Few plants come with a warning, but some probably should. One appropriate for many unsuspecting buyers might be: This plant could grow up to be a monster.

A ponytail in a small pot rescued from the discard cart at a local garden center was a bargain buy for Leslie Campagna of Sanford. The plant grew on the kitchen counter for a number of years until it was several feet tall; then it was added to an in-ground corner planter backed by a wall at the end of the family pool.

“Every time I looked, it seemed to get bigger and bigger,” says Campagna.

Today the plant is more than 20 years old, multitrunked and 15 feet tall, and it sports a more than 3-foot-diameter bulbous base. It has overflowed and cracked the pool deck; two years ago, it also pushed out the back wall. Campagna says with a little help from her family, she is planning to move this ponytail to a better location.

Every gardener has made the mistake of planting a nice plant in the wrong place. Perhaps it has been an oak tree too close to a house or a 3-gallon Washington palm that in 10 years has surged more than 30 feet and is still growing. Just maybe this is one reason crape myrtles get such severe prunings; they too might grow too tall and wide for an allotted landscape space.

“It’s a common problem, trying to contain a plant in too small a space,” says Rusty Woodall, owner of City Beautiful Landscaping in Orlando. “Often gardeners don’t realize they have picked the wrong plant.”

One good example is loropetalum, which is usually small and compact when purchased. Woodall says many expect these plants to stay a foot or two tall, but most grow 4 to 6 feet high and wide. The remedy is to keep them pruned. But Woodall says “They don’t look that good when sheared.”

Picking the right plant

Finding the right place for a plant can be a problem. Perhaps we don’t ask enough questions at the time of purchase or maybe we are blinded by the thoughts of attractive foliage and flowers.

Out-of-control white bird of paradise plantings are steadily heading to the top of a 12-foot-tall pool enclosure at the home of Darlene Patsos near Sanford. Sharp, pointed leaves already were poking through the screening a year ago when Patsos purchased her 10-year-old home. Patsos says she is constantly pruning the leaves and stalks back to keep the plants in bounds.

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