Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Six Plants I Can't Live Without

Southern Living magazine's Steven Bender, also known as the Grumpy Gardener, recently issued a challenge to 10 garden bloggers south of the border on this topic.

An interesting exercise, I thought, so here are my half-dozen must-have plants:

1. I simply can't have a garden without peonies. Period.

2. I know people who don't like them, but personally I can't live without ornamental grasses. (I know that's a very broad category, and I have many favorites within it.)

3. I adore white-flowering crab apple trees, especially if they also have persistent fruit.

4. Also can't live without hostas, and this 'Sagae' is my favorite.

5. It's a close call among many favorite native meadow plants, but Eupatorium won out over Echinacea and Ratibida. (All of these are good butterfly plants.)

6. When it comes to big shade trees, oaks have a special place in my heart. We're lucky to have space, and so we have planted many young oak trees. I hope that their majesty will be appreciated when we're gone. We are enjoying their youth. One young burr oak, now about 15 feet tall and growing at the south side of our house must have been planted by a squirrel 7 or 8 years ago. Don't let anyone tell you that oaks grow slowly. This one is speeding right along.

What about you? What plants can you not live without?

My blogging friend, Salix, took up the challenge. Read about her six picks here.

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

9 comments:

  1. Ah, very nice. I'll try to narrow mine down. Yes, I will. :) Loved your choices. I'll post about this tomorrow I think.~~Dee

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  2. Thanks for visiting, Dee. Looking forward to reading about your choices. Cheers/Yvonne

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  3. Great choices, Yvonne! I have to think about that - will post soon.

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  4. Hi Yvonne!
    I think my list is about to expand. Some of mine are the same as yours. Hosta, grasses, but I see that allium there and that is one of my favorites too. I also seem to have a love for lilys of all kinds. One more day and my adventure in new favorites begins.

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  5. Eve: Alliums are certainly must-haves in my book too. Looking forward to your list, Salix.

    Cheers all/Y

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  6. That was fun, but quite the challenge. Just posted on my blog!

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  7. Your photos are inspiring. You make me want to grow every one of those. Like you, I love ornamental grasses and can't imagine gardening without them.

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  8. Thanks for your comment, Pam, and thanks for stopping by.

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  9. Hey Yvonne

    Personally, I love your ornamental grasses. Mum grows some called Zebra grasses and they arelovely when fully grown.

    Best wishes, Adrian

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Thanks so much for visiting this site. I have a new country garden blog and I will no longer be publishing comments at this blog. If you have a question or comment about the topic here, please use the contact form at my new blog to get in touch with me.

-Yvonne, aka Country Gardener