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Stop Telling Me It’s Easy!

April 24, 2009 by Jeanne

I’m just about fed up with well-meaning folks who tell me that this plant or another is so easy to grow.

The sweet old lady at Lowe’s who told me: “Blueberries are SO easy to grow here in southern Virginia. My sister in law’s place is just full of them.”

Mine dropped dead within days (I think it might have been hours) of their roots touching down. I felt like the Medusa of the garden, turning my blueberries to withered brown sticks.

The gardening “expert” who responded to my enthusiasm for poppies with, “Well go ahead! They’re so easy to grow, they just grow about anywhere.”

Anywhere must exclude my garden. I have the great poppy massacre in my garden. Two died, one hangs on and refuses to die. I moved it from its unhappy spot near the roses up to the front, full sun island of perennials and shrubs on the lawn. I hope it’s going to be happy. But really, easy? Not in my garden.

The climbing shell flowers that Jefferson is said to have grown at Monticello? Can’t even find their remains. The bleeding hearts installed in the shade garden? One struggling specimen out of five lived to tell the tale. The Virginia bluebells purchased by mail order? What Virginia bluebells? They never even made an appearance.

When you tell a gardener, new or experienced, that something is EASY to grow, the implication – unintended, I’m sure, but there nonetheless – is that if the plant dies: it’s YOUR fault.

Saying something is ‘easy’ to grow implies that it will grow – and doubles the disappointment when it doesn’t.

Next time someone asks you for an opinion on whether or not this plant or that one belongs in the garden, instead of gushing about easy it is to grow, talk about its hardiness. Enthuse about how you ran over it with the lawn mower and it lived to tell another tale. Regale your enthusiastic gardening friend with the story of how you accidentally dug up your iris before they emerged and you unintentionally split the roots only to have it redouble its blooms that year.

The truth is always that each garden is unique. Soil, light, nutrients, water conditions…many factors influence whether a plant will grow, flourish or die. Even the most tolerant plants will falter if conditions aren’t right.

Thus my blueberries and poppies didn’t like something about my garden. Unlike the coreopsis, which I am STILL picking out of every nook and cranny from where it self seeded in the flower bed, these aren’t “easy” plants to grow for me. They will take more effort, and I need to decide whether the effort is worth the reward.

But really, please spare me the “it’s so easy any fool could grow it” wisdom.

I may be a fool, but I couldn’t grow it!

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Comments

  1. Daffodil Planter

    April 24, 2009 at

    I’ve had a lot of luck with dandelions!

    Don’t put in any Daphne right now–they are so finicky that they’ll put you into a complete garden decline.

  2. Bangchik and Kakdah

    April 25, 2009 at

    I was about to laugh reading the first few para…. because my all my sunflower seeds fail to germinate….! haha… cheers! ~ bangchik

  3. Andrea

    April 25, 2009 at

    I’m sure you’ve tried the soil test but Im wondering what trees you have surrounding you that could possibly be helping along with your ‘killing spree’ or massacre as you put it 😉

    I always give my customers the hardest times when they walk into the greenhouse and saythey kill everything. I tell show them some plants and say “if you can kill this, thank you’re really Good.

    Blue berries die in three days – lack of water (which I highly doubt you just shoved them into the ground and walked away “see ya suckers! No water for you! ha!”) it may be fussy root deals (aka if you disturb the root, they keel over and die).

    Its never ‘easy’ per say. more like, correcting a problem. Over at our house, oh we live in solid CLAY. If we don’t throw bags of soil into the ground and mix it all up with what is there, it WILL DIE. hah.

    By the way, I loved your post. Nice and honest, down to earth. It was great. Definitly a pick for me and a fave! I think Ive went off and rambled here. I don’t get to read too many blogs but this one caught my eye 😉

    Good luck with the poppies. They love to dry out haha. LOVELY plants though.

  4. keewee

    April 25, 2009 at

    Sorry you are having such a difficult time getting things to grow. I also know first hand how frustrating it can be to be told how easy something is to grow. a couple of plants I tried twice to get them to grow, I finally gave up and stopped wasting money on them, and tried to find something which will do well here in my garden. I am finally getting the hang of it.

  5. Kim and Victoria

    April 25, 2009 at

    I get ya. We’ve planted many Hakonechloa (Japanese Forest Grass) plants. None around to tell the tale.

  6. Janet

    April 25, 2009 at

    I feel your pain.. ;-D I bought some oriental poppies last year, still have the tags in the ground to remind me where they WERE!! I do however have annual poppies coming up from reseeding themselves last year. (I forgot to scatter seeds I collected before Thanksgiving). Had a small patio blueberry for a number of years….it really needed lots of sun.
    thought of you this week as we drove to SC, went down 85 and crossed the Appomattox River

  7. Jeanne

    April 25, 2009 at

    Thank you ALL for your funny, witty and insightful comments. Just to answer a few…

    1) Soil: yup, soil’s been tested in the flower garden. Soil in the veg & fruit gardens is new, that is we put in raised beds and filled them with bagged soil, compost and rotted manure, so I’ve no doubt the soil is good (everything else is thriving). Plus we put in new irrigation and are using it and have had good rains this spring, so I’m not sure why the blueberries keeled over. Their next door neighbors are my strawberries and they are going great.

    2) I know hollyhocks are biennials; but these were not started from seed. They came as roots. I’ve got a feeling they aren’t “true” hollyhocks. By the way, I planted Peaches & Cream hollyhocks from seed and they are in year 2 and I can’t WAIT until they bloom. They are thriving. It’s this particular variety that really does look like a weed.

    3) We are surrounded – and I mean surrounded – by loblolly pine. This was a timber farm for the past 20-30 years. So the soil is very acidic. Sorry if I seemed like everything is dying. It’s not. Actually, most of the flower garden is doing great.

    4) Andrea you are RIGHT about the poppies – they hated the rose garden because we were always watering over there. However, the one sole survivor that I moved to our sunny, dry garden in the middle of the lawn is also looking miserable. We’ll just see what it does. It it survives, it’s going to be a nice addition to the yellow & red theme I’ve got going up there.

    5) Janet, I am going to get poppy seeds!

    Thanks and happy gardening to ALL!

    Have a beautiful day!

    Jeanne

  8. Jeanne

    April 26, 2009 at

    Hi Damaria, thanks so much for the comment. And thanks for letting me know you found me through FWJ! (I love that site!). Marigolds are very hardy in most gardens and I wish you luck with them. I even save seeds from them and replant them. Good luck with your garden and come by again soon!
    Jeanne

  9. vuejardin

    April 26, 2009 at

    I have to grow blueberry in a large flower pot to let it stable down before transfer it to the ground.
    You poppy flowers are so beautiful, I used to have pink color poppy in my garden.

  10. Jeanne

    April 27, 2009 at

    Thank you for stopping by. Alas, but this poppy is not my own, it is a photo from a free photo sharing site.

    Although I DID transplant the last surviving poppy to a hot, dry sunny bed…and it seems to like it there. Is there hope for my poppy? I think so!

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