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Your first plant
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Message 1.Â
Posted by mattthegaffer (U14184801) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009
What was the first plant you learnt about?
Mine was cotoneaster coral beauty. 18 years ago, having packed 1000 for a customer....I knew it well after that! -
Message 2
Posted by rosalba (U4525566) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009
the first plant I bought was a white rose for my parents - sadly despite my best efforts it didnt last long
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Message 3
Posted by hereisabee (U2342191) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009
Well there are plenty of childhood images for me, however taken seriously it must be Rhododendrons. There is great book now in paperback called Tales of the Rose Tree by Jane Brown, this has filled in many gaps and connected many loose ends.
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Message 4
Posted by As_Iff (U13951957) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009
1970 - the first tomato plant I grew, in a makeshift polythene box, was called Amateur. I grew it from seed, and I was instructed to remove half the foliage to allow the sun to ripen the fruit. This is something I have continued to do with tomato plants ever since, and it`s something other gardeners don`t seem to do these days.
I had such a bumper crop I was giving tomatoes away. -
Message 5
Posted by boozysuzy (U10896459) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009
I don't remember the first plant I learnt about - it was possibly Livingstone daisy as my Mum used to let me help her grow them from seed. The first plant I bought when I moved house more than six years ago was a cyclamen - one of the big leaved varieties - and it is still going strong.
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Message 6
Posted by koala_girl (U12702629) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009
The first plant that made an impact on me was the Peace rose in my father's garden. I loved the colour and remember him telling me that it was developed at the end of the war, which was where it got its name. I still have a soft spot for that variety and look out for it whenever I see roses growing.
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Message 7
Posted by Rainjustlearning (U12861332) on Thursday, 5th November 2009
Much the same for koala_girl, my Mum and Dad had a bungalow with a small back and front garden and when we first moved in the first thing that got planted were HT Roses in the front garden and gooseberry bushes in the back, thank goodness I took to the roses.
Rain
still trying -
Message 8
Posted by Joe_the_Gardener (U3478064) on Thursday, 5th November 2009
matt,
All mine were wild plants; as we lived in the country we were always out and about in the fields and woods, by the river and canal at all seasons. Among many other plants, I can smell purple loosestrife when I see a picture of it, I practically go into a trance even now looking at sinuous water crowfoot in the river.
We discovered all sorts of plants by lying in the meadows; got to know about trees by climbing them and building shelters using their branches; learnt other fungi by looking for mushrooms.
We also, at primary school, were taken on nature walks.
Joe -
Message 9
Posted by PenylanSue (U13901201) on Thursday, 5th November 2009
As a child of the 50s, I always remember the vegetables in my father's allotment, especially Tomatoes which I learnt all about as I was in charge of them whenever he was away, or working.
My Mum grew all sorts of flowers in our back yard, but what I remember most were Martagon Lilies, mainly pink but also orange which always moved house with her and I think came from her grandparent's house.
At my grandmother's we used to pick bunches of primroses which were so abundant everywhere and bring them back to sell to our neighbours. I shudder to think about it now, being a conservationist but that was then. -
Message 10
Posted by BlueCandytuft (U3854676) on Thursday, 5th November 2009
I had never been interested in gardening, nor knew any plant by name until our darling son died four years ago. We were in pieces. I told DBH I wanted a rose in Dean's memory. A friend helped us to choose a rose and told us how to look after it.I loved and tended and nurtured it. It's called Amber Queen and I still love it as I did back then. It's flowering its head off! Since then I've become quite engrossed in our garden and that was just the start of many hours of joy and heart break. Our garden is small and I've made some terrible mistakes but I really get a kick seeing seeds germinate and grow. This site has been wonderful - I've had so much help. I so wish I had more confidence,though. Nearly everything I do is with trepidation and fear - honestly, I get on my own nerves! Obviously, I don't need reminding of Dean, but every time I go into our garden he is there and I have found a wonderful hobby that I hope will last for ever.
Lots of love and thank you for a super site
BC
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Message 11
Posted by Kristina (U13968041) on Monday, 28th December 2009
Strangely, my very first plant(?) was a potato. I was 20, living in army quarters in Catterick Garrison with a tiny garden of lawn and a small border outside the kitchen window.
I had an old spud with shoots and dug it into the 'border'.
And later that year, it sprouted, flowered and produced a few small potatoes.
There was no stopping me the next year! -
Message 12
Posted by nooj (U13729031) on Monday, 28th December 2009
Being taken outside in the garden in the dark by my dad - to smell the night scented stock.
I've mentioned it before - but it was such a magical moment for a girl about 5.
Long. long time ago but thanks dad! -
Message 13
Posted by Summerchild (U14187397) on Wednesday, 30th December 2009
The first plant I actually learned about was Virginia stock. As a small child my father gave me a packet of seeds and I sowed them next to his marigolds. Marigold seeds were the only ones he saved each year, in a brown envelope in the left- hand sideboard drawer. What I learned about Virginia stock was that they are not very exciting, whereas I still find marigolds to be quite magical. -
Message 14
Posted by james burke (U13894871) on Wednesday, 30th December 2009
hi verbina and newzealand weed for me
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Message 15
Posted by mowalot (U13936479) on Wednesday, 30th December 2009
The firt plant I learnt about (wih a vengeance!) was Sweet Peas. When I was about 5 years old we had a perennial sweet pea in the garden, the green pods looked the same to me as the edible garden peas so I picked a couple and started to eat them. I was very quickly taught about them!
When I started my first garden the first flowers I grew were chrysanths and grew them for 40 odd years -- my favourite flower. -
Message 16
Posted by Daffs4Feb (U11089061) on Wednesday, 30th December 2009
I love this thread!
My plant would be red apple geraniums (pelargoniums) which as a frustrated gardener I grew from seed on the windowsill of my rented boxroom some 20 years ago, and have kept going ever since with cuttings (my first ever cuttings!) They've been up and down the country with me as I've moved jobs and houses, and whenever I've moved house I always made sure the new one had broad window sills for the geraniums. -
Message 17
Posted by jo4eyes (U13654107) on Wednesday, 30th December 2009
No idea what was the first plant I learnt about. I can remember growing pansies & radishes at the edge of a border at my Nan's when I was very little.
Living at the edge of a village I certainly knew all the local wild flowers- bluebells, primroses, harebells, cowslips, violets, wild garlic, lady's smock etc.
Loved picking the little flowers Mum grew in the rockery, now know that they were alpines. Dad grew red Geraniums too, still does & yes we also had a Peace rose. J. -
Message 18
Posted by lilylouise (U3205282) on Monday, 4th January 2010
The first plants I remember, with love, as a little girl were the Dog Roses and huge Lavender bushes in my Nana's garden
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Message 19
Posted by Daffs4Feb (U11089061) on Wednesday, 24th March 2010
I find it's best to take cuttings of Powys Castle and replace plants every few years, because they do get leggy. Cuttings take very easily - but I'd leave it a month or two until there are fresh shoots to use. I've tried pruning back hard and sometimes it works, but the bush never looks so shapely.
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Message 20
Posted by Daffs4Feb (U11089061) on Wednesday, 24th March 2010
So sorry - I meant to add this reply to a completely different post! Don't know what happened - gremlins struck when I was retrieving my password... Please ignore the above post.
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Message 21
Posted by John Moodie (U14353581) on Wednesday, 24th March 2010
In elementary school a science teacher told us to go home cut a potato in half, stick some tooth picks in it, hang it in a jar of water and put in a dark room. I did this for a few years, and I would plant it in the garden. One year my dad told me I can just cut the spud in half and plant it. My days as a mad scientist were over.
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Message 22
Posted by Euphorbia (U14279694) on Wednesday, 24th March 2010
Sweet peas and strawberries.
Over forty years on, I'm still growing both. -
Message 23
Posted by marinelilium (U8293024) on Wednesday, 24th March 2010
It all began, as gardens and gardeners do, from one seed - a runner bean in a jam jar and a green, damp, paper towel.
MLx -
Message 24
Posted by Paul N (U6451125) on Thursday, 25th March 2010
Roses. Our first house had a mature garden with lots of roses popular in the 1960s such as Fragrant Cloud. I was terribly cruel with the pruning and could never afford rose fertiliser. I lost some (Percy Thrower) but others survived in spite of my efforts. Roses are still my all time favourite plants.
Over thirty years later and now in a different garden, I discovered 'Percy Thrower' was no longer available so contacted the original rose nursery in Belgium who introduced them all those years ago. They obtained some vegetative material from a large park in Brussels, and a year later I have a small Percy Thrower rose once more. I shall pamper this one
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Message 25
Posted by thevodkarose (U13048111) on Thursday, 25th March 2010
I suppose sempervivum, as it's ease of progogation was a delight for inquisitive young hands.
The poor thing could barely get established between being torn to pieces. I'm still guilty of that practice today - treat em rough, but now I know better and give them a sharply drained mix for them to romp away with good roots. -
Message 26
Posted by peonymad (U10815255) on Thursday, 25th March 2010
I guess roses as my mums favourites were the first plants I learnt about, Wendy Cousins under the window in the first house I remember, (dad was in the navy when I was a child and not home enough to grow anything) But once he left the navy he grew Tree peonies, and these have become my favourites.
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Message 27
Posted by Daffs4Feb (U11089061) on Wednesday, 29th September 2010
No - community garden was last week - tonight (29th) it's the potato trial results, according to the iplayer.
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Message 28
Posted by mister-grow-it-all (U14591945) on Thursday, 7th October 2010
busey lizzes i rooted them in jars on the window sills when i about five and sold them to friends
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