To wonder how a plant can be common?

[CruCru]

I have been having some work done to my garden and am looking at which plants to put where. I want a white hydrangea in the front garden and my mum was horrified. Hydrangeas are common, you see. How can a plant be common?

In a nutshell, the way I understand the "U" / "non-U" school of gardening it's:

Pastel shades of traditional cottage garden / wildflower-type plants = "posh"

Primary colours of bedding plants from DIY garden centres arranged in neat beds = "common"

And what most people think of as "geraniums" i.e. bright red flowers often seen in city window boxes are apparently pelargoniums and common, and true geraniums are a perennial cottage garden plant which grow in shades of pink, white, blue and purple and are acceptable.

Or, you can just grow what you like and what thrives in your garden

See, we did plant pastel coloured cottage garden type plants this Summer. It looked beautiful. All soft edges dancing in the breeze. They lasted two weeks. I don't think they died, just had a short flowering cycle and we weren't clued up enough to stagger the flowering times. Presumably next year we'll have two weeks of pretty wafty flowers again but meantime the sturdy stubborn hydrangea is at least giving the place some colour.

It's misunderstood.

Red geraniums, however, are common.

Red hot pokers are dreadfully common

Your mum is out of date. Hydrangeas are now fashionably retro, apparently!

I can't belive there are people that so up themselves that they 'scoff' at other peoples choice of flowers!

People are like this in every walk of life!

Even worse - is having no discernible colour scheme and just putting it there because you like it.

It's in the interests of the industry to promote 'in' and 'out' stuff, though. Okay, it's on a longer cycle than fashion (by the nanosecond) and interior design (by the year) but how would the newspaper writers/gardening mags/garden shows/garden centers etc continue to rake in the cash if gardens were static apart from maintainance, annuals and the odd loss of a perennial/shrub?

It's in their interests to keep things moving and bringing in new plants/styles. It's a huge industry and only part of it is based on routine stuff.

FWIW, my personal bugbears are plants that are so highly bred that they become useless to bees and other insects. And why on earth would some demented eejit do this to a lily?

The good thing is, though, that it's entirely possible to reject all the nonsense and do what you like in your own garden.

I dislike all geraniums - pink ones are especially awful. We had an hydrangea in our front garden when we moved here - I hated the bloody thing. Mind you I am a bit weird when it comes to flowers - I like blossoms and I like wild flowers in wild places and that's pretty much it for flowers.

We used to have a climbing variety of hydrangea at our old house. Lovely creamy-white flowers, and it got almost to the roof around the back of the house.

I do like geraniums, the scented ones with the little pastel coloured flowers. In fact I'd like to increase the number of scented plants in the garden, and might included more herbs. However, DP is the gardener by profession, as well so I do run ideas past him first.

I also like a lot of plants some people might consider naff, but I don't care.

Plant what you like.

coumarin

My garden is full of half dead red geraniums!

I love a hydrangea, unless it's blue, then I hate it. I love them as cut flowers.

I have loads of that bastard golden rod appearing in my garden which was definitely not planted. Now that is a common plant, plus it's yellow which is a banned colour (apart from daffodils).

It's on the top of the gardener's list this week to hoik out.

I love red geraniums!

Plants and planting schemes do go in and out of fashion, but as living things they have needs so you cant just plonk any old plant any old where, so fashion is always reastricted by environment. You could save a lot of money getting someone to draw up a planting plan for you which you know will suit your taste and work well on a functional level.

Good designers will respect your tastes and make the common look classy if thats what you want. Message me if you want more advice.

Oh, I seem to like most of the here mentioned 'common' plants - and I am dead posh, me!

OP, get Strong Annabelle - they are very trendy in white/green on the continent at the moment. You could be setting a trend

Incrediball Strong Annabell

My mum would be so at home on this thread. According to her (and she'd never say 'common' because that's common, she'd just sniff and/or make comments about suburban gardens ... WTF?) the following are high on her hate list:

• hybrid tea roses
• dahlias
• double/triple versions of flowers
• dwarfed or weeping trees
• carnations
• bedding plants (of course)

It took me ages to work out that there are a few plants she doesn't dislike, she just can't grow. She's the same with clothes/colours - it never occurs to her people might have different taste from her, it's always just 'so-and-so has no taste, what a pity, look how the colours clash'.

I was really angry with her when she got a Christmas present (not from me) and returned it to the garden centre. Who does that?! FFS, stick it in a corner and then pretend it died.

That's exactly the one Im planning on getting, PacificDogwood. I love a big hydrangea head to pay and I love the green / white colour. I may plant a lilac bush next to it.

My hydrangea is pink, so it's both tasteless and common

I LOVE hydrangeas, my mum's garden is full of them. In fact, they were my wedding flowers.

LRDtheFeministDragon, heavens, are you my sister? (probably not since my sister shares my mother's ideas)

Honestly people, grow what you like! It's all nice stuff!

No, but clearly our mothers would get on well with each other!

My garden is obviously common, by some standards, but I think it's lovely

OMG ruins. You're basically Waynetta Slob. :o

I have envy, inruins. That is just lilac enough not to be blue.

I have planted an entire bed of hydrangeas in my garden, there must be 8 of them. Did any one of them flower this year? No. They're all healthy looking and full of leaves, but not a bud between them.

Yet everywhere I go, I see them - overwhelmed with their blowsy blooms. I always ask the owners, what do you do? They always say, oh nothing!

AuntieStella I am guilty of 'suburban displays'
My neighbours have never commented on my pretty garden and hanging baskets.
Now I know why... I have brought down the tone of the area!!!
And there was I thinking I was improving the look of the road.

I find it odd how flowers can offend.
I have a lovely white hydrangea. I don't mind the pink or the blue, something that makes so much effort is not something to turn your nose up at.

Lots of plants are very much back in vogue amongst, dare I say, younger people. Dahlias being a big case in point.

Grow whatever you like I say.

Loving this thread.

I'm in the south of France, and here hydrangeas are dead posh. I'd love to have some but I can't manage them (they don't really like it here, it's too hot and dry).

Lavender, on the other hand, is common as muck here (I have fields of it :)).

It's all down to just how hard you have to make the gardener work to keep it looking good, dontcha know?