As a landscape architect, I’m often asked what to think about before bringing a new plant home.
Over the years, I’ve learnt that choosing the right one isn’t just about how pretty it looks at the garden centre – it’s about making sure it will thrive once it’s in your garden.
Before you fall in love with “that plant”, here are three things I always keep in mind when I’m buying for myself or my clients.
1. Right plant, right place.
Do make sure that the plant you have fallen in love with at the garden centre will grow in your garden – that it will have the right soil and position to grow happily. In my opinion, trying to change the soil to grow something which should have different conditions is not worth the effort. An example of this might be trying to grow rhododendrons or azaleas in an alkaline soil and having to repeatedly add soil conditioners to ensure they grow. Believe me, plants will never be happy in that sort of situation and it will show.
2. Don’t (always) believe the label when buying plants.
I have seen Blue Cedar (Cedrus atlantica glauca) and Cider Gum (Eucalyptus gunnii) described as growing eight to twelve feet (2.5 to 3.5m). The RHS records the eventual height of Blue Cedar and Cider Gum as higher than twelve metres (40 feet). Not a plant for your rockery!
3. Expect strange things to happen when you buy plants!
A few years ago, I bought a Fig plant with deeply divided leaves (Ficus carica ‘Ice Crystal’). I carried it back to the car with its leaves poking out of the bag. An hour or so after arriving home, we had a policeman at the front door, saying that they had had a report of someone (me) walking through town with a Cannabis plant! He said that as soon as he saw my garden, with its array of diverse plants, that it wouldn’t be a Cannabis plant.
He duly inspected my wonderful new fig plant and went on his way…
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