Re: philosophical question


I'm wondering one thing about collecting - is it a cultural phenomenon? I notice that English gardens of the past focused on collections of plants as the British were ruling the waves. Older Japanese gardens didn't have this focus, neither Moorish or renaissance Italian or French tried to be vast collections. Did Roman gardens try to have plants from all of the Roman Empire? Maybe they did.

Anyway, fill me in. Is everyone out there a plant collector? Is it necessary?

Steve French


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(I have a French line in my background, A Lt. Josiah French in the Revolutonary War and his daughter Betsy!)

Collecting is a cultural phenomenon. Witness, stamps, coins, paintings, sculpture, old guns, etc etc.

As for plants, everyone is collector. What differs is their interests and their goals.

As for me, I found the bromeliads to be a most unusual group. Also it is a small group of around 2800 species so one can make a sizable per cent collection in a relatively small space. I have an ordinary city lot and I have probably 10% of the recognized species.
But I have a number of non-bromeliad plants as well. So I would say I'm a collector of plants that are available to me that I feel are unusual. As I have probably said elsewhere, I like to carry them through from the starter plant to the seed and then death phases. Once I have done that, I tend to lose interest in that plant unless it is, shall I say, rather flamboyant or remarkable is some way.

I don't quite know what to make of your statement "Is it necessary?".

Nothing is necessary outside of Death and Taxes. "Collecting" seems to be unnecessary to you. But it would seem you are casting aspersions on "collectors" which seems to me you limit to people that collect in one family.
You too are a collector but your goal is to find plants that group well to present a decorative area. I think my wife has a bit of that also.
But I have a very mild interest in the aggregate appearance of our plants. My eye tends to flit from one interesting plant to another interesting plant. And bromeliads are not predictable bloomers and often not ostentatious bloomers so one has to be watchful. Some of them are rather shy.
Acanthostachys pitcairnioides has long thin rounded leaves that are almost grass-like. I almost missed the bloom because I wasn't expecting it to be so unobtrusive but my sharp-eyed wife saw it and called it to my attention.
So I say, to each his own. If you want to create a living painting in a garden I say, "More power to you." That's not my motivation. I want to help preserve plants that are in danger of extinction if I can and I want to be occasionally surprised by an unusual inflorescence or other odd plant character. I'm intrigued by the unexpected.

As for vast French "collections", Les Cedres, the family home of J. (Jacques?) Marnier-Lapostolle (yes, the people behind L Grand Marnier liqueur) is said to have a magnificent "collection" of bromeliads on the estate and I'm sure they are arranged in a magnificent display. I'm sure we would both be pleased. ---Chas---
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