Survivor Plants

June 18th, 2024

   Way back when I was a Cub Scout leader, we started the year by having the boys discuss what the pack’s rules should be.

These inkberry hollies aren’t doing a very good job of surviving in this challenging commercial seting.

   The 8-year-olds’ first suggestion was, “No killing.”

   I wouldn’t have thought of that, but it was definitely a good place to start.

   That also happens to be a good place to start with your planting/replanting plans.

   Unfortunately, we kill way too many plants.

   A lot of it can be traced to a few key troubles, such as atrocious “soil,” erratic and extreme weather, bugs, plant diseases, and my most frustrating gardening challenge, animal damage (especially deer).

   Yes, a lot can go wrong.

   That’s why I’m a disciple of the Mayhem School of Landscape Design. Its leading principle is to first select tough plants that are likely to survive abuse, then worry about color, texture, forms, bloom times, etc.

   After all, a dead plant is a bad plant (except possibly for a Harry Lauder’s walking stick or a Japanese maple painted silver in an Ikebana arrangement).

   No matter how cool the plant looks in the pot or how common it is in garden centers, if it has a good chance of croaking, it’s not a great choice.

   Garden long enough and you’ll sort out the survivors from the wimps.

   Some plants have a low tolerance for conditions too unlike their natural habitat.

   Some adapt faster than others to the soil, sunlight, and wind in your yard vs. what they’ve been used to at the nursery.

   Some just don’t transplant very well at all. They object to handling or to root damage that’s inevitable when they’re unpotted and stuffed into your lousy clay.

   And even among plants that survive that critical first year or two in the ground, some are much more vulnerable to ensuing weather and pests than others.

   In my years of design travels, I saw plenty of examples of how assorted plants were performing (or not) in local yards. I came to the conclusion that most struggling plants aren’t so much the fault of the gardener as the plant itself – or where it was planted.

   I can count on one hand the number of healthy mountain laurels I’ve ever seen in a central-Pennsylvania yard. And this is a plant that’s our state’s official flower.

   Azaleas and rhododendrons often look sickly and spindly in full-sun sites.

   Heather is impossible in our hot summers.

   Many an American dogwood and redbud struggle and die in our clay and “builder’s soil.”

   Japanese holly often die in the first year or two – most likely because they resent transplanting.

Dwarf Alberta spruce almost always ends up getting attacked by spider mites.

   Pieris are usually riddled by lace bugs, dwarf Alberta spruce by spider mites, and euonymus by scale.

   This doesn’t mean you should never plant any of the above.

   It means you’re just going to have to pay more attention to how and where you plant them and probably give them more TLC than their tougher brethren.

   Here in the real world, though, most people tell me they have busy lives and don’t have the time or inclination to coddle their landscape. They want plants that roll with the punches.

   The good news is that there are plenty of those. They just happen not to be among the best known or most sold.

   Hydrangeas, viburnums, abelias, deutzias, Virginia sweetspires, fothergillas, ninebarks, beautyberries, dwarf lilacs, summersweets, winterberry hollies, and shrub roses are among the most reliable, high-performing flowering shrubs I see in central-Pennsylvania yards.

   Most ornamental grasses do very well with no babying.

Panicle hydrangeas are an example of a flowering shrub that’s not picky to grow.

   Blue hollies, dwarf goldthread cypress, junipers, and Hinoki cypress are some of the toughest evergreens.

   Among perennial flowers, some of the top survivors are hardy geraniums, barrenwort, betony, alliums, agastache, coralbells, foamybells, sedum, salvia, catmint, asters, purple coneflowers, black-eyed susans, coreopsis, yarrows, and amsonias.

   In some circles, the tough stuff is called “sustainable plants.” I like to call them “survivor plants.”

   You could sort out the wimps from the survivors if you do as I did… 1.) kill lots of plants over five decades, and 2.) study the plant-killing endeavors of thousands of other midstate gardeners.

   To make it easy for you, I compiled my findings into a 19-page “George’s Survivor Plants for Pennsylvania” booklet that’s available as a $4.95 download through this website. This listing includes plant sizes, bloom colors and times, light needs, and helpful tips such as whether the plant is a native or not or has any special considerations.

   Another freebie option is to check out the profiles of a few hundred of my favorite survivors. Those are posted by category in the Plant Profiles section of this website.

   And a third option is to check out the three-part set of lists called Solution Gardening 1, Solution Gardening 2, and Solution Gardening 3. These lists best plants by the situation, such as ones least likely to be eaten by deer, ones that tolerate damp conditions, and ones that give the best chance of surviving on a hot, sunny slope.

   Happy planting. And may you live up to my Cub Scout pack’s No. 1 rule.