Plants--Opinions, Offerings, and Blessings

You're in for a treat if you follow this link.  I've written about this Memorial Rose Garden here before, and here's another person's perspective--on the front page of our local newspaper.  This article illustrates just one of the ways in which plants are a blessing.

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I have several plants I'd like to offer an interested local person.

First, the comfrey.  I have two fairly large clumps I'm willing to part with.  I'd like $4.00 for each, since that's what the baby plants cost me originally, including having them shipped from a herbalist in Pennsylvania.  This plant is a perennial in the medicinal herb category.

I also have two hanging baskets available that used to hang in the Learning Center at Pilgrim/Cedar Crest.  One contains a heart-leaf philodendron plant and the other has a Hoya vine.  Neither is large or overpowering or particularly fast-growing.  I'd like first dibs on the baskets themselves at some future time when I might have a use for them, since the watering opening on the side makes these baskets rather expensive to replace and very convenient.  There's a reservoir in the bottom of the pot, and filling the reservoir with water allows the water to wick up as needed, preventing over-watering or drying out--as long as there's water present.  For now, if you want it you can take it--free.  I don't have room to hang them in my house.

Email, call, or message me on Facebook if you're interested in any of these plants.

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The "opinion" part is what I would have said to my Home Environment class students if I had thought far enough when we talked about the various landscaping principles our text introduced.   In the class, we talked mostly about planning and planting landscapes.  We should probably have talked more about maintaining them.  Here are some of the specific things I wish they knew.

When you plant a row or a patch of the same plant, the goal usually is for that area to be perceived as a single unit.  Individual plants hopefully will lose their identity in the whole when the plants are mature.  In order for this to happen, the outer margins of each plant should intermingle with the outer margins (usually branches or foliage) of the adjacent plants.  The function of such plantings usually is to create a background for showcasing other plants, to provide contrast or harmony with other kinds of plants, to make hard surfaces feel less forbidding (by obscuring them with soft plant material), to simplify maintenance and limit expense (e. g. groundcovers instead of mulch), or simply to increase the impact of the special features of the plants--interesting leaves or flowers, for example,  In such a scenario, proper maintenance calls for basically leaving the mass alone.

The only good reasons I can think of for shearing background plants or digging up plants in a ground-cover-like mass are these:

Background plants:

1.  The plants are encroaching on other valuable plants.
2.  The density makes them susceptible to disease.
3.  They interfere with maintenance or use of a structure.
4.  They obscure a desirable view from a window.
5.  They shut off light to interior rooms.
6.  They interfere with opening windows.

To be avoided is trimming such background plantings so that each plant is isolated from its neighbors.  The only plants that deserve such isolation are accent plants.  These are placed strategically to draw attention to themselves, marking something important nearby--such as an entrance or doorway, etc., or to help create structure and "architecture" in a large planting.  Accent plants should be used very sparingly.

Here's an example from our own place.  More than 25 years ago Hiromi brought home some yews to plant on the north side of the house, along the walkway leading to the front door.  I was not particularly pleased with the selection, since I saw that the mature size was a lot bigger than the space, and I knew we'd have to do a lot of trimming to keep them from overwhelming the sidewalk and the window on the wall behind the planting.  But I did like yews and the north side of the house was the best place for yews, so we planted them.  They were pretty and easy to keep within bounds for the first number of years.  Then we moved away.

When we got back, those yews were enormous.  They obscured about a third of the window, and we had to keep hacking away at them to have any walking space left on the sidewalk.  Finally, early this summer, Hiromi hacked away at them till they were gone.

In their place we planted three plants.  Near the front door we planted a Nandina, or Heavenly Bamboo.  It grows tall and skinny and has attractive leaves and scarlet fruit.  It's our accent plant.  Beside the single Nandina we planted two low-growing boxwoods.  They have small shiny leaves, and boxwoods do well on the north side of a building.  Right now they're not very big, and the plants are clearly separate, but eventually we hope they grow into a short "row" leading to the Nandina.  They will also function as background for the flowers we have on the other side of the sidewalk.

Groundcover Plants

When a mass of low-growing plants completely fills in the space between them, they've accomplished their purpose--covering the ground.  The only reasons some of them might need to be dug up are these:

1.  They're diseased and ugly and you don't like them anymore and want to get rid of them altogether.
2.  You want to propagate the plants in order to plant some in another area.
3.  You really want to display beautiful  mulch between the plants (just kidding--I can't imagine wanting this, but that is the result sometimes--simply having to buy more mulch or do more weeding)
4.  They're encroaching on other plants around the perimeter of the planting.

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The corners of a a building call for special plant treatment--the use of softening plants.  These are plants whose function is to soften harsh architectural lines.  Corners of a building are always harsh architectural lines and the building looks best when these lines are softened with plant material.  In practical terms, what this means is that any plants that are preserving this function should usually be left alone to do their job--filling in inside corners and providing background for what is planted in front of it, or spreading around outside corners.  They are usually bushy spreading plants--shrubs or small trees, and they look best if their height is maintained in a pleasing proportion to the building.  Either one-third the height of the distance to the eaves, or two-thirds the distance looks good--varying somewhat according to the surrounding plantings and the height of the building.  Corners should never be accented.

Trimming of corner plants should be limited to times when building maintenance can't be performed otherwise, when the plant gets too tall, or when it overwhelms other valuable plants.  If it's unhealthy, trimming may be part of helping to restore its health.  Visually exposing the corner of the building is never a good reason for trimming or removing a corner plant.

I've labeled this section the opinion section, but I'm really quoting what I've learned from people who are a lot more knowledgeable than I am about such matters.  A class Hiromi and I took more than 30 years ago from the county horticulture agent was my introduction to landscaping principles.  The textbook we used then is the same one used in the Home Environment class I've taught at Pilgrim.  Doing it differently than the experts recommend is not a sin of course, but I consider it a shame because it diminishes beauty.  In this case avoiding the shame is often very easy:  Leave healthy plants alone.