Sentimental Plants – Plants that remind you of others

By sentimental plants, I mean plants with connections to others. For me the nicest plants in the garden are those that have an association with people I’m fond of, or have been fond of.

Whether it’s plants passed down the generations; or plants with memories and associations; or all those plants given to you by other gardeners; maybe it’s memories of plants bought on days out with special people; or cuttings taken from friends gardens; there’re plants with meaningful names; and plants you’ve bought with vouchers, gifted to you by loved ones. All of these plants mean that bit more to you.

I think most of us can walk around the garden saying so and so gave my that plant, or I bought that plant with a voucher off you know who. Or just, I bought that plant because I loved it so much in a friends garden. As if gardening isn’t already the best hobby in the world, it just gives it another dimention.

From Gran to Dad to Me

Without doubt the most sentimental plant in the garden is Lily of the valley. It was originally growing in my grans garden, sadly she died when I was only three, but I do remember her with great affection.

My dad then transplanted some to his garden and sadly he died when I was a teenager. I then took some for my first garden, which I dug up and brought here when we moved. It’s a well travelled plant!

Lily of the valley can be a temperamental plant but it has loved being planted in the raised hosta bed, which is mainly shady. I transplanted a little down in the white garden last year and it’s also doing quite well.

The flowers are just going over at the moment, and you may think, ‘what a shame that those leaves have been disfigured’ but I think, ‘how fabulous that I’ve got leaf-cutter bees in the garden!’

Plants that remind you of others

I grow golden tomatoes every year as they are so super sweet.

In 1992 a yellow tomato arrived on the scene called ‘Sungold’ causing great excitement amongst us veg growers. Described by Thompson and Morgan as, the “sweetest tomato ever”.

At this point in time my job had introduced me to a retired gentleman (gentle in every way). He was a very keen vegetable grower, and his father had been a professional gardener. He had masses of gardening knowledge and better still reminded me of my dad.

We both bought this new tomato variety and were very pleased with the results. As they were expensive he suggested that I save the seed. This was something that wouldn’t have occurred to me. Free plants!

Sadly he died quite a long time ago now, but I think of him every year when I sow my golden tomato seeds.

Plants from other gardeners

I’ve been given so many plants over the years, too many show here but these are just a few of them.

Pink Nerine bowdenii; Red hot pokers – ‘Kniphofia’; Day lilies – ‘Hemerocallis’; Himalayan Honeysuckle – ‘Leycesteria formosa’; Chrysanthemum and White Aquilegia . All reminding me regularly of the the generous people that gave them to me.

Reminder of a lovely day out

It was a beautiful hot early summers day when I picked mum up. We were going to my favourite garden nursery. It was set in the grounds of a large country house, that had been turned into offices and the extensive gardens had been turned into a nursery. Roses were their specialty, with over 800 varieties. It’s now called Black Birches and only has 500 rose varieties now!

This particular day I was after perennials but on the way in spotted this beautiful purple rose ‘Rhapsody in Blue’. Mum said buy it, I said, no I don’t need it.

We walked around the plants and gardens and I didn’t spot anything I wanted. Our path back to the car took us past the purple rose again and I was ogling it once more. Mum again encouraged me to buy it, and after unusual reluctance I picked it up.

It’s such a strong rose and survived the move from our last house to this. I’ve never regretted buying it as each year it’s covered in masses of purple blooms and reminds me of a lovely day out.

Cutting’s from friends

My most recent cutting form a friend was taken ‘just in time’!

For the last few years I’d been admiring a row of the deepest pink Osteospermum outside the front door of a friend. They flowered for weeks on end, right into autumn. Last year I finally asked if it could take some cuttings, I did and two of them struck. They sat in the greenhouse all winter and come the spring they started to grow. Potted on and put outside they started to flower and are now happily growing in the woodland border.

When I visited her recently there were different coloured ospeospermums in the border. I learned the sad news that hers had all been killed in the severe frost we had last December. Talk about just in time!

As mine get bigger I’ll be taking more cuttings and more than likely taking some plants back where they came from.

Plants with special names

Friends of ours recently moved house. They had a lovely yellow rose that meant a great deal to them, as it was planted in commemoration of the birth of their daughter 21 years ago and bore her name.

Obviously they wanted to take it with them and entrusted me with the task of digging it up.

I roped the garden apprentice in to do the digging – under strict supervision of course! We placed it in a gorilla tub and brought it home. I planted it in a very substantial pot with some well rotted manure.

Hey presto, we have plenty of new growth and some super roses. I’ll be sorry to see it go once they’ve found a suitable home for it, as it smells divine!

And finally, the Azalea you’ve all heard about before, that reminds me of my very special gardening dad. Azalea ‘Gibraltar’ as he was based there during WW2 and never stopped talking about how kind the Gibraltarians were to them. He would have loved to have had this shrub in his garden.