Are you a patient gardener?

Patience is the very essence of my philosophy of gardening, the planning, planting, the anticipation creates excitement
and reward, or failure!

kwanjin, that was perfectly said wasn't it? lol

As a grower of many slow growing plants (I still have some cacti which have yet to bloom after 35 years in my possession) I would like to think I have developed SOME patience, but it doesn't stop me poking about in the soil above my spring bulbs every year to see if they are "doing anything yet" LOL! There is just something compelling about watching them come up through the soil each year.

Overall I'm patient in the garden but impatient overtones exist as well. Perhaps a better term for impatient would be anticipation - similar to kid waiting for Christmas morning. It's fun to go out every day and see what new offering the garden has to offer.

Gardening is just about the only thing I can be patient about!

I am a horribly impatient person when it comes to everything but the garden environment. I enjoy watching plants develop at their own speed and I have a soft spot for teensy weensy seedlings bravely persevering through drought and h*a*i*l. I do wish that the plants were more patient though cuz just when I go 'AHA! how perfectly prettiful you are sure that plant will try a takeover or a runaway.

I've a plaque in my house this Lord grant me patience and do it NOW! I tend to buy all smaller plants so that I have the right to say I've raised that from a little baby. That said;...........I will go out every day and yell grow d----- and do it now. I tend to over plant planting too close together for a fuller look. Year 1 is iffy year 2 is gorgeous and year 3 is a night mare. Then I need a new bed that I will once again over plant and the cycle goes on.

I have some patience, but not an overabundence. I try to always have something blooming in the garden AND some plants ABOUT to bloom in the garden. That really helps extend my patience - if there is always something changing and developing.

The secret is to plant other plants that will bloom while you are waiting. I waited for a tree form Chinese wisteria to bloom at least 10 years. It's finally blooming, but it's sibling is not, yet. I will wait a few more years and if it doesn't perform I MIGHT cut it down. The trunk on this tree is already 6 inches compared to the one that does bloom which is 4".

Did you try whacking it with a broom while verbally abusing it, dorothian, like the lady bookerc1 mentioned above?

"The first time I went to the local garden club, an older lady was telling stories on herself. She said she was so frustrated with her stupid wisteria that just would not bloom, that she grabbed her broom and started whacking at it, yelling at it, and telling it how mad she was. Lo and behold, it bloomed shortly afterward."

I am not patient about one thing in my life except waiting for plants to bloom............the journey of nurturing and growing it is more fun than the first bloom anyway............

In the reference article I posted earlier, it was stated that Chinese wisteria can take 20 years to bloom. And...
"Maturation can be forced by physically abusing the main trunk, root pruning, or drought stress."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisteria

This message was edited Jun 24, 2009 9:31 PM

The only thing the Good Lord gave me patience for are my gardens!
Sometimes, I don't think he gave me enough!!!

I'm not real patient person to begin with----but find I'm a little more so with my plants. They do things in their own time!

As a for instance----Have two different ones that are night bloomers---getting ready to bloom any day? now. Not a night person (anymore) but have sat up with these plants in the last few years from 10pm to 12pm, just to see them bloom. Have some pretty fantastic pics of them that had I given up & went to bed, would not have been able to get.
Have one new that I just got last summer that I've not yet seen bloom---guess it will be worth the wait to see it!

Wow, Yuska, I'll have to share that link with the wisteria-abuser! Maybe her guilty feelings will abate, once she realizes it is a legitimate gardening practice. LOL

LOL, amazing! Just tell her not to get that impatient with her impatiens... O.O

KyWoods, here is a cartoon for ya! I have this posted on my 'fridge!

I can wait two years for iris to bloom and two to five for fruit trees to bloom, but don't ask me to wait for Firefox to come up when I first log on in the morning. It seems to take forever. Maybe that is due to lack of coffee.

LOL, that's cute, Bookerc1!

I agree. Adorable, brookerc1! That is an adorable cartoon.

Bookerc1! Love the cartoon, I never thought about plants being impatiens, explains a lot.

After reading all the postings, it seems to me that we're ALL a bundle of differing blends of patience and impatience, depending on the circumstances! I know I am; patient with my slow-growing hostas in their woodland border, but eager and yearning and poking at the ground for those first bulbs of the NE Spring to finally show their faces!

Right now, I'm impatient to get out in the garden because it's finally stopped raining!!

Having reached the age of almost 61, I realize that buying twigs is no longer going to reward me with the plants I want to have filling my garden. I may not have 30 years to see them mature. I also have many overgrown shrubs and trees that need either severe pruning or replacement. Unfortunately, who can afford to replace even medium versions of these plants? So here goes the pruning! If they don't make it, I know there are other plants that will just follow me home! Ca sera, sera (sp!).

It's easy to be patient in 10-B.

Pirate, I don't want to hear it!

I have the most beautiful magnolia tree in my garden planted by the late owner of my house, sometimes. at what ever
age we are, we are planting for the future and not the now. My dear Mother a lifelong gardener has a magnificent oak in her garden probably 200 years old. For these reasons I don't restrict myself from planting anything I feel future generations may enjoy.

pajonica

Hello.

Basically, I am not a patient gardener. Anything that won't grow is ripped up and replaced by something else. I buy plants full-grown because I have no time for cuttings and even less patience with seeds. Life is short. Gotta go.

Sylvain.

Take a sniff Sylvain, those roses are awfully sweet.

I collect baby century plants .....

^_^

Paula my Father and Joycet's are both 90.... you got time.

Are we there yet? Huh? Close?

That's the attitude of most of the 'Gardeners' around here.
Large wallets, Large Plants, Largely Neglected.....
not the plants the yards...never see anyone enjoying/using them.
You'd think we were in 10-B.... ;-).

We don't do many seeds but do work a lot w/ little plants and cuttings.
A 3+ year wait for a Clematis is fine.
And have we have TONS of patience.
The Big Plants ALWAYS go on 1/2 price or better by July 1st......
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A mother and her 2 year old little girl enter a grocery store with a long list of groceries to buy.
The two year old little girl starts screaming.
The woman quietly whispers, “Stay calm, Charolette, stay calm.”

The little girl begins to scream louder, now throwing herself into a terrible tantrum.
The woman quietly whispers, “We are almost through in here, Charolette, calm down.”

Another woman on the same aisle hears everything going on and says to the woman, “I admire your patience with your little one, how do you do it?”

The woman replies, “PATIENCE!? *I’M* CHAROLETTE!!”

Richard; You should post that one on the Jokes and Humor forum.

im a Taurus!!! tells you everything about me!!

I will wait for years if I have to, and when something I planted comes back with a bloom, I celebrate my patience. I do whine alot while waiting..

I am not the most patient of folk, but have learned over the years that plants don't care if you are or not. They will perform on their own schedule and I can like it or not. That being said, I am the reason Mother Nature gave us annuals. One season start to finish and they help keep my mind off the things that take years to mature. I also search out plants that tout they "bloom the first year".

Gardening has taught me a lot of Life's lessons, but I still love the "big, quick bang for my buck" plants that give nearly instant gratification in the landscape. My husband says it is the Gemini in me....one twin waits while the other rushes headlong....GRIN

Oh, I'm a Gemini, so that;s why I marked patient in some things and not in others....

Mostly impatient wins out ;-)

I remind myself that from the plant's standpoint, blooming starts the serious business of procreation. The lovely colors and alluring fragrances I so admire are really there to attract the pollinators - the ultimate goal is to produce the seeds for the next generation, and to do it in such a way that something or someone will distribute those seeds. I'm only a helper in getting the plant positioned and supplied with nutrients and water and protection from its enenies, if possible. The timing is beyond my control or influence. I remind myself - frequently.

I have heard it said that patience is a virtue. Given that I am not overly patient and never really ever was,my Great-Aunt India would always respond to "When?" with "Time moves at its' own will and there is no reason to suspect you can change that, so, go out in the garden and see what the butterflies are doing then come back and let me know how they are."

That didn't really help with patience, but I did learn to love gardens and butterflies and dragonflies and a host of other magical wonderful plants and creatures that I feel obliged to watch out for....and I want to do it right now!

With gardening and cooking I am very patient but not with anything else

I'm patient because I'm CHEAP! Make that thrifty. I can't make myself buy bigger plants when I can get a 6 pack of the same thing for the same (or close to it ) price. Plus it has the advantage of requiring smaller holes and being able to plant closer together. I want lots of things densely planted and it's a lot easier if the plants are small. And then I go in and broadcast seed. Of course I forget what I planted so when it blooms the next year I tickled pink (or purple or blue or what ever color it blooms).

i am horribly impatient about almost everything, (in and out of the garden) but then again, gardening has taught me patience to a degree i never had before gardening and i'm thankful for every little bit i can get.

have waited 3 years for a first bloom on this Alpinia but the leaves are pretty all year so that was the trade-off!