Six on Saturday: Preference and Prejudice

Have you ever thought much about why we prefer one plant to another?  We elevate some, like Narcissus, Iris, roses and Camellias to almost cult status.  There are whole international societies of folks who love and grow these plants.  I count myself among those who love and grow them, but don’t have the membership cards in my wallet. 

I did join the Hardy Fern Foundation several years ago to learn more about growing and propagating ferns. It is valuable enough for me to keep renewing that membership each year.  I also joined the Virginia Native Plant Society, and look forward to reading their newsletters and emails, because I learn so much from them.

When choosing plants, we each have our preferences.  Some of us search out certain colors, textures, fragrances and forms.  I want flowers blooming every day of the year and so make sure to plant for winter and early spring flowers.  But I have favorite plants for every season of the year.  Blue and purple flowers always grab my attention.  Some gardeners focus on edible plants, others on shrubs and their lawn. 

There is a growing body of gardeners digging healthy plants out of their landscape to replace them with native plants.  Lately, it has become fashionable, at least in the US, to plant things that bugs will eat.  We are concerned about host plants to feed various larvae and flowers to support the ‘pollinators.’  I do these things and go a step further, to plant perennials and shrubs that provide berries and seeds for the birds.

My discomfort begins when someone declares a plant ‘bad,’ or ‘a pest.’  There are some gardeners who want to sort the plant kingdom into what is acceptable to grow and what is not.  There are voices instructing us to rip out and dispose of those plants deemed objectionable and ‘invasive.’  And this is where conflicts and controversy can arise.

I was solicited to contribute plants to a plant sale recently but told that absolutely no ‘invasive’ plants could be accepted.  Then I was provided with multiple lists of unacceptable plants.  We don’t even have one common list of the ‘invasives’?  Really?

Evergreen Vinca minor feeds native bees and other early pollinating insects in early spring. It is considered ‘invasive’ by many groups.

Some people want to divide the world up into piles of what is acceptable and what is not.  We do it all the time with animals, plants, foods, entertainers, books, and even the people we encounter.  I’ve never found this an easy thing to do where plants are concerned (or with much else, except foods, perhaps.)  I find some redeeming quality in almost any plant, even if only that it produces some oxygen and clears the air.

Every plant has a purpose and a function beyond its simple appearance.  Plants cover the ground, stop erosion, sequester carbon, feed wildlife, create and improve soil, feed us, provide medicine, provide cover and habitat, give shade, and help recycle water.  Whether we label them an ornamental, a weed, a crop, an herb, or an invasive is a human perspective and separate from how they interact with their environment.

Fiddleheads continue to emerge this week as I slowly prune away the old fronds left from last year.

When I took a university economics class last century, we learned about ‘opportunity costs’ and ‘cost-benefit analysis.’  Every plant you grow costs you the opportunity to grow something else, so we try to choose wisely and make the most of the space and resources available for gardening.  Likewise, we must consider what it costs us to grow something v. the benefits it provides. 

I love roses, but the costs of growing them well grew too high, and I stopped planting any more after I made the decision to abstain from spraying insecticides and fungicides in our yard.  If it is impossible to grow them well, why provide that extra attraction to the deer?  When the costs in resources and labor to maintain a plant outweigh its benefits, we’re left with the choice to let it go.

Some plants, like the Akebia and honeysuckle vines I’m still wrangling, cost other plants their very lives by choking them and shading them.  Their roots spread out from every node that touches soil to soak up the moisture and minerals.  I must cut out the vines to preserve the heritage Hydrangeas and Azaleas I want to enjoy.  And perhaps that is the basic conundrum of plants considered ‘invasive.’  If one plant is destroying another, we’re left with a choice to favor one or the other, or let the plants compete on their own terms.

We have been admiring the beautiful pear trees growing all along the highway through our area.  They are absolutely stunning in the early spring when most of the surrounding trees remain bare.  They lift our spirits with their promises of the season to come.  Yet, these Asian ‘Bradford’ pears, Pyrus calleryana, are considered invasive.  The reproduce too freely, grow very quickly, and over compete with more ‘desirable’ native trees.  Birds eat their fruits in late autumn and spread the seeds around generously.  And spring would be much drabber and grayer if someone went and cut them all down.

So many beautiful shrubs and trees that I’ve enjoyed all my life are now considered ‘invasive,’ and have made it to the ‘Bad Plant’ list.  Ditto for perennials like Arum, Ajuga, ivy and Vinca minor.  (Bees have been feeding steadily from those tiny blue Vinca flowers all week.) Their main faults are their adaptability, their persistence, and their ability to compete.  Often these plants are more beautiful and long lasting than the ‘native’ plants they out compete.  And most are functional.  That is why they were planted widely before their reputations went south.

Asian Magnolia liliiflora bloomed this week

We all compete for our space and resources, don’t we?  Humankind competes effectively to claim real estate once devoted to forests, jungles and prairies.  We simply out compete other living creatures with our persistence and our technology.  Have you seen the statistics lately of how many plant and animals have become endangered or extinct over the last 50 years?  What does it say about us when we happily bulldoze a forest to build a subdivision, and then criticize the new neighbors for what they choose to plant?  Invasive species?  Let’s have a conversation about that!

These thoughts run through my mind as I prune and thin my garden beds this spring.  I cast a side-eye at the emerging Solidago, an enthusiastic native that won’t bloom until fall, and consider digging out clumps to plant more pleasing perennials in its place.  I admire the tiny flowers of Vinca, and look at how it over-runs everything where it is allowed to grow in the perennial beds.  I see the seedling Rose of Sharon shrubs growing up through the Solidago, and wonder whether to let them grow and bloom or dig them out.  It is all about the editing, isn’t it?

Well, I have made up my mind to stop trying to destroy the autumn olive shrubs that have valiantly returned again after I cut them to the ground two years ago.  They are evergreen, fragrant in the spring, and produce drupes beloved by the birds.  All the rage in the 80s, they made it to the ‘Invasive’ list some years ago.  I tried to follow suit with my horticultural comrades and dutifully destroy these ‘invasive’ shrubs in my yard.  Now, I’ve reconsidered the choice to follow along with sorting the plants in my yard into right and wrong, good and bad, hated and loved.  My heart is large enough to love them all… almost. 

Our pear tree bears lovely gold pears… if the squirrels don’t get them first.

I wonder sometimes about the individuals who sort out certain plants as ‘invasive’ while tolerating other with similar habits.  I look at the uncounted seedlings popping up all around our Hellebores.  These beautiful perennials grow into thick, evergreen mats of dark green leaves enlivened each winter with nectar rich, long lasting flowers.  I consider European Iris, that spread and spread on their productive rhizomes and grow on generation to generation in old gardens.  A small clump of Alliums planted a decade ago has seeded itself into a ‘matrix’ plant across most of one part of our garden, emerging each spring right through the Vinca.  When they bloom white and lush in August, the butterflies love their nectar. These all persist, tolerate our weather, reproduce freely, and may ‘escape cultivation.’  Yet they are not sorted out as naughty plants, yet-

I’m looking at the function of our garden plants as well as their beauty these days, and I really love those species that mostly look after themselves.  Like the Narcissus, the Vinca, the Arum, and the autumn olive.

This Camellia is blooming for the first time since I planted it out here several years ago, and I had forgotten its form and color until this flower opened on Thursday. I added this photo back in as an ‘extra’ in honor of the Camellia show at RHS Rosemoor today that our host, Jim, is attending. The bare sticks in back and to the left are what is left of a pruned native beautyberry.

With appreciation to Jim Stephens of Garden Ruminations, who hosts Six on Saturday each week.

You might enjoy my new series of posts, Plants I Love That Deer Ignore.

Visit Illuminations Each Day for a daily garden photo and a quotation

Advertisement