that’s sooooo 1970s
A house down the street has had a contractor’s truck parked outside of it for a while now. The owner said she’s remodeling the kitchen and bath. Not any time too soon, according to John, who during our last time in the house noticed that those rooms oozed the stuff that 1975 was made of: fabulous 70s modern appliances, woodgrained formica, beige tile floors. There’s nothing wrong with any of these materials, but the rooms looked like they were sealed in a time capsule, an easy thing to happen to rooms that are so expensive to remodel.
Some gardens around town seem to have the same aura about them. You sense that the garden was planted all at once—probably by a pickup truck landscaper—from what was available and fashionable and considered reliable at the time. Decades later the plantings will look untouched—the same plants in the same places (often planted too close together or too near a house). Things might be pruned a little, or there might be a mature row of something with a missing plant. But otherwise untouched.
I tend to think of gardens as evolutionary projects, especially when they’re in the hands of curious gardeners. It’s always a bit of a shock to see one of these botanical time capsules. Commercial plantings seem to be the worst offenders. Here, to the right, is a lovely pairing of melaleucas with iceplant at the local EZ-Lube that seems pickled in about 1983.
So which plants shout that they’re from a certain decade? I tried to sort that out based on what you see in Southern California. (Other climates will have their own characteristic plants.)
This is just a quick and impressionistic draft that’s based on when plants were cheaply available and most popular, not necessarily when they were introduced. Many of them are still commonly available today and are hardy, worthwhile choices for the garden. Others have turned out to be invasive disasters that have prompted nurseries to stop carrying them.
I’m sure I’ve misplaced a few plants by a decade or two. You must have additions of your own!
1960s
- Hollywood Twisted Juniper (Juniperus chinensis ‘Torulosa’). “Hollywood” and “twisted” somehow seen to go together nicely… My mother coveted them, and I still think they’re pretty wild and crazy plants. Of course in the 1960s and 1970s, the junipers were a lot smaller than this.
- Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). The house my parents purchased in 1968 had two little plants of these flanking a window. When we moved out of that house they weren’t so little…
- Arborvitae (Thuja sp.)
- Japanese Pittosporum, Japanese Mock Orange (Pittosporum tobira)
- Japanese Gray-bark Elm, Japanese Zelkova (Zelkova serrata). These go back years, but there were lots of street plantings in 1950s and 1960s suburbs.
And speaking of zelkovas, my neighborhood had hundreds of them as street plantings. Eventually they began lifting the sidewalks, and then grew up into the power lines. One by one the owners took out the trees. Then, the city took out the power lines and put them underground, about the same time they repaired the sidewalks. We have a few of the trees left.
1970s
- Oleander (Nerium oleander), shown here in a freeway planting down the hill from me. They’re hardly ever planted anymore. Although drought-tolerant, they can get bad scale infestations. The nail in the coffin for this plant, though, was the fact that they’re poisonous if ingested or burned.
- Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa)
- Iceplant (various species), some are considered invasive in Southern California
- Variegated Japanese Euonymus (Euonymus japonicus ‘Aureo-marginatus’)
- Melaleuca, Paperbark Tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia), now on the federal invasive plant list and the scourge of many states
Here’s a transitional 1960s-1970s planting at the bank down the street. More twisted junipers, paired here with natal plum.
1980s
- Fountain Grass, Green Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum), the California Invasive Plants Council lists these as “Invasive—Do Not Plant—Invasive” (hmmm, they might be invasive…) on their website.
Photo by Carolyn Martus from the Cal-IPC site [ source ]
- Red Fountain Grass, Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’)—I still have three in the front yard and love them. Unlike the above, they
‘re sterile anddon’t sow themselves everywhere. [ Edit June 11, 2010: The red fountain grasses are definitely not sterile, though they still are far less invasive than the green versions of the species. It’s best not to plant these anywhere where thye might escape. ] - Agapanthus
- Eugenia, Australian Brush Cherry (Syzygium paniculatum). These make tidy, fine-leaved clipped hedges. But when the eugenia psyllid hit in 1988 plantings everywhere started to look awful. They disappeared from the trade.
- Indian Hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica)
- New Zealand Flax (Phormium sp. and hybrids)
1990s
- Mexican Feather Grass (Stipa or Nassella tenuissima), now quickly moving onto many people’s lists of obnoxious if not invasive plants. I started with two and now have half a dozen. I’d have thousands if I didn’t pull out a couple dozen seedlings every week! This is the parking strip of a neighbor a few blocks away who probably put in one or two plants herself.
- Lavenders (Lavendula sp.)—I still have one of these.
- Blue Fescue (Festuca ovina glauca)—and several of these…
- Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthus sp.)
2000s
- ???????
What plants will the future decide define the Bush decade? What sturdy plants are the nurseries offering that will run their course as people get tired of them or the plant’s invasive potential are revealed? For one, I’m seeing a lot of Cordyline australis. I like these a lot, but they suddenly seem to be planted everywhere, many in locations where they look good as two-foot adolescents but will quickly outgrow their spots. And there are cheap queen palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana) going into the ground everywhere.
I’m sure there are dozens more.
February 19 2009 06:06 am | Categories: gardening • landscape design | Tags: heirloom plants • invasive plants • popular plants
susan (garden-chick) on 19 Feb 2009 at 8:20 am #
James, I’ve been planning a post on the same topic! I love your take on dated design. I’ll have to wait a while to post on the same topic (fortuntely, we bloggers have short attention spans, so it’ll seem like a whole new idea by the time I get around to it).
tina on 19 Feb 2009 at 10:58 am #
I can’t really think of a specific plant that I identify with a decade, like I can with music. I do like fountain grass though, I guess that is old.
lostlandscape on 19 Feb 2009 at 11:44 am #
Susan, ah..great minds thinking alike… I’m sure you’ll put a cool spin on the topic!
Tina, I guess there are reasons some plants get planted a lot. I put in fountain grass when it was still fairly new, but I still enjoy it so much there’s no way I’ll be ripping it out.
Lynn on 20 Feb 2009 at 9:38 am #
Uhhhh this is such a great topic and offers such rantable material! I grew up in the 70s surround by the fearful oleander, so it’s amazing I like plants at all!
In Austin in the 90s it was monkey grass clumped around every tree that got old FAST. Stunningly boring. In Vegas in the 2000s I’d say nearly every type of non-native palm, especially the bloated Canary Island Date, and then the poor Mexican Fans trimmed to within an inch of their lives. And am I the only one who hates miscanthus, plunked in everywhere?
lostlandscape on 20 Feb 2009 at 7:27 pm #
Lynn, I’m glad you got over the oleander issues growing up! I was pretty taken with the monkey grass when I first saw it but never got around to planting any. The Mexican fans here are local invasive weeds. If your neighbor has one, you’ll be pulling up little palm trees. Weeds, I tell ya. I think it’d be an interesting challenge to make something new and interesting out of overexposed plants and nothing else. But then there are so many interesting new plants coming around…
Jan on 21 Feb 2009 at 3:35 am #
This was an interesting post. I am really bothered by the overgrown plants from decades ago. I live in an older neighborhood, and would love to tell people to cut back or take out those huge plants next to their houses.
Jan
Always Growing
Greenfingers on 21 Feb 2009 at 4:38 am #
That is a great timeline! It really expresses the real situation of the nature and I’m on with it. Looks cool with the pictures and I appreciate that you’ve posted it. Thanks for sharing and I hope you could provide more pics in the future. God Bless!
Greg on 22 Feb 2009 at 9:59 pm #
This really is a pretty fascinating subject. I’ll be paying attention with fresh eyes on the subject now.
And I totally need a twisted juniper or two!
lostlandscape on 24 Feb 2009 at 7:50 pm #
Jan—It’s so common to see plants planted too closely together or too close to a house, isn’t it? I guess we’re all a little impatient to see plants reach their eventual size.
Greg—Why am I not surprised you want a twisted juniper? Cool, aren’t they? They used to sell them everywhere around here, and now it’s really tought to find any—I guess that’s the down-side of a plant not being so popular anymore.
Jean on 25 Feb 2009 at 9:55 am #
1980’s - those small little bedding begonias.
1990’s - lorapetalums, tons of them planted by contractors in Austin. And lantanas.
2000’s - ornamental grasses everywhere. And crape myrtles (not just in the south).
And for several decades - photinias, argh! Oh and asiatic jasmine as a ground cover.
Great post.
lostlandscape on 28 Feb 2009 at 8:31 am #
Thanks, Jean. I guess my area is a little behind the times in getting lots of loropetalums, though we’ve definitely been hit by waves of lantanas. The loropetalums actually don’t sseem to do so well here as they do in the South, but the lantanas are pretty well adapted and indestructible…
Steve on 28 Feb 2009 at 12:42 pm #
My brother always called California’s Oleanders, so ubiquitously planted on freeway boulevards, “Smog Eaters”, lol. In the Northwest, there was your standard average Photinia craze for a while, dating from the mid-‘70’s. Prior to that, it was Rhododendron time - of course, much of that is still maintained owing to Vancouver (for example) and its utterly benign rhodie climate. But junipers have had their comings and goings, fashionably speaking, leading to what any more are the lower and slower-growing varieties and the bluer color possibilites.
neat post and lots of fun. I have also considered the dating of species as popular. I do know that nurseries had an awful lot to do with the popularity of plantings, too. They would buy thousands of something and announce the species had suddenly morphed into this season’s must-have!
Philip on 01 Mar 2009 at 7:10 am #
What a thought provoking post :Botanical time capsules. That is so insightful. It is interesting to see neighborhoods which have been untouched. 1930’s neighborhoods of mock Spanish and Tudor bungalows have lawn and shrubs very highly clipped. There are Plants clipped in the Japanese manner with clound of greenery on branches. This is effective where it snows, but decorative only in California. I used to think this was very old fashioned, but now when this is maintained it does have a look: concrete painted red, striped awnings in brown, red and cream.
I thought your list was brilliant and lots of fun. Ok, when I am traveling about my eyes are opened.
I enjoyed this post!
Regards,
Philip
lostlandscape on 01 Mar 2009 at 11:16 am #
Steve, I think you’ve nailed it as to this being largely a nursery-driven phenomenon. And now that many people are getting more of their plants from big box stores, I can see the diversity shrinking even further. Rhodies are one plant that won’t ever look dated here in Southern California. Anyone who can pull it off, even with the low-chill varieties, has something unusual.
Philip, I agree that many of these plantings have a distinct look, and it’s something people need to consider in relation to their house. Do people want to emphasize a “period” look for their home or not? I saw a movie last night which was supposed to take place in the 1950s, but all the plants were too modern and wrong. Of course, if a film crew came to my house to try to capture the 1950s, I’d be perturbed if they were to take out all my modern plants!
out of doors on 04 Mar 2009 at 8:50 am #
what about 50’s-style L.A. glamour? bird of paradise, bougainvillea, and bergenia; or cup-of-gold vine and pepper trees for spanish-style houses. and i think cordyline can be pretty 70’s-alicious, especially planted by funky cinderblock apartment houses.