Perrone on Butchart

Turns out I'm not the only one who was turned off by Butchart. Jane Perrone says:

"Beautiful though it undoubtedly was, it wasn't really my cup of tea. The planting in a lot of the gardens within the garden were a case of 'bung in the annuals': as soon as anything starts to wilt or die off, it's whipped out and replaced with more temporary bedding."

What is it that's so offensive to serious gardeners about carpets of annual bedding flowers? I think it's the waste. For the same money and effort, you could plant extraordinary perennial gardens, or even, for that matter, extraordinary annual gardens. Hey, if you're going to grow annuals, let's see a wildflower meadow. A pollinator garden. Vegetables! Herbs! Or get Annie's Annuals to supply some of their extraordinary and unusual gems, and plant those.

But pansies and petunias? Puh-leeeeez.

Horticultural: Darling dahlia