Penny Carnathan

Penny’s a Nurture And Hold (NAH): Nah, I won’t pull that out yet, it’s still got a green shoot. She likes dragonflies, lady bugs and new stuff only after weeding, pruning and fertilizing.

Kim Franke-Folstad

Kim’s a Want It Now (WIN): Everything pretty, everything now. She will resort to full-spectrum insecticides in desperate situations, and believes it’s her duty and right to buy new plants every weekend.

Both advocate Plant Choice (SOMEthing besides crotons. Please!), lots of color and low maintenance. We don’t agree on everything, but we’re smart enough to learn from each other - and from you.

 @TheDirtTBO
 The Dirt
 Post your garden photos
 Bay area nuseries
 Gardening calendar
 Planting guide

Most Recent Entries

• All Hail The Cuban Sandwich! [Festival Celebrates Tampa’s Iconic Food This Weekend In Ybor City]
• Universities board begins daunting task of creating new university
• USF marketing students finalists in gas promo contest
• USF website pulls together research, services for veterans
• USF Poly budget director Bresler says he’ll fight efforts to fire him
• Incoming Speaker Weatherford speaks at USF conference on college access
• USF St. Pete forms alumni society
• Goodbye Michael Kovac; nanotechnologist, roller coaster lover
• USF Poly administrator resigns; report recommended dismissal
• Anyone For Road Snapper? [Chef Ben Sargent Visits In Key West On “Hook, Line & Dinner.”]
• Universities eye cuts; USF remains quiet
• Banana Bourbon Caramel Cheesecake, Boiled Crawfish, Mussels & Clams [This Week’s Weekend Eats]
• Last USF Poly class graduates; Dockery lays in to “leaders” behind split
• Get your skin checked for free at USF
• Finally the scissors are out for the revamped USF Sun Dome

More

• The Stew
• The Dirt
• Hot Pursuits
• HOMEwork
• Inside USF
• L Archive
  • Green Lite
  • Bring It!

Monthly Archives

• May 2012
• April 2012
• March 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011

Spreading the love; it’s just what we do

Posted Dec 13, 2009 by Loren Omoto

Updated Dec 14, 2009 at 12:02 AM

Note from Penny: This was The Dirt column that ran in The Tribune today. I’ve added a couple updates here, especially regarding the new-to-me gazanias.

There must be some chromosome, some fleck of DNA, that compels gardeners to plant and plant until every patch of dirt is given over to fruits and flowers, or fruit- and flower-related necessities, like garden swings.

I’ve come to believe this because the more gardeners I meet, the more I recognize we’re alike. The planting personality is not satisfied with a balcony, a backyard or even the back 40. The planting personality seeks to pollinate people, too.

We give our non-gardening friends herbs and orchids as birthday gifts, and toss out unveiled hints like, “A few purple lantana right there in your yard would look so good!”

What other hobbyist does that? Scrapbookers wouldn’t show up for dinner with a die-cutting machine. Model train enthusiasts don’t eyeball their friends’ living spaces and say, “All this place needs is 50 feet of HO track.”

At least I don’t think they do.

But gardeners? We’re hortevangelists. We haven’t done our job till we’ve won a few converts.

Back in September, a non-gardening neighbor, Alina Simonds, asked what the big, blousy flowering shrubs taking over the side of my house were. “I love them!” she mailed.

Golden opportunity! I’d been dropping her plant hints for years.

I quickly dug up some of my pagoda volunteers, and the two of us and her husband, Michael, spent quality neighbor time planting them. (Contrary to some of the information in the link here, my pagodas are growing in pretty much sand. Once established, I rarely water except occasionally during an extended hot drought. They’re on the south side of my house, where they get a little break from the full blaze of sun.)

Alina’s are doing great, as she proudly showed me the other day, and she’s added a crown of thorns and several gazanias to her neophyte landscape.

This photo is from Loveland Plant Center in Colorado—Alina’s weren’t in bloom last I looked.

She got her volunteer “gerzinnias” from her mother-in-law’s yard in South Florida where they pop up all over the place in cheerful little mounds. I had the devil of a time finding “gerzinnias” on the internet. And then I stumbled onto a photo and mention of them at Hoe and Shovel, our blogging Lutz friend. Woo-hoo! I was thrilled! Not gerzinnias, but gazanias!

(After reading up on them, I wanted some, too. Alina brought me seeds from her little newbies yesterday. She was SO happy to be able to share. And I’ve already got 10 little seedling pots started.)

The Springs down the street took a little more work. I hired Chase, 13, and Richie, 5, to water when I went on vacation during hot, dry October. I’d been trying to talk their mom, Maureen, into going to plant fairs with me all summer, but she was not having it. (It was awfully hot last summer.)

Watering turned into a family affair, with the boys, their mom, and dad, Chris, all walking over together at dusk to keep my plants alive. By the time we came home, they had their own gorgeous garden started — complete with salvaged yard art and a veggie bed. They were inspired, Chris said. (Did I love that? Yes I did!)

(Note the little “Seeds gone wild” sign. Love it!)

I’m as excited about my neighbors’ gardens as I am about my own. I like thinking I’ve helped, in a small way, to plant something much bigger than a flower.

Now I’m just waiting for their cuttings. It’s a DNA thing. And oh yea, I’ll share!