I Can’t Resist Free Plants

One of the first gardening books I read was Catriona Tudor Erler’s The Frugal Gardener. My favorite chapter has always been the one called $ave Money on Plants.

I am a plant collector, and I can’t resist a good deal. And one of the best deals around is the free plant, which isn’t found at any garden center.

Last week, when I got an e-mail through my Wild Ones chapter about someone giving away free plants, I excitedly e-mailed her my cell number. I’m still waiting to hear back, but I’m hoping!

When we first moved into our house, my co-worker heard that I was planning a garden for my back yard.

“My husband has a big garden,” she said. She offered us some plants from it. So one evening we drove to River Forest and I acquired Century Plant (Agave Americana), Canadian Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense), Bee Balm (Monarda), and Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea). We spent an hour oohing and aahing over his enormous garden, and he gave me detailed instructions on how to grow every plant he was digging up for me.

During the housing boom, I transferred many plants from “teardowns” in town. One spring, I was out walking my infant daughter when I saw a demolition sale at a house with a well-established garden. While the grandmotherly woman in charge cooed over my baby, I asked if I could pay her to take away some of the plants.

“Oh, take all you want,” she said. “They’re just going to bulldoze it anyways. No charge.”

I walked straight home and loaded my daughter, my favorite spade, and some garbage bags to carry the plants into the car. I drove straight back.

While the baby napped in her car seat next to me, I dug and loaded several hundred dollars’ worth of shrubs and mature perennials into my car. That expedition netted me the Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) in the photo, peonies, daylilies, hostas, and other garden standbys I didn’t have at the time. Most of these aren’t natives, and I’m now struggling with the issue of what to do with some of them (because I like them), but that’s another story.

It’s wrong to take plants without asking, but I’ve learned never to be afraid to ask. People say “no” only rarely. Especially in the spring when they are dividing plants, gardeners are happy to give some away. In fact, trading or giving away plants is part of the fun.

So now that it is spring, feel free to ask! If your neighbors are like me, they’ve probably got extras.