Over the past decade, gardening has become the most popular leisure-time activity in the United States. There are so many benefits – physical, spiritual, the production of healthy fresh food, the satisfaction in saying “I grew it myself,” and the connection to nature. Then there is the reason most people start gardening – to add beauty to their landscapes.
That’s why I am confused as to some of the offerings in the garden catalogs I have recently received. There are some really ugly plants! In my opinion gardening offers enough challenges without having to try to make an unattractive plant look presentable.
I hope I don’t offend anyone by naming your favorite plant, but here are a few of the uglies I found in just one catalog, which shall remain nameless.
The Hulk Aster, named after the Incredible Hulk (does that tell you anything?) has big green flower petals surrounding yellow-gold centers. These flowers are held on 22-inch stems and they are described as “one of the year’s most fashionable choices for bouquets and floral arrangements.”
Next is the ‘Jamboree’ hybrid pumpkin-squash. It is advertised to taste like buttercup squash, freeze well and have good disease resistance. But it is greenish-bluish-grayish in color. It looks like something that overwintered in my compost pile.
The new ‘Citrus Twist’ sedum has chartreuse flowers. Chartreuse is green. The Autumn Joy sedum that I grow has beautiful dusty rose flowers in August but until then the flowers are green and the plant is quite unattractive. I wouldn’t consider growing the plant if it didn’t get past the green stage to the much prettier purple pinks.
Another flower that starts out lime green and then, unfortunately, stays that way is ‘Limelight’ hydrangea. The plant is advertised to be easy to grow and the flowers, like all hydrangeas, make good long-lasting floral arrangements. A flower that stays green just seems unfinished to me.
A new pumpkin is called ‘One Too Many.’ It looks like a blood-shot eyeball, with red midribs and stippling on a white background. Why would you want to make a jack-o-lantern out of that? Well, okay, maybe you would.
Then there are the black flowers. I can make all my flowers look black by withholding water. But apparently some people aspire to grow a black iris called ‘Before the Storm’ or a ‘Black Beauty’ rudbeckia. My pretty golden and yellow rudbeckias look just like the magazine photo after the first hard frost in the fall.
There are quite a few hostas and heucheras (coral bells) with leaves of pale green or washed-out pink. They really look like they could use a good dose of high nitrogen fertilizer.
There may be a place in some strange kind of theme garden for some of these uglies, but I’ll be sticking to the more traditional plants this year.
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