Michael Spencer

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• Read more from Michael Spencer at his "Make it Green" blog on naplesnews.com.

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Editor’s note: Today, Michael Spencer, who writes a gardening column and blog for www.naplesnews.com, joins us with a columns especially geared toward the yards and yardowners of Southwest Florida. His blog can also be found at www.naplesnews.com.

When you have a new landscape, is it reasonable to expect that some plants will die? Having been in this business a long time, I can tell you that the answer to this is a resounding "NO"!

Ahem.

My view of this is pretty simple. You’re a developer and you have a new subdivision. You hire a professional landscape architect, and she does a plan for you. The plants are placed, and for the first week or so everything looks great. So, you pay the designer, and you pay the landscaper, and all is well with the world. Your project looks fabulous, and your potential buyers are pushing through the gates. Happiness reigns.

Then, after a few weeks or a month, some material begins to decline. At first, you check the irrigation, but all is well; the plant is getting the right amount of water. And soon you start to see an entire bed of material die. The maintenance people and the landscaper point fingers at each other with no resolution.

What’s wrong?

Here’s MSA Planting Rule #1: If the plant is specified correctly, you can expect 100 percent success. And here is the corollary: If your plants died and you had a landscape architect, then the architect is liable for the dead plants.

Does this seem harsh? Most people know what they like, but have no clue about the cultural requirements of plant material. This is one reason that a professional is hired: isn’t there is a reasonable expectation that the specified plants are correct for the site? isn’t this simply assumed?

Here is a similar situation: Say you are building a new house and your architect specified drywall as an exterior finish. When it rains the drywall is ruined. Wouldn’t you expect the architect to know the suitability of the materials?

For whatever reason, things work differently in the green world. I’ve had many conversations about this with my colleagues and with the larger landscape contractors. I hear lots of explanations: "it’s a living thing and it needs to acclimate" is one of the favorite rejoinders. Or: "we weren’t sure of the site conditions" is another.

In the first instance, I can assure my readers that the cultural requirements of every plant is well known; among the best sources would be the University of Florida.

And nowadays, of course, proper specification is essential so that the material uses the proper amount of water: no more, no less. And that’s the subject of my next post: shouldn’t your specifier knowledgeably group plants for similar water use?

Michael Spencer, ASLA, has been practicing landscape architecture for 25 years and is President of MSA Design, Inc. You can learn more at www.msadesign.com or contact Michael Spencer at 598.2828 or ms@msadesign.com