Re: What do gardeners think?

Sean A. O'Hara wrote:

Yes, I think people here often do think 'mediterranean', not because they really understand what the concept means, but because there is such envy of the Riviera or Tuscany (actually, its ALL Tuscan these days!!! ;-)

I can see that folks in Southern California might think 'desert' - your chaparral is drier and sparser than up here. 'Tropical' comes from the preponderance of palm trees and other lush and exotic plants that are routinely planted around, some not requiring the draining of the Colorado river to survive, but still looking like they might to the novice.

Having worked in a nursery in the past, and consulting routinely with clients trying to build their landscapes, your average gardener does not equate most of these concepts directly to plants - they are not familiar enough with plants to really know. They like a certain color, a texture, a form, a type of flower. They are drawn to what they know - what grew in their childhood home (in some other climate). They like what they think is pretty or colorful - flowering plants tend to sell 2-3 times as quickly as the same plant without flowers. Many growers and nurseries sell plants which tend to look good in a nursery gallon can (regardless of whether or not they perform the best in the ground).

Your average gardener also doesn't understand why EVERYTHING offered to them by nurseries is not completely appropriate to plant in this area. They assume nurserymen to be the men of integrity who would never offer a plant that was ill-suited to the local climate.
Sean
Sadly, things are pretty well the same here (and I guess in most places where people garden and plants are sold).

Planting too close together is somewhat understandable to the uninformed - proper spacing of small plant looks far too sparse to be 'correct' (or they might think the neighbors think they are 'cheap'). I've also heard a number of nurserymen suggest that plants can be 'thinned' as they grow in!!! (again, more of a sale for them).
This is certainly one of the problems one can be up against professionally. I remember planting up several shrub beds for one client only to come back the next week and find she had added an almost equal number of extras of her own (most highly unsuitable) to my scheme. This taught me the advisability of adding safe temporary fillers such as already-flowering bedding plants to take off the impression of sparseness!!

Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm

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