I really enjoy messing with plants. I love it when seeds I’ve put in the ground or something I’ve stuck in a pot flourishes and blooms. I like blossoms as decorations. But, it always feels like a lie when my friends comment on my “green thumb.” I don’t have an innate gift for growing things. I’m just persistent.

Many, many years ago, I decide that the best thing I could do was to choose plants that like the way I treat plants. Generally speaking, that means sticking them in the ground and ignoring them. If something is in my yard, it cannot demand a great deal of care past a first year of watering while it gets established. Plants in pots get a lot more attention and water.

My herb bed is in a 100-gallon water trough and it does get watered. I feel like those plants are owed that much attention for being in that container. Same for the asparagus. When it was in a raised bed that was just lifted up from the ground, it got less coddling.

My inside plants are all things that want watering. Succulents die in my care and our only cactus is the responsibility of my husband because we both know I would drown it. We have an aloe, a gift from a friend, that is in a room where I don’t see it often and I am not allowed to water it.

I have learned to read tags at garden centers. I live in zone 7b. If you look at the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, it looks like climate change is allowing 8a to creep up this way. But, it’s not here yet. So, I plant accordingly. I don’t buy plants that only thrive in zone 5 (or wherever).

I have learned that there are some plant varieties that prefer different climates than their relatives. There are hot climate lilacs and cold climate lilacs. Generally, big box garden centers don’t care if a plant will thrive for you. If you buy it, they have made a sale. If it dies, you will be back to buy something else. If you don’t believe me, look at the tags the next time you’re at Lowe’s or Home Depot and see how many plants they have for sale that are labeled for different zones than the one where you live.

I have learned, too, that some plants are never going to love me and I just have to accept that. Even reading everything I can find online and on the tags from the nursery will not save the life of a fuchsia or bougainvillea. Coming to my house is a death sentence for those plants. I think they are beautiful and I long to have them flourishing all around me. But, I am not a fit caretaker for them.