Do you get emotionally attached to the plants in your garden ?

merlotgran
💐

Yes, I love plants, my garden has so many, all are welcome, even the weeds, and I talk to them all.
I especially love trees and have always valued them. In my last garden, I had a life changing experience with an old willow at the bottom. I walked into its canopy one day in the spring as it was waking and putting out new leaves. I just knew without a shadow of a doubt, that the tree knew I was there, just as I felt its presence. It was a precious moment.

I recently read a wonderful book, Thus Spoke the Plant by Monica Gagliano, a Research Associate Professor in the field of evolutionary ecology in Australia. The book is a very readable account of her work and experiences with plants proving that plants can listen, learn, remember and make choices, they are sentient creatures. At the end of the book, you realise that this is one of those new paradigm in science moments, what an exciting time to be alive.

I am particularly attached to many plants in my garden. Some of them came from my Grans’ garden and my Dads’ allotment. Particularly:/ Hostas/Hydrangeas and Lemon Balm herb plant my Dad bought from a supermarket for me not long before he died in 1997! I’ve propagated and split these plants many times over.

It did get quite big, though. 🤭
It was just a bit i picked up and put in my pocket when my mum was cutting back her ivy.
I forgot it was even in my pocket for a good few days.

It had bats living in it, too.
They'd come out and whizz around of an evening.

I was very attached to the ivy growing outside my flat.
I used to put twinkly lights in it, and it looked like a little fairy grotto.
It got way too big, as I couldn't tend to it for ages, and the concil recently came and took the whole lot down.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cty.

I get attached to them, but if I do lose one, it doesn't bother me as much as when I was in my 30's & first had much of a garden.
I've learnt you can't win em' all, but nature is so wonderful. So many things that shrivel cos I havent watered enough, come back full of vigour next year, and we have lovely things (foxgloves, alchemilla, geraniums) that seed down & look perfect without any help from me.

Oh Merlotgran 🥲

I love all my plants but morn many that I left in our last home where we live for 35 years. It was large, sloped towards the house and had an underground spring running across it so a fantastic bog garden and two big ponds full of newts , fish and frogs. Alas my pond now Is tiny but it does have a beautiful arum lily that fills most of it.

Plants from my mother’s house.

I get attached to my house plants - especially to my beautiful orchid and my cactus,… given by grandson’s gf and my youngest son (years ago)

merlotgran

The plant that means the most to me is Amicia zygomeris which came from The Manor at Hemingford Grey in 2018.

DD1 asked it’s name and misheard me thinking I said
‘I miss ya’ and laughed saying she wasn’t going anywhere.
She died six months later.

I’m always relieved and happy when ‘I miss ya’ reappears every spring.

That is dreadfully sad, Metlotgran.
I hope your plant continues to reappear for many years to come.

Yes, I definitely do. I’ve got a miniature rose that I had when my daughter was born, which I fret over - I’ve just repotted it because it was struggling, and taken some cuttings. I’ve got an acer atropurpureum which is also in a pot, and a real beauty that’s 30+ years old, and some dahlias I’ve had for years too. My other baby is my chocolate cosmos, which gets gold star treatment.

I have grown mistletoe on our apple trees. Very attached and proud of that.

I do as well. The one I particularly was attached to was a small Monkey puzzle tree my Late mum bought for me. It thrived so well over many years in a pot, every couple of years I had to get a bigger pot, in the end it really needed to go in the ground, as I couldn't find a pot any bigger than the one it was in (it was huge) so I contacted the council parks team on line to ask would they like it.
They replied almost instantly, yes please.

Few weeks later a flat bedded truck arrived, the tree was loaded and off to a new home. I asked the men if would call it "Violet" after my mum, they said happy to do so.
Sad to see it go but it had to.

Well, I do get annoyed with things when they just up and die for no good reason.

I was very attached to the garden we have just left, a third of an acre of terraced hillside. I had over 70 Azaleas and Rhododendrons, many unusual trees, hydrangeas of every blue, pink, purple and white shade. Fabulous climbing roses, specimen trees.
It was a lot to manage as the warm wet climate saw things grow overnight!

Agapanthus is classed as an environmental weed where we live but I still like it and have some down the bottom of the garden. It does spread a bit I have to admit.

A few years ago when we had a particularly wet winter with hard frosts, I lost some of my potted favourites which were hardy until then. I now have a collection of mini greenhouse covers which I use in the winter to protect their replacements.
Amongst the favourites I lost were: pink Cordylines, Fatsia Spiders Web and giant Agapanthus.
I spray the Fatsias with a wildlife safe deer repellent as in the past I lost a large one, eaten down to just a stalk. I don't mind other shrubs being nibbled, as I feel the deer's need is greater than mine. They tend to mainly browse lightly so that new shoots grow for the next banquet.

Oh definitely attached to plants that have been given to me or have come from late loved ones gardens. All hold dear memories.

Definitely. I had some lovely Corn Marigold in a side border and was going to collect the seeds for next year. I looked out the window and they were gone. Hubby decided to do a clearance of 'dead' plants!

I'm very attached to the roses because they were all bought for a reason and with a specific name.

I had an unusual hawthorn (crataegus x lavalleei ""Carrieri").
It was a magnet for bees, cats and birds and I was bereft when it had to be taken down.
The tree surgeon left me a section of the trunk. I offered the wood to a turner for free and in return he made me two bowls which I have as a memento.

Also plants from friends and families either as gifts or as off shoots from those growing in their gardens. I have mint and violets from my grandmother’s garden for example. I also buy plants that with special names such as the rose Sweet Honey in memory of my dog. I look after them all but those are extra special.

Yes, I do. There are some in particular which have special meaning and I do my best to ensure that they do well. It is always a bit sad when a favourite plant dies, but I use that as an excuse to replace it with something new 😁.

I have self set forget-e-nots which as you’ll know are the emblem for Dementia and Alzheimer’s UK. They pop up in all sorts of places now and I’m devastated if I ever have to remove them for being in the wrong place.

I must be because I spend hours every day tending to their every need, I love bomb them while they are with me, then when they die I take seed where I can and grow them again next year