too many plants?

[Nold]

Am I the only person who wonders, from time to time, if I have too many plants? I was worried that the new rock garden would look bare, but my sister came over today and said she thought it looked good. No wonder; it has over a hundred ice plants as well as tons of other plants.
I keep finding new ice plants to try, but when I walk over to the garden with plant and trowel, I discover there's no room. I either have to move something I just planted, or put the new plant somewhere else. There isn't very much of "somewhere else", either.
I went to Timberline Gardens today (only the seventh time since June 1st), and as I was putting plants on my cart, the available space in my garden for the new plants was much larger than it turned out to be when I got home. When I see plants for sale, my mind immediately tells me I have room for them somewhere in some imaginary part of the garden.
I bought two (not just one) Yucca faxoniana. Not rock garden plants, and yes, I know how big these will get. I have no idea where to put them.
I'm even gardening next door now. Is this all just me? Do I need a twelve-step program?

[RickR]

Is it just you?  Certainly not!  And I know a few people in my chapter that garden at the neighbor's as well.    I have so many potted plants that I don't even have room for a chair on my patio! I hardly buy plants anymore. I am an avid seed grower, and that dozen seedlings that came up in one pot, for instance, suddenly takes up twelve times the room upon transplanting, and what am I going to do with all them from there? 

I donate them to our NARGS chapter plant sales, of course.  The neighbor has many of my "reject" perennials, too.  She has many of my lily seedlings crosses that didn't make my grade, but are perfectly good.

[Nold]

Since I no longer have the Voice of Reason standing beside me (sigh ..) saying, "I think we need that money for food", or "Isn't the car insurance due soon?", or (even worse) "Where are you going to plant those?" I have no buffer against the attractions of plants.
I have a Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia ssp jaegeriana). At the nursery today I saw one of the same size that looked even nicer, so I bought it. You really only need one Joshua tree if you live in Denver. It is pretty much a rock garden plant for about 300 years, then it starts to grow. Now I have two of them.

[Lori S.]

Too many plants!?!?  Is it possible?  Perish the thought!  As the keeper of a modest plant zoo myself, I find the notion blasphemous!   

[Hoy]

The thought of having too many plants never occurred to me. Quite opposite. I always think I have too small garden and too little time to be there. Especially too little time. I have loads of seedlings but can't resist buying more plants. When I have time to plant out it is too dry or too late or somebody calls or I suddenly remember I have other work too do. But too many plants? What a strange idea!
Often I struggle to get space for new plants wether bought or brought up by myself from seed. Sometimes the nature helps like last winter when I lost some plants. More often the slugs help me: They eat all the new plants so I can buy more. Or I create new places by fillinf soil in hollows in the bedrock or on my roof!

[Nold]

Things would probably have been okay if Someone hadn't insisted that I needed more plants of Delosperma dyeri than probably exist in the whole of South Africa. It's a good thing I didn't put any rocks in the new garden....
Jets flying over the garden will probably be able to see the multi-colored glow next summer.
I'm going to have to start a new garden now.

[Lori S.]

Well, come on now!  Are we gonna have to wait for some Denver-bound pilot to post phone-pix on You-Tube to see these delosperma?!? !  
Quit teasing, and let us judge if "too many plants" is even a theoretical possibility - my natural skepticism (and deeply-ingrained plant greed) say, "Impossible!"  

[Nold]

My "rock gardens" are packed with plants. (Some of the plants are weeds, but it makes the gardens look greener.) Mostly larger plants, actually. The rocks take up too much space. There's no crevice garden here. (The "serious" plants are in troughs.)
In the new garden, if there isn't a plant where I can walk, that means there's still room. I figure the baby bunny (it's about 8cm long...) will eventually discover the ice plants and thin them out a little. The rabbit got tired of me filling in new burrows, and, I think (hope), has left.
Camera, well, you just have to imagine things. I could buy a camera for myself, and learn how to use it. Figure $850 US for a good one. Timberline Gardens has a Yucca faxoniana whose trunk I can't get my arms around, that sat outside all winter (and what a horrible winter it was ....the temperature went below 0F ...-17C....three times at my house; with twice last year, that makes the total number of times since 1991 nine), that's on sale for $840. Camera, or a yucca I couldn't bring through the house? (Yes, I know I just bought two smaller ones.)
Even though there would be a space for a camera, and none for the yucca, it would be an easy decision.

[Hoy]

Well, I bought a camera years ago (Canon Ixus 500). I have used it a lot but still can't I and the camera agree about things like what shall be in the focus and wether it is proper to use blitz or not. Maybe I am an ignorant that won't read the manual but in my opinion cameras (and other electronic stuff) should be self instructive. Still, I have taken some pictures that I am satisfied with!

[Nold]

Partly because I'm lazy, I started a new topic with links to pictures that my late wife posted on the local gardening mailing list. There are a lot of pictures.

[Todd Boland]

I have too many plants as well....and packing them in by the scads every year!  I still have pots of 75 new species seedlings sown this spring which have yet to be potted separately, let alone, introduced to the garden...it's a sickness!

Cameras.....I have three...a Nikon Coolpix 8800 (great for white flowers), a Canon S5 IS (super macro) and a Nikon D300S...this one was way too expensive and actually does not take as good pics as my cheaper ones...I think I just have not figured it out yet...it was purchased mostly for bird pictures rtaher than flowers.  It can take lovely soft images with shallow depth of field but for alpines, I find a greater depth of field is best.

[McDonough]

I have too many plants as well....and packing them in by the scads every year!  I still have pots of 75 new species seedlings sown this spring which have yet to be potted separately, let alone, introduced to the garden...it's a sickness!

Cameras.....I have three...a Nikon Coolpix 8800 (great for white flowers), a Canon S5 IS (super macro) and a Nikon D300S...this one was way too expensive and actually does not take as good pics as my cheaper ones...I think I just have not figured it out yet...it was purchased mostly for bird pictures rather than flowers.  It can take lovely soft images with shallow depth of field but for alpines, I find a greater depth of field is best.

Todd, you hit the nail on the head with a couple points here.  Too many plants??? yes indeed, it's a sickness... that is exactly the right phrase.  I do feel that I'm in the recovery stages these days. 

The other point is regarding cameras.  The technology has accelerated and improved so much, that even an entry-level or lower-end camera can be capable of taking great pictures, and it is not necessarily related to camera cost.  I find it interesting that you have 3 cameras, one which DOES take good pics of white flowers (a common stumbling point of many cameras).  Eventually I do want a camera of my own (when my younger daughter goes to college in 2011), one capable of taking quality macro photographs, but maybe one needs several cameras to cover the bases.  For everyday shooting of plants and garden shots, I will stick with a more basic (and less expensive) camera.

[Weiser]

Bob

Too many plants!!
I have never felt I had too many plants. I don't know if that's even possible. There are way to many choice tidbits available. (Besides, I know, I can grow that impossible to grow one!! I just know I can. I'll give it another try! So what if I killed it three times before.)

Now finding space,(in the right spot) to grow them, is another matter entirely!

Whether it is a sickness or not depends upon your Significant Other's perspective. 
Koodos to those partners who share in this hobby of ours.

[Kelaidis]

All this talk of too many plants brings to mind a discussion I would have liked to hear first hand (assuming I could learn enough German to understand it:)

Frederick the Great: "Really, Amadeus, I rather liked the piece, but feel perhaps, that it has a few too many notes?"

Mozart: "Which ones would you have me take out, your liege?"

[McDonough]

All this talk of too many plants brings to mind a discussion I would have liked to hear first hand (assuming I could learn enough German to understand it:)

Frederick the Great: "Really, Amadeus, I rather liked the piece, but feel perhaps, that it has a few too many notes?"

Mozart: "Which ones would you have me take out, your liege?"

Amadeus, one of my all time favorite movies, and a favorite memorable scene about too many notes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCud8H7z7vU

So the question is, does your garden have just as many plants as are required, neither more nor less?