SOME of the nicest and most rewarding plants may come into the garden in unexpected ways - a chance seedling, from a seed dropped by an obliging bird visitor, or a scrap acquired unintentionally attached to the root of another plant. Items from plant sales or a sales table sometimes bring such passengers. And of course some of us take a chance and decide to try unknown things in the garden centres. It is an essential part of the adventure to travel hopefully. A rigid and set approach is not really such a good idea; the better gardener will be flexible and prepared to adjust the picture as time goes by.
We all set out with some ideal in mind: a number of plants will do well, sometimes much better than even the optimist expected - and invariably there will be failures. The garden will not develop and grow precisely to the gardener's vision without compromise or adjustments. Composed of living things, matters could not be otherwise. Quite the opposite to affairs inside the house. In the living room, the curtains will not expand and grow, smothering the chairs. Nor will the home-owner suddenly notice a new cabinet sprouting away from a fertile corner of the carpet, jostling and bullying a table out of the way. Accustomed to the static nature of an interior, new gardeners can be thoroughly startled by the seemingly erratic behaviour of plants in their determination to be individuals and their delight in upsetting the gardener's considered plans.
Happily, nature sometimes makes things better with her unsolicited adjustments and amendments. Which ever way, dealing with the outside is a very different challenge and adventure to sorting out the pictures, lamps, furniture and floor coverings, and it has to be ongoing. A garden is never finished and that is part of its fascination. It is an unending vista of possibilities and variations in plan and plant content.
Trying out new plants should be an ongoing adventure. There will be pleasures and delights as well as disappointments. How boring it would be to have a fixed and limited palette with no possibility of expanding and adding while discarding rejects happily. Not everything that grows and seems intent on ingratiating itself will necessarily be a desirable and delectable addition to the overall scheme. Most gardens have no fixed boundaries and most gardeners have a limit to the time and energy that can be expended on an increasing plant stock, so every now and then a cull will be in order so some balance can be restored.
Occasionally a new pleasure will arrive as a substitute nominated by a nurseryman or supplier. On one such day I did not bless the smart alec who sent me a variegated Obedient Plant instead of the variegated phlox I had very specifically ordered. The Obedient Plant in its plain, greenleaved form I had known and had decided to do without, a boring, pink-flowered thing which flowered in September and was not amusing enough. A variegated version was unlikely to appeal to me any more or so I thought as my vexation made me consider a forceful verbal complaint over the phone. What I desired was a tall, purple-flowered plant sporting handsome variegated leaves in green with a broad, creamy margin.
Exercising a degree of patience I had considered to be commendable, I planted the usurper - after all, I had paid for it in advance and would have to suffer it a while. What a nice treat it has turned out to be, Physostegia Virginiana Variegata and how kind and considerate the individual who thought of substituting it, bless his little heart! In September, when the phlox - which I did eventually track down - has grown tired and dingy, the lovely Obedient Plant is all charm. The square stems support long leaves of good, greyish green with a thin, white margin. The flower spikes come in a long succession through September and October in a pleasing pinkish purple. The individual flowers show a paler, whitish throat. The root runs to make a desirable clump so it furnishes the border ever so nicely as a splash of light from late spring until it gives the added pleasure of flowers in late autumn.