Location is Everything

Newly Planted Mountain Laurel

New Planted Saffron Plum

Today, I finally planted what may well be the last two woody plants I will add to my landscape. It has taken me weeks to do this as I wanted to make sure that I had chosen places for them where they could thrive. Unlike animals, plants cannot move to a better location once they are anchored in the ground.  They are amazingly resilient beings, but they have to make do with the conditions we give them. We play God when we plant them and it is best when we are a wise one.

I have spent over a year searching for both of these two plants. They are not commonly propagated by the commercial native plant nurseries here. Perhaps because the demand is not great for one and because basic large-scale propagation techniques do not work well for the other. The saffron plum (Sideroxylon celastrina) is a narrow-crowned evergreen shrub/tree that has a heavenly fragrance that attracts the attention of all kinds of pollinators and produces small purple "plums" that are favored by fruit-eating birds. I had to leave the one I had at my former home when I moved. It was too big to transplant without significant risk of it dying because of my attempt. I found one finally at a relatively close-by native plant nursery nearly a month ago, but I couldn't decide where to plant it. It takes time sometimes and I was in no rush. Neither was the plant.

The other is a beautiful specimen of a Florida mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia). The nursery I found this one at does not list it in their catalog, but they made this one available to me. All of that makes it an even more-treasured specimen.  You can't simply put a plant like this in an "open" spot regardless of the site conditions and expect it to thrive. I needed a spot that had space enough to spread out a bit. That was a challenge. It also needed some sun - enough to flower normally, but not in the glaring wide open spaces that I might have used. 

We don't take an animal pet into our homes without first considering what it will need prior to our purchase. If we decide to take up tropical fish or an exotic amphibian or reptile, we take a great amount of time creating just the right conditions in our aquarium/terrarium to give them the best chance at living a good life. For some reason, many of us fail to give our plants the same considerations. We expect plants to live where we plant them and we plant them in places we choose for ourselves. Landscape architects, keen on design instead of ecology, are some of the worst at this. We simply can't install plants using our sense of design aesthetics if doing so puts our plants in conditions they can't adjust to. 

I hope that I have chosen places for my new treasures wisely. In the weeks leading up to today, I have given each as much consideration as I could. In these weeks, I have mentally planted them in a number of different places. Each time, I thought that the location I was considering was the best one. I'm glad I mulled it over longer. There is no was no need to rush into a decision quickly. 

We need to think of our plants as living communities that will work together - not as isolated individuals, and we need to give them the best chance we can at survival. Take your time before you plant - location is everything.