Overheard at the recent Peak to Prairie Landscape Symposium in Colorado Springs…..

Here are some interesting tidbits I heard in the sessions I attended at the 2009 symposium. Please know I’ve done my best to be exact, but I’m sure I’ve not gotten everything 100% accurate!

From Darrel Pearson (“Colorado Springs Urban Forestry Update”):

“We used to have rain back then…”
“We’re still here, and we have phones and stuff.” (When noting how many people will leave notes nailed to trees for they city forestry crew.)

Kim Gravestock’s mostly strongly recommended deer repellant? (“Designing with Shrubs”) “Bobbex”

From Scott Winter (“The Natives are the Bestest”):

“This is going to need to be irrigated when we don’t have the rain…which we, uh….generally don’t have.”

From Panayoti Kelaidis (“Woody Bones of the Garden”):

“It’s worth coming now just so you can be horrified.” (on the construction of the new parking garage and visitor’s center at Denver Botanic Gardens)

“Plants rarely read books.”

“As a person who loves plants, driving through our cities is painful…bad taste is rampant!”

“It’s very hard for a plant to thrive if it isn’t planted.”

“You should be gardening in the winter time.”

“Ugly landscapes lead to ugly lives.” (or something close to that)

“Daphnes are really the rhododendrons for us.”

“There IS such a thing as global warming.” (on seeing Japanese maples growing here now)

“That’s why God invented sex…well that, and that it’s fun.”

“I thought, ‘Oh my God…these are the most expensive annuals I’ll ever plant!'” (on planting some big yuccas at DBG…they’ve done fine)

“Give it a mineral soil, punish it, and bake it.” (rabbitbrush)

“Don’t water it! Don’t feed it! Give it crappy soil! And then stop complaining!”

“People just aren’t gardening like they should….it’s truly the greatest pleasure in life.”

“The only thing wrong with this plant is that you haven’t planted this plant!”

“I only plant plants from the planet Earth.” (he says we need to preserve our native plants, but planting only exclusively native plants is a political statement)

From Larry Stebbins (“The Beginning Gardener’s Quick Guide to Success”):

“Lima beans are a nonfood item.” (here! here!)

“Don’t do what I do and plant a whole row of Swiss chard and not eat it.” (but his chard goes on to win prizes at the county fair because it is so HUGE)

“The biggest mistake gardeners make is planting their veggies too close to each other.”

“Instead of Johnny Appleseed, I’m Larry Garlichead!”

From Gwen Moore Kelaidis (“Succulents Outdoors”):

“I don’t know why chollas don’t freeze. I think they’re too mean to freeze.”

“I’ve killed tons of plants by underwatering them.”

“More mature gardeners don’t care about floral flash – you care more about year-round companionship.”

“Have you tried deadheading iceplant?! Man, you have to have time on your hands!”

“I was criticized once for using the word ‘coolth’….well you know what ‘warmth’ means!”

“Can you believe somebody named a plant ‘Mr. Goodbud?’ – that’s sick!” (on Sedum ‘Mr. Goodbud’)

“I don’t care if it dies. I just buy more.” (on Lewisia cotyledon)

“I took the Chinese infantry approach – send in the troops, and you don’t care how many fatalities there are.” (on finally getting butterflyweed to grow in her garden)

“Somebody said to me ‘I want you to get me a hens-and-chicks that doesn’t bloom,’ and I said ‘Well they don’t want you to have sex either.'”

“They’re monocarpic. They bloom once and then they croak. See how grateful we should be??”

“They make good barriers if you have a dog that likes to cut across your yard – they won’t do it twice!” (on agave)

“I think one of the reasons people don’t plant cactus is that they don’t have cultivar names.” (She went on to say that people are hesitant to establish official cultivar names for them because “Nobody wants to press ’em! And you have to submit a pressing with your application.”)

From Bob Nold (“High and Dry Gardening on the Front Range”):

“I am an extremely lazy person. It was all I could do to get me here.” (On how he started not watering plants.)

“I took this picture to show off my paint job.” (on a photo of his front garden and house)

“Totally useless creatures…” (on his dog)

“My note says ‘mention book three times,’ so this is the first time….”

“When people say it’s fragrant, they have defective nostrils.”

“Last July we put out the ‘No Smoking’ sign” (in his garden since it was so dry)

“It’s the ultimate hummingbird plant…if only we had hummingbirds at the time of year this is blooming.”

“I thought about it in 2002.” (watering)

“I have no idea what time…oh…I could babble for another half hour!”