How to Save Your Plants!
Everyone who grows plants has done it… lost plants. Despite our good intentions, many plants for many reasons just don’t make it.
Here’s my story of plant destruction, how I try to stop it, and how YOU can save your plants too!
Let me tell you a secret…
Years ago, I had no clue how to grow native plants. In fact my green thumb wasn't so green.
Perhaps your green thumb is like mine and still has lots of green to go!
My gardening consisted of a few planter pots filled with pansies. Petunias corralling a spike plant was my go to ‘design’. Annuals like morning glories, marigolds and zucchini squash were my jam and maybe a potted tomato or two.
The only reason I had a booming Milkweed patch was because Nature planted it and my Mom told me to leave it alone 20 years ago!
Sure I tried to grow a perennial garden with roses my kids gave me every Spring. (THOSE are still alive— again because my Mom told me how to grow them).
I’m sorry to say…
I even bought cultivars and invasive plants…
YES… it’s true.
My Flowering Quince shrub and Dames Rocket Phlox along the driveway can testify!
WHY?
It's simple... I bought cultivars and even NATIVARS. YIKES—YES I DID!!
The tag said ‘native’ on the dang label —I thought ‘WOW! it’s gotta be good’ right?
Once they and other plants came home to my garden their struggle to survive my neglect was REAL!
See this lovely young plant? It’s Rocky Mountain Bee Plant that I grew from seed last year. Friends, I have killed so many young plants from not KNOWING.. Seriously it took YEARS to realize I am not cursed & too many plants to count before I knew I CAN grow beautiful plants from SEED!
Sure I deadheaded the petunias…
Friday night was even Planty Happy Hour as I served Fish/Seaweed emulsion cocktails.
But I also forgot to weed the garden.
I certainly didn’t keep a map or journal of what was planted either— many plants died because I thought they were WEEDS!!!!!
And Watering? Well… let’s just not talk about that in polite company…
Friends, there are thousands of dead plants behind me!
Heck last Spring I even wiped out 3 trays of hundreds Purple Poppy Mallow! That’s over 100 plants friend.
I just covered the seeds with a tiny bit of too much sand when I sowed them in January! Smothered they were by my rookie error, without even a chance to germinate!
You could tell a few ‘planty horror stories’ too I’m sure!
Tales of dead plants from our good intentions are everywhere.
EVERY plant lover has them.
Like those seedlings you wiped out because you put them outside last Spring without any hardening off.
And perhaps you have far more tales of over or under watering your plants than you’d care to admit.
This doesn’t even count all the plants LOST just by misplacing them or not tagging them in the garden.
Myself, in 2018 someone in Watertown,NY got a whole TRAY of petunias because I left them on a table at the market! At least they were saved from my negligence!
What my houseplants must dream of! I’ve saved a few houseplants this year by shopping & asking lots of questions at Found Things ~ the mothership of great houseplants!
I can’t even begin to describe the suffering of my few houseplants! Let’s just say my Peace Lily is alive for 7 years now only because she is RIGHT NEXT TO THE KITCHEN SINK!
Why would someone who has a native plant nursery tell you she KILLS plants?
Because WE ALL DO…
Try as we might our love of plants doesn’t always equal healthy & happy plants!
Raise your hand if you ever thought watering your plants was a sign of LOVE… Raise ‘em high friend nothing to be ashamed of…
There you are. I knew I wasn’t alone! hahaha!
BUT there’s a good side to the story.
If we KEEP LEARNING about the plants we will slowly stop killing plants!
We simply need to know WHAT DOES THE PLANT NEED TO THRIVE!
Start with the basics of SOIL, WATER, LIGHT. There’s so many details in just those three topics alone to learn about~ and doesn’t include vermiculture! Seriously- some folks even get PhD’s by studying DIRT… ahem SOIL..
BUT YOU CAN SAVE YOUR PLANTS with these 5 sites!
Here’s 5 of my favorite resources for learning about growing plants QUICKLY!
#5 CORNELL MASTER GARDENERS! I always start my search for plant info here. A treasure trove of deets!
#4 Need help with your seed sowing game? Look no further than FRUITION SEEDS the Finger Lakes! Right here in CNY is a fabulous seed source of locally grown SEEDS… and they have FREE workshops too!
Fruition Seeds is located in beautiful Naples,New York. Tap this lovely Fruition Seeds pick to join one of their upcoming SEED SWAPS!
#3: Several times a week I explore the native plants and more at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Their database is EASY TO USE and extensive!
Each plant listing on their site gives SO MUCH MORE than the plant’s culture (soil, light ect). Listings also provide propagation, beneficial insects, distribution, and an amazing collection of images to help you identify the plant.
Credit & link: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
I find the images at Wildflower.org incredibly helpful when planning a garden. I simply search for the plant I’m looking for and then save the link/image to a Pinterest board!
For example, if you’re looking to create a Spring garden with native plants you could look up American Trout-lily on Wildflower.org. The save the page on your Spring Garden Board on Pinterest!
Soil is where it all begins!
Let’s talk about DIRT!
Where all healthy plants come from…
Dirt.. ahem soil looks like its just lazy and laying about but is the most busiest thing on the planet. I bet you can’t think of one living organism that doesn’t depend on soil.
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When it comes to learning about soil there are 2 places I turn to:
#2 Homeacres, aka Charles Dowding which I discovered by looking up how improve my compost pile! Charles’s Youtube videos are so lovely to binge watch! Penn State’s ‘Practical Tips for Healthy Soil’ is always a helpful read!
and last but not least…
#1 Native Plants, Health Planet is an amazing resource featuring guests like Sam Hoadley from the Mt.Cuba Center. The hosts mix facts with knowledge & fun banter on a wide range of topics from ethnobotany to floating islands (and no it’s not the dessert!)
I hope you’ll explore and share this post so others can use the resources below. I’m sure your plants will appreciate your efforts to learn more about them!
Remember we all loose plants.
the Rookie’s to the Experts… we’ve all done it.
Doesn’t matter how it happens. whether from natural processes like fungi or from our overwatering. It doesn’t matter.
What REALLY matters is that we are willing to:
Ask for HELP…
LEARN about our HOW to grow plants
KEEP GROWING!
What’s a plant you’ve struggled to grow? What have you learned from the challenge so far? We’d love to know your successes & losses too!
Please share your story in the comments below!
