A Way to Garden with Margaret Roach - October 18, 2021 - Ken Druse on Monocots

“What do you want to talk about when we tape our next podcast segment, I asked Ken Druse the other day, and his answer was succinct. 

“Monocots,” he said. 

To which I said, “What?” 

“I want to talk about monocotyledons,” he said, using the unabbreviated name of one of the two groups that all flowering plants fit into, the other being dicots. And so we will. And yes, it’s geeky, but also a lot more revealing than you’d imagine. And also a hint that seemingly esoteric facts like the taxonomic relationships between plants can make for fun themes for a plant collection, or even a concept for a bed or border or display of grouped containers. 

Ken Druse is an old friend and a garden writer with 20 books to his credit, and most recently, one about fragrance called “The Scentual Garden,” and another called “The New Shade Garden.” He made a visit the other day to Wave Hill, the renowned public garden in New York City, where they have a whole monocot border that was in its glory, and hence our topic today: plants that are monocots and why to care.