Humility

One thing about gardening is that it teaches humility.

I do a lot of reading about horticulture (have a collection of over 200 books and 20 years of issues of 4 different magazines), attend technical updates, conferences and garden tours and listen to fellow Master Gardeners and excellent speakers. So I feel that I have some knowledge of plants.

Recently, after the Horticultural Society's Plant Exchange, I was pawing through the remaining plants and came across a plant that I thought was a variety of helenium. I could always use another so I purchased this one for a whole dollar (looney). I suppose that somewhat sums up my purchase - I was mistaken. The plant turned out to be one of those plants that turns up in your garden because the gardener down the street has thousand of them - a daisy.

I bought a daisy! How dumb is that? Who doesn't know what a daisy looks like? Who wants another in their yard when they come up like forget-me-nots?

I'm going to think twice before I attempt to identify another plant for someone.