Your weed, my wildflower?
October 4th, 2010
I got this interesting commentary from a reader and thought I’d just share it as is.
"Monarch butterfly plant" would be a lot better name for this plant.
“My neighbor and I can’t seem to agree on what is a weed and what is not. I told her that a weed is a plant that you don’t like or one that’s growing where you don’t want it to be.
“In her yard, a chicory plant is a weed. In my yard, it is not. I once told her I don’t have weeds any more, I call them flowers now. She pointed to a plant and asked if it was a weed, I said no, it’s a white bleeding heart. She pointed to another and declared it must be a weed. I said it was a hollyhock.
“The most noxious, indestructible, invasive weed in my gardens is grass. I can’t keep it out. I can’t kill it. It grows over, under, around and through my desired plants and laughs at the barriers I try. If I miss so much as a cell when I dig it out, it will regrow.
“I don’t use weed/feed products because I’m hoping the dandelions and clover will win. I think dandelions in spring look like dapples of sunlight in the yard. I have milkweed growing in my veggie garden — not where I want it, but that’s where it’s happy. Maybe we should call it monarch butterfly plant. That sounds more desirable.”
One person’s weed is another’s wildflower, that’s for sure… although I haven’t run into anyone yet who’s fond of poison ivy or mile-a-minute weed. (I like the name “monarch butterfly plant.” Milkweed needs a PR agent.)
The real sparks fly when those at the more tolerant end of the spectrum live next door to someone who takes pride in a perfect green carpet and neatly sheared azaleas.
Personally, I’m a loose-leaner, but not to the point where I don’t care about my plants hanging over or seeding into neighboring yards. And just because that’s the approach I take doesn’t mean someone else is immoral because of their tidy lawn and topiaried yews.
It seems to me we all do enough yelling at each other these days on so many other things that this is one area where we be tolerant. If you don’t call my wildflower a weed, I won’t call your lawn a gas-sucking, bay-polluting dead zone. And together we can both curse the groundhogs.
A few things going on and coming up:
Gettysburg's colorful Lincoln Square.
Three Harrisburg-area garden-beautification projects were good enough to earn 2010 Community Greening Awards from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the group that runs the Philadelphia Flower Show. Recognition went to the median-strip flower gardens at 7th and Forster streets in Harrisburg (a joint effort of the Western Pa. Conservancy and Pa. Natural Heritage Program), a new landscaped sitting area outside Mechanicsburg Museum Square (done by the Penn Cumberland Garden Club) and the flower beds and hanging baskets that brighten Lincoln Square in Gettysburg (a project of the Gettysburg Garden Club). Check ‘em out next time you drive by these spots. And go here for the full list of awardees or to nominate a site for next year.
Hershey Gardens closed its Butterfly House for the season last month, but in its space will be a bonsai display of specimens provided by the Susquehanna Bonsai Society. The exhibit opens Friday and will be there through Nov. 14. Bonus fun: You get to vote for your favorite. More information: www.hersheygardens.org.
Orchid-lovers get their weekend in the sun Oct. 22-24 at “Orchid Follies,” a judged orchid show and sale at Stauffer’s of Kissel Hill, 301 Rohrerstown Road, Lancaster. Besides the beautiful specimens, the show features a dozen orchid seminars and a dozen vendors selling rare and unusual orchids and related supplies. More information: www.skh.com.
And in case you didn’t hear the news about the deadly emerald ash borer showing up in Cumberland County, I just posted an article I wrote about it here: