My friend Billy often comes over with random plants that he’s managed to cultivate in excess, and I proceed to make vague attempts at keeping them alive before accidentally killing them off. Billy then brings around more plants to replace them. Clearly, it’s a vicious cycle. The main problem is that Billy misguidedly believes me to be knowledgeable about gardening, when all the evidence points to contrary.
The fact is that I’m barely interested in it. However, I love plants and have a broad understanding of botany, along with a pretty good memory for Latin names. This means I can shoot the breeze for hours on the topic of plants, which leads people to think I’ve got a green thumb. I suppose you could say I’m an armchair gardener.
Anyway, this week Billy has brought over a potted Mexican orange blossom, which he says will be delightfully fragrant come Autumn. Little does he know that it probably won’t make it til then, given the current heat and my wanton disregard for maintaining a routine watering practice.
Perhaps I’d have more luck – or, I should say, be more able to commit – with drought-tolerant plants, like grasses and other strap leafed plants. Where do you buy ornamental grasses, though? Probably at a nursery… or maybe you can order plants online these days. See, that’s how little I know about the practicalities of these things. I don’t even know how to go about getting hold of a particular plant.
I mean, I know what the process is for growing things from seed, or at least I’m well-versed in the theoretical side of it. But where would one get the seeds from? In my case, I could more than likely get them from Billy. That said, I could just get him to bring me over plants that I’m actually motivated to look after, like hardy natives shrubs and aforementioned grass plants. I’m sure he’d be stoked to do it.