Think before planting
Getting new plants and planting them is an extremely satisfying activity and today, with many people self-isolated at home, it’s happening even more. Full marks if you’re one of these people.
But I find that people often buy plants based on look alone. They fail to consider the mature size of their plants. One great example comes from one of my day-job work sites.
These two Fatsia japonica specimens look fine with their huge leaves but look where they were planted; they’re stuck between a garage and a sidewalk. Since I know many mature Fatsia japonica specimens from other sites, this thought struck me immediately: they won’t have enough space.
Mature size
Now consider that the average mature size for Fatsia japonica is eight feet (8′). One day, soon, they might look like this.
Now, I’m not good with Photoshop so transplant this image in your head into the tight spot shown above. It’s going to be a headache for the owners as they have to duck to get into their unit; and crash their car through the foliage just to park in their garage.
This will inevitably lead to pruning requests and the plant won’t look the way it was supposed to. It should be a nice eight foot specimen with huge glossy leaves, and sporting flowers in winter when not much else is flowering.
We could avoid a lot of extra pruning requests in our landscapes by considering the mature sizes of plants before planting them. This often happens with trees. We plant them too close to houses and then we have to hack them constantly so they never look the way they were intended to look.
Remember!
Before planting any tree or shrub consider your plant’s mature size and make sure there is adequate space for it to grow nicely and mature without harsh pruning.
