Favourite plants and vegetables

[justgivein]

Just been looking at my favourite plant Aquilegia about to flower in my garden. My first plant i bought when I was a teen and was really taken with was Tradescantia.Just wondered if your tastes in plants has always been similar. I started gardening when I was five helping my father dig over his garden can anyone beat this.Only joking but can you remember how you first started gardening.I also grew purple sprouting broccoli by the bucketful but my parents weren't interested about cooking it now we love courgettes and just love picking them.

My mum let me dig out a little bed in the middle of the front lawn in which I grew nasturtiums aged around 6 or 7. That got me hooked although I then had to wait until age 36 for an actual garden of my own.

I used to have a cactus collection when I was ridiculously young. I was SO ahead of my time! I went off them and they all died. Id love them back now!bother it took me another 30 or so years to get back into gardening.

Favourite plants? Flower, is probably cowslip. It's quite unassuming but I love it as it's a native, early colour and fodder for pollinators. It lasts a really long time and it's low maintenance. And multiplies readily. And is pretty happy in most places ie full sun, quite shady... Favourite veg is tomatoes. I love them so much: love growing them, trying new ones, and eating them all.

@TheSpottedZebra is you name tomato related? I grow green zebra tomatoes which are delish!

I will always have a fondness for standard fuchsia as my grandfather grew a little avenue of them in his garden.
I also have happy memories of my mum snapping little bits off any hydrangea that she came across in someone’s front garden and taking the bit home and rooting it in a glass of water on the kitchen windowsill. I don’t think she ever bought a plant but she had a beautiful well stocked garden via taking crafty cuttings and seed heads from everywhere she went.

My dad used to grow vegetables. I've never had a garden big enough to copy him, but mange to squeeze beans, strawberries etc in-between the flowers.

Similar to @Proudboomer I love geraniums (well, pelargoniums really) because my grandad showed me how to take cuttings from them as a child. I adore the smell of them as well. I usually have red ones in my window boxes because it makes me think of school trips to France. I'm aware people think they're vulgar but I don't care
I like a lot of old fashioned bedding plants, actually, like marigolds - they're so cheerful.

@CheerfulBunny

Similar to *@Proudboomer* I love geraniums (well, pelargoniums really) because my grandad showed me how to take cuttings from them as a child. I adore the smell of them as well. I usually have red ones in my window boxes because it makes me think of school trips to France. I'm aware people think they're vulgar but I don't care I like a lot of old fashioned bedding plants, actually, like marigolds - they're so cheerful.

Yes like yourself my mother was also a big influence as to why I took up gardening as a youth.Every window in our house was full of pelargoniums and I still remember the scent most of which were red or pink,some of which she managed to grow up to two foot high.She was also an artist specialising in floral and frequently asking my opinion on her paintings which now cover my walls .Alot of parents/grandparents a big reason for taking up gardening on this thread.My father used to swear a lot in the garden at his electric flymo getting clogged up trying to cut long grass and his neighbour that used to complain about his bonfires. One day my father in law gave me a heavy petrol Honda and I had that lawn striped in just over ten minutes,I still remember my fathers face.I think he was really relieved I had taken over the lawn cutting.My other favourite is Helebores which I have all over my garden because of the babies they produce underneath which get planted everywhere.

Pelargoniums here too as so reminicent of childhood.
I take cuttings galore, nurture the plants over Winter and give a lot away. The smell in my greenhouse is so evocative of my childhood...
I also Erysium Bowles Mauve as mine have flowered non-stop for 15 months so far.
My favourite shrub has to be Fatisa Japonica for its architectural appearance -i love them and have too many.
I love the gardening chat!