I was driving innocently (okay, not so innocently) down the street a year or so ago and was struck dumb(er than usual) by a purple coneflower that was…orange? Bright pastel orange. Some strange mutant coneflower plant and if there is one there are sure to be more mutants on their way. What to do…rush home and gather friends, family, and children and head for safety? Would the mutants find us? Better yet, before allowing panic to overtake me, I would go seek an expert, a sage, if you will. So I went to Google. Indeed, as I feared there were more mutants but thankfully not big scary monster bear-mutants, only coneflowers, the product of years of effort by Atlantan Richard Saul. Named Big Sky Coneflowers, these coneflowers are the product of hybridizing purple coneflower, Echinacia purpurea, with Echinacia paradoxa.

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Oh man. Elizabeth Licata at Gardening While Intoxicated posed a question in her blog asking readers to name their least favorite plant (to participate, head over to Gardening While Intoxicated and chime in…). Anyway, while I can’t understand how anyone could hate purple coneflower so passionately (as Elizabeth does), to be fair lots of people love all kinds of plants that I’m at best cool towards (witness the mayhem that is Never (Ever) Grow This Plant). The beauty of art is that it is subjective. If we can keep from taking defensive positions and truly listen, our perspectives can be changed in a very positive way. Superb post! Barrie.

The subject of our latest evisceration in the plant world, Pampas Grass, Cortaderia selloana, is, admittedly, like shooting fish in a barrel. I want to emphasize that any cowboys from Argentina (gauchos) that want to grow Pampas Grass to remind them of home are fully exempt from my comments to follow. I do stress that the point here is not to pick on a particular plant but instead to illustrate fundamental gardening truths via an unfortunate example here and there. Pampas Grass was all the rage back twenty years or so ago. Easy to grow and hardy and dramatic in a look-at-me sort of way, Pampas Grass is native to South America…which leads to the first point: Generally speaking, if there are native plants available, these should be our first choice as natives will often be more environmentally responsible and seem to ‘fit’ into the landscape more naturally.

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It may seem heartless to pick on Spiderwort, but there is an illustrative point that follows…. A perennial’s value (or any plant’s value for that matter) increases exponentially if it has attractive foliage or character when not in flower (See Oakleaf Hydrangea for truly noble character). If we consider that most perennials only flower for a period of weeks, it becomes critical that their foliage has some redeeming qualities during the rest of the season. Plants that get tatty better be spectacular indeed when in flower, and truthfully, this doesn’t even win me in most cases. It’s one thing to be unassuming and fade gracefully (witness the grace of the ephemeral-like Queen Anne’s Lace) into the background; it’s another to be a horrendous mess. Spiderwort, sadly, is an ignoble disgrace once the admittedly charming blooms fade.

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