THE COASTAL GARDENER:

Gardeners today have a dilemma. Or maybe I’m just getting old and cynical.

Whichever it is, I must confess that I am bothered by some of what I see going on in the plant business today.

Before I droll on, I’m sure my worries are not necessarily unique to the plant world or those, like me, who like to kick around in the soil.

My concern at this moment is what I will call the dumbing down of the garden shopper. And it bothers me.

I see endless displays of perfectly uniform impatiens, sprayed with chemical growth regulators so that every one is at the perfect moment of bloom; orchids by the thousands, identical genetic copies of each other, clonally produced in glass flasks a continent far away and sold out of cardboard boxes at the entrance to the local grocery store; and slick plant campaigns like “Plants That Work” and “Proven Winners.”

I see marketing strategies camouflaged as contests, like “Rose of the Year” and “Perennial Plant of the Year;” flowering annuals, perennials and shrubs in full, perfect bloom, offering all their mysteries at once, leaving little to our imaginations.

There’s nothing to be discovered by the curious gardener a week from now or a year from now.

We’re robbed of the complete story, like a book with all but the final chapter removed.

As I write this I am on an airplane, far from the soil, returning from a visit to five of the nation’s biggest and best garden centers in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Nine of us, all representing independently owned nurseries, got together for a few days to learn from each other and share ideas and stories about how we might succeed in a climate of big box, oversimplified, mass produced, two-for-a-dollar, glossy, over-marketed plants. A climate that gives gardeners no credit. A climate of instant gardening; gardening by numbers.

Independent garden centers and specialist nurseries — long the fertile ground of new plants, passionate plant people and garden innovation — are grappling with this new paradigm of gardening.

Heronswood is gone; Western Hills Nursery was sold; Buena Creek Nursery is for sale, as is Piergrossi Nursery. Close to home, Laguna Hills Nursery is shrinking in size, and Fusano’s Nursery is no more.

So, over a meal of red wine and succulent strip steak, at a table at Frank’s Steakhouse on Long Island, we debated the current dumbing down of the American gardener. The no-hassle, instant approach to selling and buying plants.

The exchange was lively and buzzing during the following three days, as we drove down the Atlantic seaboard from nursery to nursery, visiting our friends in the plant business.

Now, 48 hours later, on an airplane 10,000 feet in the air, I’m looking down on a thousand gardens in one eyeful.

I can’t help but be proud of the legacy of these family-owned, independent garden centers and specialty nurseries: bringing new plants to gardeners, teaching beginners how to be successful, sharing our passion for the “other” plants, promoting uniqueness and discouraging uniformity among gardens.

I’ll be off the plane shortly, returning to work and to my garden, as will my friends, returning to their gardens.

We will be back at our nurseries going on with our passion. We’ll continue extolling the joys and virtues of gardening, sharing our knowledge and advice with our customers, searching for more and better plants and managing the business along the way.

We’ll have some dumbed-down, simplistic, mass-produced, cookie-cutter plants.

Right up front we’ll have nice displays of little round symmetrical plants, all in perfect bloom, with glossy hang tags and snazzy slogans.

We’ll have tables full of uniform flowers in perfect bloom.

We have to: It’s inevitable.

But a few steps further and off to the side, we’ll have some other plants — plants that require a bit of curiosity, some patience and maybe a little exploration and risk.

We hope you will join us — off to the side.

ASK RON

Question: Thanks for the column about ET (evapotranspiration). I learned a lot and have a better understanding of the answer to my constant question, “how often should I water.” Is there a website where I can see local ET data on a regular basis?

Lindsay

Newport Coast

Answer: Yes. Go to www.cimis.water.ca.gov/cimis/welcome.To get detailed reports you will need to register, but the summary information is quite useful by itself.

ASK RON your toughest gardening questions, and the expert nursery staff at Roger’s Gardens will come up with an answer. Please include your name, phone number and city, and limit queries to 30 words or fewer. E-mail [email protected], or write to Plant Talk at Roger’s Gardens, 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Corona del Mar, CA 92625.

RON VANDERHOFF is the nursery manager at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar.