; I'm usually there pulling weeds anyway, so no big deal to yank and whack a bit.

I have a couple of varieties of monarda that are gentlemen as well. No mildew, not too tall, and I planted them in lean soil, so they don't spread too much.

Fun thread! Thanks edgeman! Neal

What about the imperialists? Those guys that send their seeds all over the place,
colonizing new territories with plans for world domination? I've found that the
Browalia I started for my containers last year decided to stage an all-out blitz to
grab territories from the surrounding gardendoms.

Tam

Oh, I love it. Imperialists... perfect. A much nicer name than invasive but every bit as strong. Mint certainly would make that list and Matt's Wild Cherry. Little Napoleons that bunch. Where's Elba when you need it?
Gemini_ sage, I agree about Asiatic lillies and would love to know which varieties of Monarda are so well behaved.
Does anyone else besides me put regular impatiens on the gentleman list but New Guineas on the critics?
BTW- Thanks, Prairie Girl for the Bluestem info. :)

I agree about regular impatiens. As long as I give it a drink everyday or leave it's feet in water it even grows all summer here. Cosmos on the other hand wants to rule the world and it gets about 8 foot tall here. 7 years later and it still sneaks back ;-)

This message was edited Oct 26, 2005 8:06 PM

Gemini - I would love some of that monarda next spring, maybe we can trade again, LOL. Mine 'Ponticum' is definitely a critic. Love the smell, even tho looks terrible.

Rose Campion is a real Imperialist for me!
And Evening Primrose.....Piggie for sure
Columbine is another Imperialist but not one I mind. I have columbines popping up everywhere but it's wonderful.
Obiedient Plant......Piggie here in Maine
Penstemon....Gentleman

Kim

Yep - obiendient plant is definitely a piggie. And evening primrose
too. I'll never let either loose in my gardens (again).

Tam

weeds are imperialists

and I am part of their empire (sigh)

Wild Strawberries (although not flowers) are real piggies and though I attack them with Bayer they don't seem to want to die. I will continue my endeavor to erraticate (sp?) them from my lawn again next year. I do think I am making headway in the dandelions a little though which is encouraging.

My Sea Thrift is a real gentleman and I wish it would be more of an Imperialist as I think it is SO darn cute!

Kim

Oh, gosh, I have those stinking wild strawberries too! I don't have them in the yard, though. They like to grow along the front of my house and spread up into the beds I've got on each side of my front porch. I HATE those things! Piggie, piggie, piggie!!
Gail

Tammy, the Imperialists is perfect! I've laughed and laughed. Great witt!

Oldseed, then I read your post and busted out again (not that weeds are funny) with "I'm part of their empire". We all feel kind of defeated like that sometimes, but something blooms and we're back!

Keep the witt and laughs coming! Neal.

If some weeds are "imperialists" I would have to rank my galric mustard weeds somewhere in line with Alilla the Hun. I have jillions of them, and have been fighting them for years.

Are those onion/garlic that grow in the grass & everywhere else? Or the
biennial weed that's not really in the garlic family? (both are definitely
imperialists here! I just pull and pull and pull 'em both.)
Tam

rip rip rip

They're the biennial. I was at a class at the DNR office here re "noxious" weeds. They said that one plant left to go to seed can produce over a 100 seedlings (or thousands of seeds). You can pull them, but they'll come back if you don't get the whole tap root.

The other thing we have here are wild raspberries. Love the fruit, but I could do away with 90% of them. If you try to leave the yard and get into the woods, chances are you'll have to go through a raspberry bramble. On the up side, we don't need a fence...the dog doesn't like them either.

Hate the darn things with a passion!

Yep - got those too. We kinda like the raspberries - leave them along our field lines
and get berries in July. Do you have the nasty multiflora roses? Tiny little white blooms
with lots of hips the birds eat and disburse? They get 20'+ tall growing into trees and
root from the tips so the spread quickly too. A friend of my Mom's lost a sheep in a
bunch - poor thing go stuck in the thorns and could not get out. I dig and dig those
things out every year.

Tam

Believe it or not, Hazelnuts (Filberts) are a real pain for me! They drop their nuts, another tree grows. I cut them down over and over. We burn the ones I cut and more grow. We had to have someone come over to rotortil (sp?) an area which we wanted as a "picnic" area and pulled up roots for months! So far they haven't invaded that area again but my woods area is full of them. I thin them every year but it doesn't matter!

Here is a picture before/after I thin them and I'm sure that next year it will look just like the "before" picture.

I HATE THEM!

AFTER:

Are those the same plant as Witch Hazel? I noticed the nut like seeds on them and have wondered if they're edible. The Witch hazels are blooming here now; while the blooms are'nt showy, the fragrance got my attention :) Neal.

I've never really noticed a flower on them. I plan to take some pictures next year of the nut shells themself. They grow in like clumps of 5 or six nuts which are encased in a green frilly thing. It's hard to explain. I tried finding a picture for you quickly but couldn't. In researching Witch Hazel I have come to the conclusion that what I have is definately not Witch Hazel. These are filberts or hazelnuts and they are totally uncontrollable! I will get some better shots of them next year (I had some great photos before we had to re-do the hard drive) and share them with you all. They are terrible! I wouldn't recommend them to anyone (not even my worst enemy). I don't know how to harvest the nuts because they get attacked by borers every year and they are too far to water etc. so they just create havoc out in my woods. I thin the areas every year that border the back yard so they don't take over in the back yard. The pictures are very interesting and I'll be sure to post some next season for you all.

Kim

What you've probably got there is Corylus americana (American filbert) which is native to New England. Interestingly, Corylus avellana (European filbert) was used in Ireland for the specific purpose of penning in sheep (poor little lamb) in a coppiced hedge, which is a fancy word for chopping the top off in order to make the bush fuller. That is also the species with the popular cultivar 'Contorta' aka "Harry Lauder's Walking-stick". Witch hazel is something else entirely, Hamamelis x intermedia (pretty hybrids) or Hamamelis virginiana, common witchhazel. I'm still kicking myself in pants for not picking up "Girard's Orange" when I had the chance, it has orange spidery flowers in March, and a spicy fragrance. I won't pass it up twice, I can tell you that! We have buckthorn here that is a real pain. :-(

I looked up Corylus americana and that is EXACTLY what I have on my land. Thank you so much for the information. They are just awful. And they do get catepillars. I spray them every year. My neighbors house gets covered with catepillars and we just get a few.

Thank you again,
Kim

Kim - yes, we get the roses, too. The rasberry fruit is great for jams and tarts, but the canes drive me buggy. We also have a few wild grape.

The weed trees here are Elms and Sumacs. Two years ago DH cleared off the back berm with a chain saw then burned it off - It is now completely covered in Sumacs. At least they're pretty in the fall. You can see the bright red behind the pond from the house.

PrairieGirl, if you want to take a ride to Rockford you can come identify trees :)

PG, thanks for the info; that clears it up for me. I've found a few hazel nuts on twiggy shrubs in late fall here, but they're not invasive here like they are for Kim. I have'nt known for sure because when I've noticed the nuts the witch hazels had no leaves, so I could'nt compare.

Oh yes - Sumac are definitely imperialists! I once tried to dig one out
to the roots and found out that they colonize by large underground runners.
Its a good stealth technique!
Tam

ss - maybe once school is out, I'll drive out there. Definition of a weed is "a plant out of place", which explains why some people actually plant sumacs, LOL. While fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica) is a suckering shrub, (but not one without merit) if I could find the right spot, I'd plant a staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina, esp. 'Lancinata'), which is a small tree. I really like it's horizontal branching form and I've heard you can make a drink from the fruits, which look like velvety cones. It has great fall color, ferny foliage, and soft velvety new bark. Did you know that there is a cultivar of fragrant sumac 'Gro-low' that is a popular groundcover?