When Plants Disappoint Us

When plants disappoint us, sometimes it is due to our own stubbornness. My own experience with blue poppies is a case in point. I first saw them in the Thuja Gardens of Northeast Harbor, Maine, while my wife and I were on our annual vacation in the Bar Harbor area. We fell in love with these blue beauties instantly and vowed to grow some in our own yard. So we scoured the garden centers in Maine in search of blue poppies, bought some, and planted them when we returned home.

They died.

Undaunted, we tried again next year, even after researching them further and learning that they prefer the type of conditions that coastal Thuja Gardens offers in abundance: a cool, misty climate. We paid for our stubbornness, because they died -- again. Alas, we do not have cool, misty conditions where we live, inland.

Other times, plants disappoint us simply because we are too impatient. You've heard the expression that so-and-so "will grow into the job"? Well it's true of some plants, too (literally). We need to give them some time to settle in before pronouncing judgment on them.

For example, I remember being disappointed, initially, with Lenten rose. I wondered what people saw in it. Problem was, I had simply jumped the gun in judging it. Once my plant became established enough to "show its stuff," it became a favorite among my spring flowers.

But there's another way in which plants can disappoint us, and this instance of disappointment has its roots in the current time of year. As Jamie McIntosh puts it, winter is the time of year when desperate gardeners pore over garden catalogs and "hunger to find a kernel of truth in some of the spectacular descriptions and photos." This humorous blog post from About.com's Guide to Flowers contains what is probably the only juxtaposition you will ever see of Sea-Monkeys and flowers!

On another note: Rock Garden Plants