'Plant an acorn & wait for an oak' or 'Get it now'??

We were talking on another thread about the cost of plants and I said I was too old to 'Plant an acorn & wait for an oak'. How do you all feel about it?

I realize there are plenty of you who just don't have the money to spend on plants and, believe me, I've been there. But I'm not raising a family any more, I have a decent job, and I don't 'need' anything else. So now I can spend money on plants if I want to. And I DO want to. And I am willing to spend more for larger, more established plants. I am also willing to spend more to get the cultivars I want.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for saving money. I'm wintersowing my perennials and some annuals this year. And I do shop around. I also am more than happy to get the plants I want for Christmas/birthday/Valentine's Day gifts.

let me hear from you :0)

gram ~a girl~

here's a rather pricey dwarf japanese snow pine I fell in love with that is now residing in my heather garden

I'm all for saving money too but I want what I want and I will get it one way or the other! Spoiled!! I am not one for frilly things, im a very simple person and very seldom ask for anything. So....when I do ask...I get it! (not really spoiled, but kind of) LOL

Gram, I'm right with you on this one. This past year I fell in love with roses. Never had one before and actually avoided them having been told they were difficult plants. Well I took the plunge this past April on a rose and then I started buying and buying and buying more. I spent more money this year on gardening than I have in the past twenty combined. But, I feel that I've earned it through many years of hard work and pinching pennies AND finally found a good guy that is actually responsible about finances. BUUUUTTT, I'm not going to give away my retirement money either and as I'm quickly approaching the half century mark, I cannot wait for that acorn. So I pick and choose. I have hoards of wintersown seeds out back. Two bucks for 20 or 100 seeds as compared to some nurseries that want 8 or 9 dollars for one perennial. Seeds are great and I don't feel the need for instant gratification like I would for a certain rose or hydrangea. I don't think I have ever written such a long post. wow.
ps...did you get the seeds ?

Gram... I am amazed of how expensive it can be... I spoke with a co-worker (she gave me tons of lillies and hostas last year) and she told me that it's worse in the beginning... but then you get a small green house and the fun is to grow things from seeds... I am not so sure...

venu...you've got D-mail. I'm so glad you got hooked on roses. How could you not love them? I think the 'fussy' rep comes from the hybrid teas. and there are so many others that don't have the problems. I have 53 roses on order for spring and 4 already hanging out in my garage. I need more practice at rooting cuttings so I can get in on the exchanges. Now THAT's a good deal!

Kass, I think getting the small greenhouse is going to be expensive, too. Although I'd love it. I don't think I need one for seed-starting, but I would like to be able to have plants in pots that are not 'zone friendly' and have an easy place to over'winter them.

Pixie, I hear ya! I think we're on the same wave length. Don't need those diamond earrings, but sure would like that new peachy daylily

Hey, where's pirl?? she asked me to start this thread! PIRL!

btw, that 1' snow pine was $110. here's the most expensive rose I've ordered, but I HAD to have it ($20...not that bad) Doorenbos Selection

I was always more of an acorn guy. I plant a lot of seeds.I also buy a lot of plants but I buy small like from Bluestone perennials or Graceful Gardens. My DW always made fun of me, especially when it came to trees & shrubs. She would say " I want something to serve as a screen and you're going to plant little sticks. I want something that will be nice while I'm still alive" I'd say "That's not gardening, it's interior decorating in the yard!"

gram, you have no idea how right you are! Was indeed offered diamond earrings for Christmas, turned them down for gift cert. for plants instead. But it wasn't a peach daylily...it was pink! LOL

Dave, you should put that in the quotes thread LOL I was always the frugal one and my DH was the opposite, but I've learned ;0) And that's exactly what I want...exterior decorating. Move it in and look pretty.

Interesting to watch my next-door neighbors who have gardening tastes very similar to ours. But they pick up bargain plants at the end of the season. 2 years ago they got a redbud that was nothing but a 2' stick. it's finally got a couple branches and some leaves after 2 yrs of coddling. if I get one I want to see it bloom the next spring.

BTW Gram, I meant to mention how beautiful that rose is. Love the color!!

pix, me, too. I think it may be more on the red side in person from what I hear. But I know it's a deep rich color.

Jan ~a~ gram,
That sort of looks like the korean pine 'silver ray' I saw at the arboretum. Glad to see you didn't just stick your little Charlie Brown tree out in the middle of the lawn like most people.

I can wait a few years for a plant to reach maturity. I guess the problem would be that if I have to wait too long for a plant to reach it's full size it will probably loose the space it needs by then.

I do seed all my annuals though - I can wait 8 weeks or so for flowers if I am busy with other stuff.

Those acorns develop into good size oaks in a just a few years.

Splurge on the slow growing, rarer plants if that is what you want. I'd go with seed and small plants on the more common, faster growing plants.

What gets me is the difference between a one gallon and a three gallon Japanese maple. There is probably one year difference but the price is usually more than tripled (3 gallon sometimes looks like the 1 gallon was just moved up a few weeks earlier). Give me the one gallon and in two years it will usually be bigger than the 3 gallon planted at the same time. I think the smaller plants just settle in a lot better to their new locations. Less stress?

Al, it's Pinus parviflora 'Tani-mano-uki', the spring buds are pink, open white and turn green. It's supposed to be REALLY pretty in the spring. I have a total of 15 dwarf conifers in that heather bed now. More to come. Here's another pricey one that makes DH (and probably the neighbors) think I'm nuts. kinda unusual growth pattern. bright red cones in the spring

edit: forgot the name Picea abies 'Acrocona'


This message was edited Jan 29, 2007 7:50 AM

gram - I'm here and I thank you for starting this thread. Your new plants look grand. How wide and tall will the 'Acrocona' get? The rose is beautiful!

Like you and others I'm just not the patient acorn person. When I buy daylilies I buy from places that send me double or triple (sometimes more) fans - I want clumps and want to see them in bloom. I'm just not content receiving a single fan and waiting a few years. We've done that over 1,000 times with our own hybrids and while it was fun to see what we got now I'm happier to buy the colors and shapes I want instead of hoping to get great eyes, edges, or unusual forms.

I have no problem with those who want to wait or don't mind waiting - it's just not where I am at this point and age. As I understand it, isn't that the point of this whole thread?

(The daylily garden pictured here)

Hi, pirl. your house was made to have daylilies in front of it! wonderful!!

the acrocona is a slow grower...to 8' at 10 yrs. I've had it 2 yrs and I'm guessing it was 4-5 yo when I got it. the pic was taken right after it was planted. some sites I've looked at say it never gets any taller than that. I've also seen quoted widths up to 10', but mine is about 5' tall and maybe half as wide. I've seen pics of some that may be 10' wide.

hcmcdole, that's it exactly. When you start out the way I did 4 yrs ago with nothing but clay & rocks (not even weeds LOL), things need to get moving. Now that I've got some things going, I'm starting annuals and some perennials from seed. I think what you said about 1 gal vs 3 gal plants might depend on where you buy them. a 3gal plant at one nursery might have just been moved up from a 1gal pot. at another nursery it might be ready to be moved to a 5 gal. and some plants might adjust better at a younger age, but that's not always true either. gotta know your plants and use your judgment I guess.

That is true on judgement and knowing your plants. Could be something to do with location as well (I guess that is why the tropics can grow almost anything by sticking a cutting in the ground). Things grow pretty quick here so I tell most new gardeners (in our area) not to waste their money on more mature plants because they just seem to sit there for a year or two putting their roots down (or dying).

On advantage to buying small is that you can find out whether or not the deer will like the plant before you go all out and buy something larger. Assuming that deer would Canadian Hemlock, (Idon't know why I assumed this just because the neighbor down the road has a beautiful specimen) I bought a nice Sargeant's Weeping Hemlock that at half price in November was still pricey. Those wood goats came right through and turned it into a stick last night.

A couple of years ago, I put in a nice large section of fancy winterberry cultivars which were gorgeous until those winged angels of death that we eat at Thanksgiving came through and ate all the berries before even the first snow fall. Oh.....don't get me wrong, I just love all those cute furry and winged beasts. (We put peanut butter on the electric fence at work just to vary their diets.) It just seems to make sense, now, why old appliances and cars proliferate in the front yards of rural Maine. There the only things that seem to survive the onslaught of wildlife.

That having been said, I guess I should just go out and buy a nice Subzero for the yard.

I feel for you Buckthorne. When I moved to this house (in the suburbs of Atlanta), I would've never thought we'd have deer. One morning shortly after I started moving my plants over from the other house, I noticed half of one of my hostas was missing. Yep, Bambi came for lunch. I now have to use bird netting to keep my last hosta alive. Even a five foot fence won't keep them out but maybe if I let the dog run, it'll keep them in other people's yards. It was bad enough with the tree rats and rabbits.

I wonder if that is part of the reason a lot of trees have drain hoses wrapped around the small tree trunks here? I thought it was for sun scald.

well, since I am new at this, I can just say that I hope to have fun gardening and don't loose anything. I keep going outside and looking at the overgrown bushes and I am dreaming of pulling then out and planting other ones... small enough not to take a lot of place. I don't think I care very much for bushes... well unless they have flowers!!!!

luckily, I have no deer problems (sorry, Buck). no rabbits so far, although I don't expect that to last (the only one I've seen is one frozen in the snow tail up). voles...detest the little vermin (ugh!). They have developed a habit of kamikazi missions...jumping into my pool & drowning. I really hate fishing dead stuff out of my pool (dbl ugh!!)

so I'm back to buying what I want when I want. yea! everybody has their own considerations.

I am a bratt... just ordered 8 new microminis from Uncommom rose... well, so I guess I order what I want... and now!!!! but luckly these plants are never going to be big anyway so no matter what size they come, they will be small!!!!

As long as they're right for you, Kassia, it's ideal.

Gram - Thankfully, I'm without deer also. They roam right up to our next door neighbor's property but haven't munched or lunched on any of our plants. We have noticed their calling cards, about once a year in winter, but no damage.

hcmc - dogs will keep the deer away but eventually most dogs come in at night and the deer begin their rampages long before dawn.

Buckthorne - thanks to you I now know why I see old autos at the front of many properties in Maine. Here I was believing they were getting ready for some kind of car sale to take place similar to the mile long yard sales I've heard about!

I have tons of deer around... they ate my roses this past fall, and I have seen tracks near the knock outs but they didn't eat them,,, I am planting tons of good smelling stuff around so they don't come close anymore... they are so beautiful, but not eating my roses!!!!

pirl,
If you ever get to stop at those "mile long" yard sale, do. On the way to Bar Harbor, in Ellsworth I believe, is a big one that is actually called a "flea market". Always wondered why they called them that?? Anyways, I bought a round, 3 tiered marble top table w/cherry wood for $19.95 when I was expecting child #5. It's almost 20 years later and it is still beautiful and sturdy. My DMIL was a bargin shopper and she had no problem dickering w/the sellers! He originally wanted $29.95 for it, I was amazed at the deals this woman walked away with!!

BTW....no old auto's on this Mainer's land. The wildlife have never come face to face w/me before I've had my coffee. I'm fairly good w/my slingshot and it wouldn't be pretty.

I like your captions from back then - so subtle ;)~ Looks like a weeping Norway spruce, I keep looking at the weeping tamarack but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

We have friends in Scarborough and no autos are on lawns anywhere around Portland or Scarborough that we saw. They seem to be, naturally, in the more wooded areas. We LOVE Ellsworth and my feet are resting on a cast iron footstool I bought at the corner store, J & B Atlantic, from which you can see Town Hall, across the street from the great breakfast place, The Riverside Cafe.

Fattening but good!

I'm just starting a new garden this year (after living in rented quarters for 10), and my budget pretty well forces me into the "plant an acorn" camp, despite having just turned 54. I'll be able to scrape up a starter assortment of perennials from friends, from my own former garden (still owned by my ex), and from seeds. But to acquire woody plants that will make up the backbone of the garden, I'm relying mostly on tiny young plants from Forestfarm.

There are plenty of deer in the area -- it's near a state park and lots of open rural land -- but there are also coyotes, and freshly cleared development land to browse, so I'm hopeful that the pest population will be kind of thinned-out.

My eccentric personal indulgence (and potential flashpoint with deer) is bamboo. I've spent years now on a quest for satisfactory winter-hardy bamboo. I've found a few species that will survive coastal Maine winters -- with varying degrees of success, reliability, and midwinter attractiveness -- and I really want to make these a strong feature of my new garden.

Over the years that I've owned the property, while waiting to get some money to build on it, I've done trial plantings of various kinds, with exactly the sort of success:failure ratio that makes gardening such an adventure. The biggest single disaster was the next-door neighbor clearing out some extra space in his backyard and hurling the debris (including fair-sized trees) into my "undeveloped" lot, crushing a bunch of mountain laurels and rhododendrons I had arrayed near the property line -- tiny specimens of the "plant an acorn" variety -- that I had hoped would make, over time, a gentle sort of screen.

I was kind of depressed that year anyway, what with the state of my novel-writing career at the time, so I barely paid attention -- though it pisses me off in retrospect. My neighbor's reward is that the gentle screen of kalmia and rhododendron has given way to a planting of two bamboo species -- Phyllostachys bissettii, which is rock-hardy though graceful and airy, and a plant I collected as a small runner in Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC, where it had escaped the confines of the National Zoo, which I believe to be Phyllostachys nuda -- that will in a few years, if all goes well, become quite a lively issue over there.

"Lively issue" is a certainty!

My family has had 'lively issues' with neighbor's bamboos. My Aunt actually went to court over it as the neighbor didn't contain the bamboo and it started pushing up their laid stone patio. The neighbor is now responsible for damages and must contain their bamboo.

Bamboo should definitely be contained. I have 3 different types all in 22" pots (actually 5 if you add in the dwarf type). It can quickly spread if it is the running type and take over several yards in no time.

Here is a morning glory I just had to have. Bought the seeds on ebay, they come all the way from Japan. Now if they grow to look just like what the seller said they would, i'll be very happy indeed. I spent way to much on a packet of 5 seeds, but like I said, I just had to have em!

Good for you, pixie. It's a sign of good mental health to treat ourselves well.

Hi, pixie... if they these morning glories make it, save some seeds... I will buy it from you! so far the only seed I have any luck growing are morning glories!!!!

Pix, I understand. It's a beauty. good luck with it! we will expect pictures. :0)

Mental health can go either way pirl! LOL
Kassia,if I am lucky enough to get some seeds, I will happily share with you.
Gram, know how you like pinks, I got a hot pink to go w/the spots in the one above. Then I got a Mt. Fugi Pink mix that has several hues of pinks and pinks w/white stripes.
I also came across some beautiful lemon yellow MG seeds that I had never heard of, so i bought them to go w/some baby blue w/yellow throats.
Then I bought hubby a book on how to make trellis's. (big grin)

You deserve an award for persevering and the gift for hubby was just so thoughtful of you. It's good to keep them busy and out of trouble.

I have some less than favorable soil conditions, so rather than invest in expensive plants, then shell out a lot more to amend the soil, I go with small seedlings and let them establish themselves over a span of a few years. I'm not attached to where I currently live and plan on moving in the next few years, so I really don't have the desire to spend lots of money landscaping. What's nice about my situation is that it's taught me a lot about seed propagation and how to find bargains.

You're 100% right. On the plus side you're learning what you do and don't like and what you'd want for a garden in the future - all excellent things to know in advance of a purchase.

Well, clearly the bamboophobes in this thread have never tried overwintering a Phyllostachys in Maine. And I don't blame them. But really, horror stories from Zone 7 are totally irrelevant up here.