When you have done your best for a flower, and it fails, you have some reason to be aggrieved. ~ Frank Swinnerton

copyright 2010 TLC Gardening

It is inevitable that some of your plants will die. Some will die in the normal course of their life cycle. Some will die due to the vagaries of weather. Some will die because they were planted in the wrong place. Some because they simply don’t have the will to live. While you may grieve a bit over the death of a plant, this is a part of the natural cycle of life and most plants can contribute to new life by being composted. And the experience you get, the more you learn about keeping plants alive.

In fact, most plants live. And under the most hostile conditions — cracks in the sidewalk, on a wall, in less than an inch of soil, and in deserts that may not have rain for years. I’m constantly amazed at how much Life wants to live and the lengths to which it will go. Still, plants that shouldn’t die sometimes just do.

Here are some practical tips to minimize the chances that a favorite plant will need to be composted:

1. Choose plants that fit your abilities:
   • affordability: If you’re a beginning gardener or on a limited budget, you want to choose plants that aren’t too expensive and that are commonly found in most garden centers (e.g., petunias, impatiens, hostas, landscape roses). If a few plants die (and 20% die-off isn’t unusual), you won’t need to spend a lot of money to replace your losses. Keeping your initial plant costs low also allows you to experiment with color and shape, as well as leaving you more money to buy better quality planting containers and tools. After you have some confidence as a gardener, and have taken time to discover what you like and don’t like, you can buy more expensive plants.
   • capability: Are you a beginning or more advanced gardener? You may have a lot of experience with flowering plants but almost no experience growing vegetables and herbs. Or perhaps you’ve always cultivated cacti but now want to try your hand at growing fruit trees. Each plant has its own requirements. Gardening isn’t difficult, but you want to ask questions at garden centers, read some books, ask friends, and learn as much as you can about the plants you want to grace your landscape or your home. Capability includes physical ability. You may have a chronic illness or be physically disabled. Very few disabilities will prevent you from gardening, but you’ll want to learn about the types of gardening that work best for you.
   • availability: Does your job require frequent travel, so that you wouldn’t be able to care for your plants? Do you have three kids, two dogs and a cat, which keep you too busy to water, weed and monitor your garden regularly? There are plants that require so little care they’re almost artificial. Pick your plants to fit your lifestyle.
     
2. Choose and group your plants by care requirements: You’ll save time, effort and optimize the chances of plant survival if you group plants with similar requirements together.
   
3. Don’t overwater: Most plants don’t die because people forgot to water them. Most plants die due to OVERwatering. You generally don’t need to water every day. Plants that really like wet feet should be planted in a really wet medium or near water, whether it’s a pond or in a catchplate that holds water. If you’re concerned about the amount of water your plants need, there are ways to make watering virtually automatic.For container plants, buy pots that have water reservoirs built in. These will allow excess water to collect and be absorbed by capillary action as the medium dries. I haven’t personally tried the watering globes, but am looking forward to it. I’ve even found some on the Internet that use glass wine or water bottles (more about those in another post).For your garden, you can install a drip irrigation system or a timer that waters your garden on a schedule. Some of the newer timers can actually detect rain and won’t water when it rains.

4. Every plant will not grow everywhere: Plants have individual and specific requirements. Some have an inextricably complex relationship with local insects or wildlife; some must have a freeze in winter to bloom in spring; some need heat. If the exact plant you want won’t grow in your climate zone or garden conditions, you have choices. You can put in the extra money and work required to create the right conditions or you can look for equally exciting plants that are native or acclimated to your environment. There’s nothing wrong with trying plants that aren’t expected to survive, as long as you’re prepared for #fail.Just remember that your greatest chances for success will be with plants that are suited to the environment in your garden.

Of course, there are the plants that will grow under almost any conditions. In their native home there is usually something that prevents them from taking over — an insect, growing conditions, weather. . . .  When they are transplanted to areas where the limiting conditions don’t exist, these plants become invasive. Sometimes the fact that they will become invasive isn’t obvious until it’s too late.

When looking for plants that “you can’t kill,” beware of noxious or invasive species. The web site for your state’s department of ecology will likely have a list of noxious or invasive species in your area. Just because a plant is sold in stores or garden centers does NOT mean that it has been cleared. Sometimes buyers for local garden centers purchase from out-of-state growers and the plant may not be invasive in the grower’s location.

There’s a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky. It grows in boarded up plots and out of neglected rubbish heaps. It grows up out of  cellar gratings. It is the only tree that grows out of cement. It grows lushly . . . survives without sun, water and seemingly without earth. It would be considered beautiful except that there are too many of it. -   Betty Smith, 1896-1972, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

This tree is Ailanthus altissima, and I’ll be writing about it, and other noxious, invasive and toxic species in a later post.

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Quote source: http://www.quotegarden.com/gardens.html