Condo Flora
August lay like a sauna on the condo by the lake. The adventurous gardener sauntered around the complex. Other visitors probably peeked behind curtains wondering what I was doing. Being a gardener, I was checking out the flora.
An owner of a condo complex wants easy maintenance, so it is important to have obedient, reliable yet occasionally showy flora. Imagination be damned, facility is foremost. I envisioned the person designing the condo calling the plant nursery owned by a distant cousin.
“I’m building a condo, and I’ve been told I need easy maintenance so it looks like I know what condos should look like. How many crepe myrtles do you have?”
“How many do you want?”
“I’m building eighty units.”
“You’re gonna need boxwoods and hollies, too, and I’ll give you a deal on thorny olive bushes.”
“What’s a boxwood?”
“How about we go golfing Tuesday to work out details? How’s Martha and the kids?”
The condo would be in Hot Springs, Arkansas, former spring training site for Major League Baseball and hangout for gangsters. Times have changed, however, and condos around the lakes are the rage. Build them and they will come.
And I went. The lake is the draw, but I gave the condo flora some attention, and my report is it needs some attention.
Color on the flora in this condo was rare except for crepe myrtles. There were mature plants, therefore somewhat drought resistant, doing their best to stay pinky-purple all summer in hot Hot Springs. They were mathematically spaced along the buildings leaving little room for airflow behind them, and the crepe myrtle manual is clear about mildew in close spaces.
Though crepe myrtles are native to warm climates, their genus Lagerstroemia was named for a botanist from Sweden. There are about 50 species worldwide, and butterfly and moth larva eat the leaves. In southeast Asia, they can become trees, and some species are hardy enough to be used for lumber.
For the condo scene around here, crepe myrtle species offer pink, slightly purple and sometimes white flowers during summer when most everything else is a shade of green.
Boxwoods are common for hedges in parking lot landscaping or, for example, in front of outdoor stages. They are typical fill-in-the-space shrubs in parks and corners of condo parking lots – common shrubs we walk past without noticing much. Boxwoods might last 40 years and never need much care except they get diseases, their roots might rot and they attract spider mites.
Another small detail is all parts of the plants are toxic to pets, so stomach distress is in play if your favorite mongrel chews the leaves, plus some species smell like cat pee on sunny days. Maybe that’s why deer don’t like them. Nevertheless, you can position several plants strategically to fill in important spots around your condo property, and rest assured, visitors will not remember they were there.
But holly bushes you will remember, especially if you brush against one. The leaves… they pointy. Hollies are of the genus Ilex, a useful word for crosswords. I knew someone who planted holly bushes in front of every window of his home to deter burglars because they are strong plants with intimidating leaves. He figured it was cheaper than an alarm system, plus more reliable during storms.
The other good news about hollies is holly berries in winter. Hohoho, etc. Bright red berries to decorate the holiday plus birds eat them. So in your condo design, plant holly bushes at the end of sidewalks to detract from all the rocks.
I noticed an attempt to hide the corner of the swimming pool area with tall clumps of floofy grass which was a valiant effort at diversity . . . not a boxwood or a holly, but floofy grass.
Summary: The landscape plan here was spots of tall pink frugally interspersed with blocks and hedges in shades of green with occasional hollies poised like gargoyles plus floofy grass so you hardly notice the asphalt.
Condo designers, take note.