What an affirming commentary to wake up to! I appreciate all your thoughtful articles and especially these reflections on plants. It's always amazed me that people can be hung up on whether plants are poor people's plants. I love angel trumpets and tiger lilies. When I lived in North Carolina on a beautiful street in a house with boxwoods and other green shrubs, I added daylilies, irises, and other blooming flowers and was "gently" reprimanded by a well-meaning lady that those flowering plants were more appropriate for the back yard. Recently I "discovered" that daffodils weren't really appropriate for the entrance to our condominium because their leaves turn brown. This kind of snobbery reminds me of a teacher I once had who told the boys in her class that we shouldn't gently pull our dress slacks up when sitting down as it gave the impression that we couldn't afford to have them pressed by the dry cleaners.
Amen brother ... we can ALL learn from each other. History isn't always pretty but we can always learn a valuable lesson from our "mistakes" and strive to do better - in life, gardening and otherwise.
You're friends with Felder Rushing? That's so cool! Eons ago when I consumed a ton of gardening podcasts/content I would listen to his radio show/podcast.
This essay brought home some thoughts I've been having with regard to some of these plants we use in our gardens, the easy to propagate ones that are somewhat or majorly maligned by certain groups, sometimes for snooty reasons, sometimes for legitimate ones like invasiveness (cough cough Ruellia simplex) but they are so much the gateway to gardening. Way back in 2002 a co-worker gave me cuttings of R. simplex, in Florida, and I grew it for years until I saw it invading natural areas. But that's how we learn, how we figure out how to grow things.
Oh, I wish I could grow lilies but I have deer and they love them. Have tried multiple times and it's just expensive deer food, unfortunately.
All Hail! Vulgar Lamb! Thank you for championing the lowly Tiger Lilly (❤️all the orange flowers🥰) all the fast growing ‘come here from somewhere else’ plants!
One of the things that I love about your presentations is the wide coverage of varied plants and people. I planted Klip Dagga (lion’s tail) last year! Such a shame to hear people can be so rude. Keep up with all you have to share Jenks!!!
What an affirming commentary to wake up to! I appreciate all your thoughtful articles and especially these reflections on plants. It's always amazed me that people can be hung up on whether plants are poor people's plants. I love angel trumpets and tiger lilies. When I lived in North Carolina on a beautiful street in a house with boxwoods and other green shrubs, I added daylilies, irises, and other blooming flowers and was "gently" reprimanded by a well-meaning lady that those flowering plants were more appropriate for the back yard. Recently I "discovered" that daffodils weren't really appropriate for the entrance to our condominium because their leaves turn brown. This kind of snobbery reminds me of a teacher I once had who told the boys in her class that we shouldn't gently pull our dress slacks up when sitting down as it gave the impression that we couldn't afford to have them pressed by the dry cleaners.
"Woke" ... how has such a simple, basic word turned into a word of scorn for some people? a pejorative?
We all woke up this morning. The opposite would be to be asleep and all that that implies.
Keep on gardening and writing and presenting - and thank you!
Amen brother ... we can ALL learn from each other. History isn't always pretty but we can always learn a valuable lesson from our "mistakes" and strive to do better - in life, gardening and otherwise.
You're friends with Felder Rushing? That's so cool! Eons ago when I consumed a ton of gardening podcasts/content I would listen to his radio show/podcast.
This essay brought home some thoughts I've been having with regard to some of these plants we use in our gardens, the easy to propagate ones that are somewhat or majorly maligned by certain groups, sometimes for snooty reasons, sometimes for legitimate ones like invasiveness (cough cough Ruellia simplex) but they are so much the gateway to gardening. Way back in 2002 a co-worker gave me cuttings of R. simplex, in Florida, and I grew it for years until I saw it invading natural areas. But that's how we learn, how we figure out how to grow things.
Oh, I wish I could grow lilies but I have deer and they love them. Have tried multiple times and it's just expensive deer food, unfortunately.
All Hail! Vulgar Lamb! Thank you for championing the lowly Tiger Lilly (❤️all the orange flowers🥰) all the fast growing ‘come here from somewhere else’ plants!
One of the things that I love about your presentations is the wide coverage of varied plants and people. I planted Klip Dagga (lion’s tail) last year! Such a shame to hear people can be so rude. Keep up with all you have to share Jenks!!!
I so appreciate this new look at southern gardens. Keep waking folks up.
Thankfully some of us want to be woke as opposed to ignorant and closed off. Go Jenks!!!!
Thank you for making me think of gardening in a totally different light. If that's woke, I'm in!
👏
Sad that we're in a day when the "woke agenda" = talking about actual documented history. People oughta stop being allergic to reality.
One of your best!! Thank you!