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Desert Island Discs

21 comments


Since joining Goy, I have looked at hundreds of photos of members gardens. I started scribbling ideas and plant names on odd scraps of paper, progressed to an A4 pad, then the lap top and now have a list much bigger than the garden itself.

Help…….

If you were banished to a small island and could take with you only 4 plants; what would they be and why?

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Hi, I would prefer to take 4 lots of seed, sweetcorn, potatoe's, carrots and some sort of green veg, I could then sow the seed, let some lower and produce seed for the following year, and still have something to eat, but if you mean " ornamental plants" then I would take a fast growing bamboo, probably for all 4,you can eat the new shoots, and when it grows you can build all sorts of things with it, ie shelter, Derek.

1 Feb, 2014

 

They would be cacti of course lol .... They would do well on a desert island,
but I would have an awful job deciding which four to take !

Not very practical, but I am not a practical sort of person ...

1 Feb, 2014

 

hywel what will you eat i would take bananas then i would make a banana boat when they had grown big because people used to get here on banana boats i know because many people said in our conversations,do you think i came on a banana boat,

1 Feb, 2014

 

i would take four yellow plants because i love yellow :-)

1 Feb, 2014

 

I would take my favourite rose, rosa 'Mundi', Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki', Eucalyptus tree and a flowering cherry tree...it was extremely hard to make up my mind...

1 Feb, 2014

 

I would take cosmos, dahlias, gazanias and rudbeckias. I would probably starve to death, but would do so looking at these beautiful flowers! lol.

It was difficult to choose though!

1 Feb, 2014

 

couldn't make a decision. but peony and rose new dawn are 2 I'd take providing the desert island was magical and ensured they survived the conditions.

1 Feb, 2014

 

Snoopy, I would probably starve to death like Lijemc :o)

1 Feb, 2014

 

Well it does not have to be a desert island. This island has a perfect climate, lovely soil, local inhabitants who are so pleased to see you, that they will see to your every need. All you have to do is garden. How does that sound?

1 Feb, 2014

 

This is so hard! If the islanders will give me veg and all the freshly picked gooseberries and rhubarb I want I will take my double white hellebore, a Judas tree,which I hope would grow there, a penstemon because it flowers so long, and I could swap cuttings with the islanders, and some English bluebells for the perfume and to remind me of home, and when they spread i can swap some for daffodils???. Always supposing that the Judas tree and bluebells would fourish in the smame climate...

1 Feb, 2014

 

Hywel,
you could bring prickly pear (oputina) cactus. It has beautiful blooms and is edible :-)
Traditionally, the Mexicans use several parts of this plant. The green pads are used as a vegetalbe and herbal remedy. The fruits may be eaten fresh, or cooked or they may be crushed and strained and the resulting juice used as is, or to make syrups, jellies, beverages, etc. So there you go...I made one choice for you :-)
I am way too practical so apple tree, blueberries, some herbal or medicinal plants as well. Some of them are quite beautiful.

1 Feb, 2014

 

I would take a pink rhodi which my husbands uncle gave us when we first moved here. A red oriental poppy which a very generous fried dug up from his garden. Summer Jasmine for fragrance and shade and potatoes because I am greedy.

1 Feb, 2014

 

Thank you Klahanie :o)) I'll remember to put one on my list ! ;o)

1 Feb, 2014

 

Like Tresco in the Scillies?
I, d have a lemon tree that could live outside and I'd make my own lemonade
and one of my favorite trees Poplar candicans Aurora to remind me of my family (dad planted it for gran, now it reminds me of all of them)
and pansies in pretty colours to see their smiling faces
Tresco already has such lovely tropical plants that I'd maybe have waterlilies on my koi pond .....well I am allowed....... it my fantasy :0)))

2 Feb, 2014

 

Hellebore orientalis for spring flowering
Rose Brother Cadfael for summer long flowering
Sedum spectablis for autumn
Mahonia for winter

or... I could make list upon list!

2 Feb, 2014

 

Could not possibly choose, I'd want everything to go with me.........

2 Feb, 2014

 

0H BOTHER! I had made up my mind that I was going to buy Rose New Dawn, but now I have seen Brother Cadfael I am really torn.

2 Feb, 2014

 

I'd have to have Rosa Graham Thomas, some variety of acer, a camellia, some sempervivum, though how I'd choose one variety from the many I have I don't know!

2 Feb, 2014

 

I am like Lincs. it would be impossible for me to choose, perhaps a spring bulb, a highly scented, long flowering summer rose, an autumn long flowering evergreen shrub, and a Christmas tree.......as for varieties, well now that would be verrrrrrrry difficult!!

6 Feb, 2014

 

well, as long as the locals keep me well fed, I'd take cosmos first of all..so I could sit and watch the butterflies...then a mock orange bush so I could breathe in that heavenly scent....then a healthy russian olive tree so I could read a good book in it's dappled shade...and finally a whopping big maple tree so I could remember my home....when do we leave?...

29 Mar, 2014

 

Just seen your opuntia suggestion Hywel - I tried the fruit on the Canary islands and it was quite nice, but you had to be really careful to remove all the little barbed hairs so you'll need totake something to scrape them off with.

30 Mar, 2014

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