Reverse Gardening

I've been experimenting with plants in new gardens in a climate that is strange to me. I've had successes but also failures.

We learn from our failures. And here is what I have learned in my Santa Fe garden: Do The Opposite.

Plants that failed me in my old garden are successes here, like coreopsis. I could not grow any variety  of hybrid tickseed at all in Connecticut and after many tries I finally stayed away from ever planting them. And now . . . well.

Threadleaf Coreopsis 'Curry Up' and 'Hot Paprika'

My successes before are now my failures. 'May Night' salvia was a stunner for me in my old garden, but it will barely hang on in this place and won't bloom. Even though it is sold here as a high altitude dry adapted sage, nope.

Crystal white frilly Physostegia (Obedient plants) are sold here as easy for this climate, but because they did so well for me in my old garden, the reverse happened: they failed here in a miserable way.

And robust St. Johnswort was a beauty for me before but struggles here despite being a good plant for alkaline soil and dry shade. Not here, not for me now.

But I could not grow speedwell before, and here the stiff upright purple candles of Veronica are thriving along with Blackeyed Susan 'Goldsturm' which I gave up on back east when it got black foliage. It does much better for me here.

Upright purple spikes are Veronica 'Royal Candles' with
'Goldsturm' blackeyed Susan and orange zinnias

It's not just that my former garden was in a wet climate and it's dry here; that's a key difference I am adjusting for. I can grow lavender here but not back east, and the hydrangeas I had in Connecticut aren't going to grow here, I know that. Those adjustments are easy.

It's the familiar plants I knew that are supposed to be adapted to conditions in the dry mountain west and that grow in diverse places that I want to experiment with. But if those plants worked for me once, they don't now and the ones I gave up on back east are easy here. It's all reversed.

So when I am at the nursery and see a familiar plant, I have to go through mental checklists:

Did I grow it before? Yes
Did it do well? It thrived
Did I like it - was it pretty or elegant? A stunner in my old garden
Should I buy it for my Santa Fe garden? No.

   or

Did I try to grow this before? Yes
Did I kill it? Multiple times over and over
Was it my fault? Probably
Should I buy it for my Santa Fe garden? Yes, get three.