Turkey Plants: Don't Plant These!

Al Gore, George Bush, Ralph Nadar. What are we talking about? Well, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, would you believe all of the above are turkeys? Not the eating kind, of course, but turkeys none the less. Which brings us to this gardening column because there are plenty of plants that are turkeys, too.

For instance, one of my pet peeves are homeowners who plant trees right next to their property line. Now, this isn't a problem unless you consider the type of trees being planted. Things like eucalyptus and redwoods that not only grow rapidly, but can be 50 feet or higher in just a few years!

It's just my bad luck that a next-door neighbor (one who long ago has moved away, I might add) planted some equally huge specimens six feet away from our fence. Now, I'm left with having to rake huge masses of leaves each fall. Plus, the darn shade these trees provide have pretty near done in my vegetable garden because there simply is not enough sunlight.

City officials are turkeys, too. At least those city officials who decided 35 years ago that liquidambar trees were the choice for those parking strip areas between the street and the sidewalk. As only too many homeowners will tell you today, liquidambars not only have spiky seed pods that make a mess of everything during the winter, but also wandering surface roots. These bothersome roots will uproot everything from sidewalks and driveways to expensive paving stone. I know this by experience. A good rule of thumb when planting trees that eventually will grow to 40 feet or more is to not plant them within 25 feet of concrete or the house. Another turkey that is prevalent locally are agapanthus. Also known as "Lily of the Nile," these drought-resistant, succulent-like plants grow easily and, therefore, are planted everywhere. Now, there's nothing particularly wrong with that and, admittedly, they look attractive throughout summer when they bear their tall flower stalks and clusters of nice blue flowers on top.

I've even had visitors from back East ask about them. Visitors are attracted to the blue flowers and aren't familiar with them because agapanthus do not survive snowy climates. The problem this time of year is that many home gardeners fail to ever cut off those flower stalks. The dead clusters of flowers are still hanging from the stalks - months after they died. If you have agapanthus in your garden, please see if those old flower stalks are still hanging there.

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