In January Shirl posted a challenge to other garden bloggers to come up with the three plants they would take with them to a desert island.  I found the resulting plants that were proposed extending my horizons for interesting and desirable plants.  So I began to take notes on plants to add to my shopping list (it’s a list with no boundaries and a couple of lifetimes of gardening).  Pretty soon I was writing down all the plants and visiting all the sites of those who contributed.  I’m not sure what I expected — whether everyone would have something different or whether the same plants would show up on everyone’s list.  As it turns out, it was a little of both.  

Here’s the results for the favorites, with pictures from our own garden, on this crowded but beautiful island —

Rosa 'Charles Darwin'

There were Twelve Roses chosen including ‘Morden Sunrise’ ‘Disneyland’‘Fisherman’s Friend’ ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’ ‘Hansa’ and ‘Stanwell Perpetual’.  And that was not counting two species Roses, Rosa Rugosa ‘Snow Pavement’ and Rosa rubiginosa.  

Echinacea

It might surprise some people that Echinacea is the number 2 most popular plant on the island with six votes.  I think it’s the interaction with the bees and the butterflies that closes the deal for these distinctive perennials.

Lavandula angustifolia (Lavender)

And speaking of the bees, they just love lavender.  Islanders go for them too with a total of five votes citing their fragrance and form.  The next three were tied with four votes apiece —

Shirley Poppy

Poppies of all sorts were cited — I think people generally had trouble choosing specific ones because they are all so appealing.

Rudbeckia hirta

Black-eyed Susans are wonderfully common and some folks (me included) have discounted them because they are so widespread.  But I am becoming a fan.

Weeping Willow (image from Wikipedia)

And lastly, the only one we can’t illustrate from our hill (yet) is the Weeping Willow (Salix x Sepulcralis).  This is also the only tree to be so common on the island…

If you are interested in the full set of plants on the island I’ll post a list here.  The flip side of looking at the most popular plants on the island is looking the most unusual plants that were imported.  It’s those that I need to add to our shopping list for the coming years.  While the list might be useful for reference, I encourage you to take the time to visit all the sites that contributed to Shirl’s challenge.  It was interesting just exploring all those gardens.

And of course the final question is what got left off the boat going out to the island — and that’s a long list of beautiful plants, for example

Allium hollandicum 'Purple Sensation'

Gallardia 'Oranges & Lemons'

Tree Peony