prairie point

The December selection of the Garden Bloggers Book Club is My Favorite Plant. It is an anthology edited by Jamaica Kincaid.

I have been buying anthology music CD’s recently. I find ones that have a few artists that I am familiar with, so I am assured that there will be something I like. And I usually find two or three more artists on the CD that I like too.

It works the same way in books. I just finished Pride of Place, an anthology of Texas nature writing. It has essays by two writers that I know are always good, a few more by names I recognize and a bunch by people I never heard of at all. It turned out my two favorite pieces were by ones I had never heard of.

So I was looking forward to reading My Favorite Plant, but unfortunately I never got around to it. In fact I never even got around to ordering the book.

Luckily Carol, who is the founder and coordinator of the Garden Bloggers Book Club, provided us with an alternative for the month. Instead of reading and reviewing the book, we could write our own piece about our own favorite plant. Since I don’t want to drop out of the club in only my second month of membership, I’ll try this.

Which immediately leads to the great question of all time. Do I pick the exotic beauty that I lust over in magazine photo spreads but disappoints me no matter how much attention I lavish on it? I wish I had a nickel for every dollar I’ve wasted on high-maintenance hussies of the plant world. No, I prefer the common beauties that will grow and bloom for me no matter how much I neglect and abuse them.

But which one?

I’m tempted to pick Salvia greggii, because I plant so much of it. It never seems to fail and blooms for such a long period of time, late-summer to frost, and a little in the spring too. And the deer won’t bother it either which is an important consideration for me.

Rosemary is another candidate that comes to mind, maybe just because I have one that is waiting to be planted. It was our Christmas tree this year and I think I am going to plant it next to the mailbox. We had big rosemaries at our old house that sprawled into commonly used paths where they released their scent whenever anyone brushed by. I like plants with scents.

Salvia and rosemary both have tiny blossoms though. How about something that really wows you with a bright, cheery flower? Something like a sunflower. Sunflowers always make me happy. But they can be a nuisance too, proliferating all over the yard and their tall ungainly stems don’t always look that charming.

But consider the iris. It’s about as dependable as you can get. The foliage looks good and blends in just about anywhere in the garden. The flowers come in multiple colors and can have about as much “wow” factor as anything you can imagine. Pretty much no care required and the wildlife avoid them too. I’ve seen them blooming in cemeteries and along old fence rows where no one has tended them in years.

Now that I think about it I actually had more irises in my old garden than I had any other flower. And when I dug plants to bring with me to my new garden I brought more iris bulbs than any other plant.

Yes, I choose the iris.

Visit the Garden Bloggers Book Club to see what others chose. Or read some reviews of the book.