Show me the gardener who hasn’t at some point planted something in the wrong spot. Or - crucially - in the very, nearly, almost, but unfortunately just not quite (goddammit) right spot, something we generally realise with a pang of regret some months or years after the fact.
This often comes down to the not inconsiderable challenge of correctly gauging how much growing space will eventually be required. Confronted with a baby shrub or young tree supplied in a small pot, it’s hard to properly imagine it as a mature specimen with a large canopy of spreading branches.
That aside, plants end up in the wrong spot in our gardens for lots of other reasons, from wishful thinking and hasty decision-making to changes in the ways we choose to use our outdoor spaces. That young sapling originally intended to frame a beautiful vista might become the very same tree that’s now slap-bang in the way of a planned new extension or garden studio. Or rather than framing that beautiful vista, it might now instead threaten to obscure it.
Plus, it’s not always our fault. Occasionally a plant can exceed its expected height and spread, so exceptionally happy is it with the growing conditions it’s been given.
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