Manly Plants

Does Angelica gigas qualify as a "manly plant"? It has a six or seven foot fluorescence on a stalk emerging from basal foliage...

In the background of any blog, the bloggers can see those things for which readers of their blog are searching. Another blogger I follow recently wrote a blog about whether wisteria beans were edible. They're not. In fact they are poisonous. The wisteria beans probably won't kill you, but they will make you sick. She ended with " Bad dog, SPIT!"

These days, everyone certainly needs a sense of humor. Here in Wisconsin, half the people you ask will probably tell you our Governor is decidedly a very bad joke. So when I saw that a reader was looking for "manly plants" I just had to share my "wild and crazy" thoughts with you readers.

"Manly plants."

It conjures up some strange SNL skit where 1980s comedians Steve Martin and whoever sidekick of the day enter a present day big box store dressed in shiny, metallic-colored glamfab costumes, and with a rolling gait walk over to a pimpled saleskid holding a garden hose too long on some sedum or Mediterranean heat-loving herbs, while checking his iPhone for text messages.

"Oh, Nursery Expert, we have heard gardening is hot, hot, hot; and we hot guys would like to start a garden with real Manly Plants. What do do you suggest?"

The HD saleskid clone certainly doesn't have a clue to that one. Looking quickly left and right and seeing no supervisor in sight, he realizes he is on his own.

And that's where I have to leave this skit.

What are manly plants? Do we follow the Tim Allen sitcom thoughts and pile tons of lawn seed, lawn weed and feed, trimmers, hedgers, and mowers, all with "more power", into our comedians' baskets?

Or, are the ingredients for a super hot, blistering chili: onion sets, jalapeno peppers, Roma tomatoes, and habanero peppers; manly plants?

I know quite a few men who garden. I would guess male professional horticulturalists outnumber women. The two best gardens on last weekend's Outagamie Master Gardeners Garden Walk were the work of men. I hope stereotypes like manly plants or the idea of plants marketed for men, or women, have no place in horticulture.