This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Plant Snobs, common plants used poorly

Tim Dutton wrote:
> 
> Sean O'Hara wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> I do fault the large number of nurseries who market plants inappropriate to
> our climate, and market anything they can sell without regard for the final
> outcome of the garden involved.
> 
> I agree Sean. This problem is not limited to California! My wife and I have
> had to resort to carrying heavy garden encyclopedias around on plant buying
> expeditions so we can check whether a plant sold locally is frost tolerant.
> It amazes me the number of times I have found a plant that cannot tolerate
> any frost being sold in a garden centre in a town that gets frosts around
> 30 nights per year on average!
> 
> The other thing I take exception to is the plant label that states that a
> particular tree will grow to 6 x 4 metres, when I know it will grow to 20 x
> 15 given time. Some poor person is going to have to cut out a lot of
> expensive trees in ten years time because of this, but never mind, the
> nursery got its money.
> 
Hi Tim 
The convention (at least in NZ) is, so I understand, that catalogue
heights  and heights on labels are approximately what one may expect
after 10 years and by no means the ultimate dimensions. I have an idea
that one of the old catalogues (? Duncan and Davies) used to mention
this.

I have no idea how this curious convention arose. Perhaps, as you imply,
they were banking on people always moving on every ten years and leaving
someone else to deal with the problem!

Cheers

Moira
-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Both Retired. Careers were: Moira - botanist/horticulturist; 
Tony - Various jobs, then computer programmer.
Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index