Published: October 29, 2009 06:17 pm      

Plant swap gone bad

EDMOND — It’s been said in this column and many others that one of the many joys of gardening is being able to share plants with friends. Sharing divisions is a great way to increase the diversity of plants in the garden without increasing the pressure on your pocketbook. But I do have some words of caution before you start introducing new plants into the yard.

I remember getting out of college and being so excited about finally having a place with a yard. My very own dirt! But then came the feeling of deflation when I remembered that I had zero dollars to spend on plants to put in my newly acquired soil. I was a painter with a canvas, but no paint.

However, it only took one mention of this to a few gardening acquaintances and I soon had my hands full of plastic shopping bags and recycled pots that were filled with divisions of plants from their gardens. So many different types that I wasn’t exactly sure what was what. So I did what any good gardener would do — I put them in the ground and thought I would figure it out later.

What I ended up with was a very confused looking flower bed. Tall things were in the front and short plants ended up in the back. I just didn’t have a good idea from the start of what the mature shapes and sizes of the plants were. I needed to ask more questions in the beginning. That is one downfall to getting plant divisions — they don’t come with tags like they do at the nursery. But you do know who the previous owner is and that makes searching for answers much easier.

Always remember to ask a few key questions when people share plants with you. Get the mature height and width of the plant so the spacing between plants can be planned appropriately. Determine what sun exposure the plant prefers and also how much water the plant requires. This will allow the plants to be grouped with other plants that have similar preferences. Additional tips such as fertilizing and pruning are also good bits of information to have. Knowing how the plant has been cared for in the past will prevent you from doing anything that could cause too much shock for the plant.

They say beggars can’t be choosers, but not all plants that are free are a blessing. This is a difficult lesson I am coming to terms with currently. My Aunt Georgia is a pretty advanced gardener who lives in Iowa, a much colder climate than Oklahoma. She has shared lots of plants with me; hosta, daylily and astilbe are just a few. I always feel bad as we are digging the poor plants out of that rich, black Iowa topsoil to move them to the torture chamber that the Oklahoma clay must feel like. I almost can hear them squealing in pain as I drop them down into the red dirt.

There is one plant she shared that has been more of a curse than a blessing, and this is something to watch out for. If a person is a little too eager to get rid of a plant, there is probably a reason for it. Georgia asked me if I would like to have some campanula. It is a nice perennial shrub with dainty purple bells that hang from clusters in the early summer. She mentioned that she had to divide it each spring to keep it from spreading too much, but that it shouldn’t be too big of problem.

Georgia could never have known how this plant would take off in the long Oklahoma growing season, and the clay soil hasn’t phased it a bit. I was out in the garden with bottle of round-up this week trying to get it under control. I continue to cut it back to the ground, but that has only angered it and caused it to spread further underground. I imagine it will take the next two years to get rid of this plant completely.

Moving plants from extremely different growing conditions usually will go one of three ways; the plant could suffer and die, handle the move flawlessly, or the plant could take off to the point of invasion like mine has. Use caution when relocating plants if you are unfamiliar with the outcome or you could end up where I am — in a mess. This hasn’t caused me to quit trading plants, just to be a bit more selective and cautious when introducing new ones to the garden.



SAMANTHA SNYDER is an horticulture educator for the Oklahoma County OSU Cooperative Extension Service.