Weeds by another name make gardens fashionable

I’ve never strived for a fashionable garden. Given the sometimes glacial speed at which gardens develop, chasing trends has never seemed like a good idea.

But there are a few areas of my garden that are looking very fashionable right now, that is if you use the new Chelsea Flower Show standard.

England’s Chelsea Flower Show is the premiere event in the garden world. Garden designers who win a gold medal for their efforts at the show can be assured that the accomplishment will be mentioned in the first few lines of their obituary. It’s sort of the Olympics of gardening, and the garden designs shown there are both a reflection of and set the tone for what happens in gardens across much of the world, including here in the United States.

This year’s show, which was held a few weeks ago, featured gorgeous gardens with beautiful water features, oodles of flowers at their peak and creative designs that break the mold of what a garden should look like. But all anyone can talk about is the weeds.

Plants traditionally considered weeds — dandelions, thistle and nettles, among others — were intentionally designed into show gardens this year, planned out as part of the extensive brief and plant list that must be submitted to the Royal Horticultural Society judging panel months in advance.

Keep in mind that a show garden is the most contrived garden space that exists. Plants are grown specifically to be at their peak for the week of the show. The nurseries hired to grow the hundreds of thousands of plants for show gardens tend to them nearly nonstop in the lead-up to the show.

So that means that some nurseries had to grow weeds to be at their weedy best for the show. I suspect that intentionally growing weeds is probably harder than it sounds.

The idea behind the weeds that appeared in many medal-winning gardens was a nod to a “diverse and thriving habitat,” according to one desiger.

In defense of the controversial weeds, an RHS spokesperson said it’s time to remove the stigma of weeds and suggested renaming them “hero plants.”

As I look over my own garden, parts of which I have not yet visited with my weeding hoe, I’m seeing a lot of “hero plants.” Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) is in good supply and, by nature of its value to bees and hummingbirds and use as a remedy for skin rashes, seems potentially worthy of the moniker.

On the other hand, plants like Canadian goldenrod (Solidago canadense), a naughty native plant, and Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense), which is not from Canada and is highly invasive, seem like anti-heroes.

Despite the fact that for once my garden may be considered “fasionable,” I’ll keep pulling the weeds until their presence is at least a little less prominent. But if I miss a few, I’ll tell the poor visitor who points them out that they must be mistaken.

“Weeds?,” I’ll ask. “I don’t see any weeds. Those are just hero plants, and they are very fashionable.”