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?

This thread has made up my mind: I am going to plant a hydrangea in my garden.

Common as muck, me

BTW if you want something unkillable and lovely, try solanum crispum and lavatera. I hack them down to the ground most years, and they come back gorgeous year after year.

I love hydrangeas, especially blue ones.have had them whenever I have had a garden. If you like them, have them. "Common" shakes head

how can this be common?

tbh if I were to plant up a 'naked' garden hydraneanas would probably not make it on the list, but I love the one I inherited.

Six- I actually killed lavatera
Agree Solanum is great - either the white or the lilac coloured

OMG - I am so having a Wim's Red - they look amazing!

I am not kidding, every single plant I am kind fond of has been listed here.
How common are wisteria? They are my favourite….

I'm in the med too and they're very posh here as well. About 30 e per plant and we managed to kill 3 of them. Years ago I remember some Dutch growers offering my grandparents a fortune for their hydrangeas.

Common plants to me are marigolds, pansies, petunias etc. We got some black petunias in hanging baskets this year and I thought they were very tacky.But in a good way its those stripey petunias I really don't like.

I like wisteria too but my favourite in my garden are my Hibiscus and strelitzia both probably common in these parts!

Wisteria are never common. True fact. Do your research about which to get though and be prepared to learn the pruning or you won't get many flowers. Some of them smell divine. They need lots of sun and good support. I adore my NDNs wisteria.

Oh, I've got a lovely wisteria with great flowers every year (except last year when it had none. Not a single one ).

The hydrangeas in the South of France are stunning: huge and everywhere - love 'em.

I still like all the bedding plants including stripy petunias and lobelia and pansies

Wow, holly, that takes real skill!

I didn't even plant mine deliberately. My mum had given me a potted something from her garden, and it was tied to a little stick. I planted it with the stick for support. The something died, but the stick took root!

Six impossible - that's such a lovely story!

Pacific

I've ordered that Yew and non Yew book on Amazon.

I have yew. Can I offset that against my orange crocosima? I'd proffer the red crocosmia but they're much less common than the orange

I have been gardening for 46 years and have never, in all that time, heard such rubbish that certain plants are 'common' !!! In that vein, grass will be the next 'victim' as it is grown everywhere, so will everyone be digging up their lawns and maybe replacing with the dreaded decking? I sincerely hope not! Gardeners grow the plants they like and enjoy it.

What a load of old bollocks.

Of course chrysanthemums are such "serviceable flowers"

Well I spoke with my gardener yesterday and he said hydrangeas are an awesome idea where we are. He's going to buy a bunch of them and plant them for me.

Oh, do get some Strong Annabelle and Wim's Red, please do
I have no room although I am eying up a very common willow thing (that does not produce catkins, so what's the point?) with an ax in mind… it would clear a lovely space for a hydrangea

I love gardening but I've found that it can sometimes be incredibly snobby. GQT on Radio 4 drives me insane because it's so bloody middle-class, the exception being the lovely Christine Walkden. There are plants that are seen as common, for example the begonia and marigold. You'll rarely see them at Chelsea. Only the British could make growing plants a class issue!

Your poor mother's only consolation is that it will hide the gnomes...

Oi! I hope you're not turning your nose up at gnomes. I bought one from Asda years ago because it was the spitting image of my lovely NDN. He looks just right nestled in the ferns but my little pond.

The anthropologist Kate Fox, in 'Watching The English: The Hidden Rules Of English Behaviour', covers garden 'class indicators'! Apparently the following are 'vulgar':

-Gaudy bedding plants
-Ornate rockeries
-Pampas grass
-Hanging baskets
-Busy lizzies
-Chrysanthemums
-Gladioli
-Gnomes
-Goldfish ponds
-Regimented planting

Hydrangeas are not mentioned . . .

It's always worth bearing in mind that this stuff only makes a difference if you care

I was always told that Forsythia is common and it sounds like Bruce Forsyth which makes it sound even more common.
Geraniums, mariogolds, hydrangeas and busy lizzies - all common as muck I say .

What's another word for common? is it wrong to call a plant a chav?

Another question about Hydrangeas:

Is one colour more common than another?

I often think that the pink one look really common and look like old lady's plants, wheras blue, and the 'lacy' pale ones don't look as common.