Buy More Than One, Part Two, and Criminey!


The previous post was about one reason I've decided to always buy multiples of a plant--because performance of an individual plant can vary widely, and it's educational to see how different individuals will perform in the same garden.

Now I'm considering another reason to always use multiples of a plant: because our front slope looks awful. Being a typical plant nut, I planted one of this, and one of that. No visual unity. No impact. No statement. A mishmash. I'm not talking about the space between the plants, or their present size--these will get fairly big, so space is needed. Rather, I'm talking about the one-of-each-ness. As Dom DeLuise shouted through a megaphone after the tuxedo-ed dancers flubbed "The French Mistake"..."WRONG!"



Here's what a pro did on the neighbor's slope (I've posted this before, but I never weary of how beautiful it is):


What the pros do is plant groups and drifts of the same plant, to far better effect. See? Groups and drifts = WOW! Of course I've got an immature group of succulents, not 50 roses in full bloom, but the effect would be as good with well-designed groups of succulents.

I want to arrange plants like the pros do. I want to be a sophisticated gardener with a sense of style and design, not a mere plant nut. I want to fool everyone into thinking I know what I'm doing out there in the dirt.

Alas! I am only me. Yet there is some hope--at least I planted Aloes and Agaves, which pup. I did start to wise up as I planted--there are in fact three of Aloe 'Fire Guard' and two of Aloe 'Cynthia Giddy'. Not exactly a group or drift, but it's a start.

Gradually I can harvest pups and create groups and drifts. Move the less successful plants elsewhere, encourage the successful to create larger and larger groups. More drama. More boldness. More WOW. In the meantime, I can be embarrassed to my heart's content: I have a 60'x20' display of my lack of artistry right out there on the street for all to enjoy.

At least this bit has some unity to it:



NOTE ON THE PICTURES ON THIS BLOG. I had trouble writing this post, so I squandered time looking at various Internet garden sites to clear my muddled brain. I happened upon a blog, and...found one of my own photos. Criminey! Now of course I realize that once something is on the Internet, it's going to get used. I was just dumbfounded someone thought one of my pictures worth lifting. If someone is going to go to the effort of blogging, why lift someone else's pictures? Especially someone else's not-great pictures, which are a little out of focus because the dog has drooled on the camera lens.

If you swipe, swipe the best! Not my poor efforts.

If it's on this blog, it's my own photo. I didn't take them from anywhere else! Just so you know. They may not be great, but copied, they ain't.

Another site where one of my pictures ended up is an Arabic-language Middle Eastern website, which appears to be family/home/garden/pets related (lots of cute animated pictures of kittens). One of my rose photos is there, apparently being offered as screen wallpaper. So what rose of mine is perhaps decorating the screens of Arab computers in the Middle East?

'Pope John Paul II'.

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