Re: "Native Plants"
- To: s*@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
- Subject: Re: [SG] "Native Plants"
- From: C* P*
- Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 23:29:09 EDT
In a message dated 4/25/00 9:35:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time, smwei@UMICH.EDU
writes:
<< garden (what, hack down the Japanese Maple I just lovingly and sweatingly
transplanted, send the daffodils back to Spain?), just as I see no need to
read or teach only native authors or decorate my walls with native
paintings (anybody who's seen the horror of the Ann Arbor Art Fair will
know what I'm talking about). Third, I'm sympathetic to those who like
native plants, but to me, gardening is about play and fancy, experiment
(i.e. both failure and triumph), surprise and escape. >>
Silke,
I was interested in your posting, part above. More interesting is the lack
of response. Some time ago, I attended a talk by Michael Pollan ("Second
Nature") on this subject. I know of no major public garden that confines
itself to native plants. The subject continues to attract writers examining
various aspects of native plant gardening. There seems little danger that
Americans will give up spring bulbs, lilacs, Asian plants flooding the
catalogs and many more favorites.
One might explore native plants, shrubbery especially, if a site proves
difficult to plant with non-natives. Any place that I have traveled to has
been replete with non-native plants - the geraniums cascading down buildings
in Switzerland for instance.
Preservation of native plants, it seems to me, is a different subject.
Claire Peplowski
East Nassau, NY z4
