Thoughts on sustainable landscape design intended to demystify! We all seek the same thing for our gardens: beauty, function and a gentle footprint on the land. One-half practitioner, one-half teacher, one-half low-brow humor. Come on in...
Friday, December 5, 2008
Five Plants I Hate...
For a quick, silly read, check my bi-weekly on-line column at Santa Barbara's very own news and events website...Edhat.com.
Intersting bottom 5, I personally love impatiens LOL. For this part of the country, goutweed is 1st on my list, then forsythia,sky rocket junipers,muscari,and finally any plant sold that doesn't survive in the zone I live in but garden centers push them.
Lovely article, written by a true writer. Can we add anything orange, especially mums, and barberry? And frankly, I'm not a rose fan, any kind. That's three. Uh--though I have tulips, black and white, I generally don't like them. I put mine in between miscanthus so they are a surprise to see in spring winds. And finally, a design issue--people who put one strip of some tiny, sickly, overstressed shrub on both sides of the driveway, mulched with white stone.
Great article... our climates are obviously quite similar, because the plants I would suggest are probably similar, except I would add Pandanus tectorius - interesting while its still small, but turns into a nightmare later. Also, Acalypha, and Croton have been over-done in the past, and now Duranta "Sheena's Gold" is following suit.
1. Bishop's Weed 2. Lily of the Valley (yes - they smell nice when in bloom but after that the plants are NASTY) 3. Veronica 'Sunny Border Blue' (Flowers do that strange, post-Chernobyl splitting thing and the bottoms brown out) 4. English Ivy (landscaping, houses and small children can DISAPPEAR) 5. Bishop's Weed (SO not nice I list it twice)
Intersting bottom 5, I personally love impatiens LOL. For this part of the country, goutweed is 1st on my list, then forsythia,sky rocket junipers,muscari,and finally any plant sold that doesn't survive in the zone I live in but garden centers push them.
ReplyDeleteLovely article, written by a true writer. Can we add anything orange, especially mums, and barberry? And frankly, I'm not a rose fan, any kind. That's three. Uh--though I have tulips, black and white, I generally don't like them. I put mine in between miscanthus so they are a surprise to see in spring winds. And finally, a design issue--people who put one strip of some tiny, sickly, overstressed shrub on both sides of the driveway, mulched with white stone.
ReplyDeleteGreat article... our climates are obviously quite similar, because the plants I would suggest are probably similar, except I would add Pandanus tectorius - interesting while its still small, but turns into a nightmare later. Also, Acalypha, and Croton have been over-done in the past, and now Duranta "Sheena's Gold" is following suit.
ReplyDeleteBuckthorn, buckthorn, garlic mustard, damesrocket, and honeysuckle!
ReplyDelete~ Monica
1. Bishop's Weed
ReplyDelete2. Lily of the Valley (yes - they smell nice when in bloom but after that the plants are NASTY)
3. Veronica 'Sunny Border Blue' (Flowers do that strange, post-Chernobyl splitting thing and the bottoms brown out)
4. English Ivy (landscaping, houses and small children can DISAPPEAR)
5. Bishop's Weed (SO not nice I list it twice)