Do you ever buy a plant that you just KNOW will not grow in your garden?
Usually I am pretty good about not doing this. One of the first gardening books that I ever owned was “The Green Tapestry” by Beth Chatto. She is a big advocate for matching the plants you choose to grow; to your soil and garden conditions.
Why give yourself (and your plants) a hard time by trying to grow for example, shade loving plants in the hot sunshine, or vice-versa.
The right conditions are not just about the sun / shade requirements for your plant. There is also the soil quality to take into account. Acidic / Alkaline. Sand or clay. Not forgetting the moisture level of your soil; dry and free draining, or damp and boggy.
In my time I have gardened on sand and gravel, where there was no soil to speak of. Clay, very fertile but damp in the winter and rock hard in the summer. Then there is this garden, where for the most part the soil is good – if somewhat hungry and very stony. With our high rainfall and water running under the garden, it is also damp.
During the winter I was putting in an order for crocosmia, on the grounds that the common montbretia does very well here – we have dug it out by the skip load so I thought I would try some different varieties;- Crocosmia ‘Masonorum’ and Crocosmia ‘Voyager’.
I really must stop shopping on the Internet in the middle of the night when I cannot sleep as I was totally seduced by Eremurus ‘Cleopatra‘ and before you could say “foxtail lily” some had found their way into my virtual shopping basket.
Foxtail lilies come from the dry semi desert mountain ranges in central Asia. To flower successfully they need
Good Drainage
Full Sun
A cold spell in the winter to promote flowering the following year.
I do have a position that has full sun, so if we have a summer this year here in Wales, I can give them full sun.
Although our little micro-climate is warm, I think the winter will be cold enough to encourage them to flower.
Good drainage ….. err, probably not in this garden.
I think that I have also read somewhere that an alkaline soil is best for Foxtail lilies and of course our soil is acidic (which is one of the reasons that azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons grow so well here in West Wales – well the acid soil and the rain).
In my minds eye I can see the beautiful tall spires of the Eremurus making a summer statement in the garden – the reality is, they were not perhaps the best “middle of the night impulse buy” Warm damp winters and poor drainage are not what these plants want or need.
So what am I going to do with them?
Well I am planting them at the very top corner of our garden. Where our West facing house meets next doors South facing wall.
In this right angle they will have their roots baked by the summer sun and I am hoping that this area is also in a rain shadow from the two walls. So any deluges we get will miss this small area of the garden.
My neighbours wall has been re-pointed with lime motor so my biggest fear is not that it will be too acidic but that the soil will be too limy in this area.
However, I have dug a large planting hole for each plant and filled the bottom with well rotted compost and manure. Then in the center of each planting hole I have made mounds of sand and gravel for the crowns of the plants to sit on, with their noses just under the soil.
Will it work?
I have no idea, it will be a case of watch this space, because if they do grow as beautiful as they are in my minds eye – rest assured, you will see them here.
What plants have you bought for your garden, knowing in your heart of hearts that although it may be the right plant it is destined for the wrong place.
Leave a comment and let me know.
Could you not have planted them in a pot? I used only to buy plants which were suitable for my garden* until I realised that I could grow anything I wanted if I put it in a pot. Mind you, I now have about 130 pots, which is beginning to feel rather too many, especially when they all need to be watered, but that is partly because I have been taking divisions and cuttings and not planting new things in the ground since we first started trying to move house, about four years ago …
*Heathers excepted. The lady who was originally going to design my garden told me I couldn’t have heathers in my alkaline soil, but I like heathers, so I ignored her and planted seven of them. I did at least manage to limit myself to lime-tolerant ones, though, and they are thriving
Good luck with the Eremerus!
Juliet´s last blog ..May Contain Nuts
I must admit to being such a disorganized and ignorant gardener that I wouldn’t be able to tell you if I’d grown anything I shouldn’t have, well, except for a few tries at some more exotic things. The snow, you see, has a way of turning up and ruining things. I have tried growing things in pots as Juliet suggested like Agave but I lost that too, the snow and cold again, although I had put it in a sheltered spot. What I don’t understand is why I’ve had problems with Purple Coneflower which I love, which is suppose to be fine here and I’ve lost that too. This year I’m trying to start lots from seed so the odds will be more in my favour. Wish me luck.
Helen at summerhouse´s last blog ..Looking for Plant Sales and Other Treasures
Plant fairs are my downfall. I’m usually quite sensible, but there is something about a plant fair that brings out the reckless idiot in me. Perhaps it’s the fact that I can’t go home and think about it – I have to buy there and then, or miss out. I once bought a Galtonia candicans against my better judgement. I went home, planted it and the next morning came out to find it had been decapitated by snails. (It’s amazing how many people just assume that everyone scatters snail and slug pellets everywhere.)
Most of the time I use your technique and stick to things that do well. But Juliet’s point is a very good one – you can grow almost anything in a pot. (It might have to be a very big pot, though.)
Victoria´s last blog ..Well, he gets my vote
I have no shade, all the trees I have planted are spindly non-shaders as yet. But my downfall is woodland plants that need deep moist shady conditions. My pretty Spigelia marilandica (Indian pink) captivated me but up and died in my open garden. I can’t grow mountain laurels (kalmia) and the list goes on. Someday long after I am gone my yard will be treed and shady and the new gardener living here will be trying to keep my sun perennials alive to no avail!
Laurrie´s last blog ..Come for Breakfast
Good luck!
I know how easy it is to want something… just in case you place it in a nice, protected spot… Keep us posted on the progress here. Otherwise, could you dig it up in the fall and pot it??
Shady Gardener´s last blog ..Green Thumb Sunday – April 25, 2010
Well you’ve talked me round to it… Now you just need to present the arguments to the Foxtail Lily.
Dawn/LittleGreenFingers´s last blog ..Blooming boots
I’m too new to the whole gardening thing that it doesn’t even cross my mind yet! Ha ha
I’ve discovered some plants perhaps not thriving as they should… I like to put that down to planting it when I first moved in before I fully understood the areas of the garden, where it remained dry, wet, sunny etc… lol.
Usually I get natives, and just automatically assume they’ll do fine, since they’re native! Clearly this isn’t the case, but I have been lucky so far.
Good luck with your Foxtail Lily, I’ve had my eye on them too and look forward to seeing photos!
I try not to do this, but like you I get seduced by the gorgeous blooms I see in catalogs. This Foxtail Lily was on my wishlist but I ordered a different variety from Brent & Becky’s Bulbs (local but well known bulb growers) that they recommended. Good luck!
Racquel´s last blog ..Bloomin Tuesday
Since when does a gardener follow the rules
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As it happens I have bought Eremurus isabellinus ‘Pinokkio’. My soil is probably suitable but I have no space so it is sitting in a pot – along with 8 Alliums that should be in the ground too. A pot is my default position when I have made a questionable plant buy. Up to now staring hard at the flower borders has not produced any planting spaces, despite my best efforts.
easygardener´s last blog ..A Famous Belgian
I am known for being weak willed. I have got better at resisting plants that wont work in my garden but seeds is another matter, after all a packet is so so cheap and you never know.
I’m a great believer in giving it a go, after all you never know it might be OK
This rings so many many bells with me! I too try hard to grow only things that suit my soil and position and that rules out loads of things which want deep, moist soil as I have the shallow, stony stuff. Beth Chatto is my bible too and her Dry Garden book is full of plants which would be fine up here. I planted foxtail lilies last year and all five of them are shooting away strongly. My biggest failing is with things that like the good drainage but are just marginally too tender. I lost a romneya coulteri and a melianthus over the winter. In a way neither of them are quite right for up here but I just couldn’t resist trying. Hi ho.
elizabethm´s last blog ..Today in my garden
All the time! Even after years of gardening in a difficult spot…I now plant them in containers or in areas I can keep an eye on! The ones that get me are variegated plants for shade~they prefer moist, well draining soil Ha! Not happening here! gail
Gail´s last blog ..Yummy Buttery Yellow
Oh, I think it’s often worth a try with plants that aren’t a perfect fit. We all know good gardeners compost their mistakes… I’ve been surprised by plants that croaked in (I thought) perfect conditions and others that thrived in less than perfect conditions. Let us know next spring what happened…
I have plants that shouldn’t grow in my conditions but do! Have got lots of plants now for my damp garden only to have had no rain for over 6 weeks. Yes, in Wales. No rain for over 6 weeks. (I thought that was worth repeating). I’m not moaning really. It is lovely to take my book and a cup of coffee out to the garden after work.
She is right no rain for six weeks until sunday when we planned daughter 2s bq for a leaving party. She is at this moment flying to Thailand and maybe coming back in 6 months. Still the magnolia I planted this month should be bigger by then if it survives.
Oh, guilty guilty guilty. My mom has this book, out of print but I finally found a used copy, called “Right Plant, Right Place.” I always intend to use it as my bible and then get weak at plant sales and buy things willy nilly that are so not appropriate. Your story just made me laugh so much. Who could not be seduced by Eremurus? I think the photos from the Chicago blog meet-up made an impression on a lot of us… well, you have given them your best spot, so all you can do is wait and see! When I had a shady garden, I was always trying for sun plants. Now I have a very dry, sunny site and I miss my woodland favorites so am forever losing them to overly dry soil. I think my blootroot did not return, ditto many ferns. Well, the heart wants what it wants, sometimes!
Karen´s last blog ..See It, Want It, Get It
Too many mistakes to detail,sadly,but they do include the elegant foxtail. Now I’m trying to grow herbs in wet clay, digging in grit like my life depended on it…
Acer trees are my downfall. I’ve bought 4 over the years for my paved back garden, which is full of all kinds of container plants – annuals, perennials, shrubs, and some small trees. It’s the only thing I cannot seem to keep alive more than one season. I think they don’t like their roots to get hot or dry – which is difficult to control in a pot. I’m still drawn to them everytime I’m in a Garden Centre… 5th time lucky?
Good luck with your foxtail lilies! I haven’t even tried the acid-loving rhododendrons and such, knowing that my soil isn’t acidic enough for them. I have more problems with plants that look one color in the catalog but turn out very differently in the garden. For this color-scheme-obsessed gardener, that means another pass-along plant for a friend!
VW´s last blog ..April in Spokane and Progress on Front Makeover
I just had a look at the label of some impulse buy that is languishing in a pot until the garden gets fixed. It says “likes a moist, acid, shady area”. Pity that my garden is chalk, dry and sunny!! What was I thinking of? Just had to have it I guess.
Arabella Sock´s last blog ..The New Flame has Come…
There Eremurus is an item that keeps jumping into my virtual shopping cart as well, Karen. We keep trying to grow it, going from place to place to find the right spot. Seeing it used so extensively in Gardens Illustrated doesn’t help either! This is the third group of roots, none ever as large as that nice clump in your hand, that we have ordered and planted. All three are up, one has buds. It will probably bloom while I am in Malvern. Keep trying, never give up is the rally cry!
Frances´s last blog ..April Drive By Ootsing