The first plant was a pumpkin. I was in second grade. The teacher had each of us put a pumpkin seed into a paper cup held in place with a damp paper towel. Mine turned into a seedling. I planted it in our large backyard. I don't remember any plants growing there, only a big lawn. I checked on the progress of my plant every day. I was so excited, thinking it was going to make a pumpkin. One day I came home from school, and the plant was gone. My mother had mowed it with the lawn mower! I cried hysterically. She angrily declared my pumpkin had been taking over her yard. Sometimes my mother was heartless and selfish.

As I grew up, we clashed a few more times over plants. When I was ten, we had moved to another house. This one had some plants. Mom's idea of a garden is a very sparse arrangement of plants spaced widely apart with lots of bare soil in between. Even as a child, I was bothered by all of that bare space. I bought a packet of snapdragon seeds with my allowance, and planted them in all of the bare spaces. Every seed in that packet must have sprouted. There were snapdragons galore. I was thrilled with my gardening prowess. The plants had just begun to put out flowers, when she pulled out all of my snapdragons. She said they made her garden look unkempt.
I did not get my love of gardening from my mother!

Lorna

My first plants were pinks given to me by a farmer's wife when I was 6. We would go to the farm (the farmer was my dad's fishing buddy) to pick tomatoes, corn, peas,and beans. I always loved to go with Mrs. Critcher around the yard to see the flowers and play with the ever-present batch of kittens. I took the plants home and my mom helped me plant them in my own little flower bed. They were still returning and blooming when we moved when I was 12.

Lorna's just raised the bar by going back to her childhood! Nice story, too. Gosh, I don't remember any of my own back then, mostly my uncle's acre of organically grown vegetables and his apple orchard. The very first plants I remember are the houseplants I bought to help fill out my first apartment ... spider plant, Chinese evergreen, philodendron, and such ... Hey, it was the 70's, ya know! And that variegated spider went great with the multi-toned green shag rug, LOL.

Now, I hope I'm not slighting some other garden plant(s) - just about every one of them has a story - but my first real in-the-ground garden plant was, I believe, the pale pink peony I purchased almost 30 years ago. Not sure, but I think it may be Sarah Bernhardt. Neighbor said it would never grow in our soil, in the shade ... still have it ... but neighbor's gone. Since the blossoms are so delicate, and seem to inspire the heavens to open with torrential rains, it is often seen under the protection of a blue and white umbrella during blooming season.

Diane

The first plants I ever grew from seeds were snapdragons when I was a little girl. Thank goodness I picked an easy to start from seed plant, or I may have decided gardening was no fun.

I'm not sure what were the first plants I planted when I got my home. I know I nursed the roses of a former gardener back to health and decided to grow more. Of the first roses I planted I still have Hansa a tough rugosa type rose. The others died, lol. I have since gotten much better at growing them : )
Of the first perennials I planted, I think only the red daylily and geranium sanguineum have survived.
Oh and I planted a veggie garden right away. That slowly evolved into a potager over the years. I thought I was doing something so unique until the Potager Forum started, and I found out it was very old garden practice, lol!
Remy

My first flower I helped plant was as a small child with my Grandma. She had lots of marigolds and petunias. I used to get out there with her and dig the soil. I just loved being with her, and she always had tomato plants.
As an adult, my first plants were roses called "Grandmothers' Blessings". I thought they were beautiful, as I was in the middle of planting them, my Grandma passed away, and I had to go home for her funeral. They are special to me, because I will never forget that as they bloom, it's a way of honoring her. I placed a copper flower marker near one of them with her name proudly displayed. I've had them almost 4 years now, and I'm probably more particular about them than any other plants I have in my garden. I just wish she could have seen them.

queen elizabeth rose bushes my grandmother gave me. i still have 2 of them. the other 2 live at our old house down the road. i want them!!! anyway, they are over 30-40 yrs old.
Tanya

I didn't really have a plant of my own when I was a child but use to enjoy spending time in my grandfather's garden, he had a really lovely cottage garden.
My very first venture into gardening was after I was married, the lean years LOL. I planted a 10 cent package of nasturtium seeds digging the holes in the earth with a teaspoon. We moved before they flowered. My second endeavor was a package of cosmos seeds, we moved before they flowered. My third try was with some dahlia tubers the wife of the man my DH worked for gave me, you guessed it we moved before they flowered. Frustrated gardener, you betcha, but for the last 50 years I've been growing everything I can get my darn hands on and I've actually get to see them bloom :o).

Annette

The very first outdoor planting that I remember doing 'myself' was a package of the long white radishes. My dad gave me a little spot in his vegetable garden and the pack of seeds. I thought they were the best thing I had ever tasted......I was probably about 4 or 5 years old! The first house plant that I remember was when I was about 8 or 9 and a neighbour gave me a cutting of an impatient. It was a tall variety. I took it home and my mother showed me how to root it in water....it rooted like crazy and then I planted it in a pot.....I have no idea what happened to it.
The first planting that I did after I got married was some daffodil bulbs outside the door of our first apt. (we rented the upstairs of an OLD house). Annette, I never got to see them flower either! LOL....we moved during the winter.
gg

I have been doing this so long. I can't remember the first plant I had. I think the first flower garden I planted was in AZ. I guess I was about 19 or 20. I bought a pkg of dahlia seeds. I knew nothing about dahlias, but thought they were so pretty. They will bloom the first year. Funny, I decided last year to do dahlia seeds again. And now have seedlings on the bay window seat.

Ha, well the first seeds I remember planting as a kid was disasters........errrrr I mean asters. There was some kind of promotion with whipped topping and we ended up with 2 or 3 packs of these seeds. So my mother said I could just sprinkle them in the strips along the fence where she always had me plant petunias for her. So I just sprinkled....and these really ugly tall flowers grew up. I really was not impressed and that is how I renamed them disasters. Some of these darn things came back the second year. I snuck in and yanked them out. As it was one or two survived for a few years...I don't know how, I kept pulling them.

I was always sneaking in and taking beans from the dry pantry and planting them in a little dirt in plastic caps and growing them on the side of the veranda. My mother always laffed when she would find them.

The very first plant I bought after I was married was a fuchsia. We just happened to be at the hardware store...and they had only a couple huge wooden hanging baskets. My mouth dropped open and so did Dh's. He asked me if I wanted one....of course I said yes. Then asked the price. It was over $40. That made me really question if I wanted it or not. I knew nothing about this plant at the time, the guy selling them told me how to look after them. And my wonderful DH, said okay.....and we were off with my first beautiful fuchsia.......and so the love affair began.(with fuchsias that is. haha).

Sierra

I do! I do!

When I was four, my grand-daddy built me a long 'window box' planter. Since it sat on the porch, we can't call it a window box can we? But that's what I've called it in my mind all these years.

My mom and I planted 'twinkle star phlox' and a gardener was born. :0)

It helps that my grand-dad was a gardener, as was his daughter, my mom. We planted veggie gardens and flowers all through my childhood.

Twinkle Star Phlox can still be ordered online. I have some seeds left (I hope) and will be planting them in a few weeks--in a container just like I did a few decades ago.

Good memory, thanks for asking

Here is a link that might be useful: Creative Soul

Wow! All of your responses are amazing and unique. However, as I read the first follow-up I remembered that my very first plant was indeed NOT the Calla from Lowe's! As I was read Lorna's post about her child hood I had a brief flash back to the third grade. I remember holding the popular "paper cup plant" standing next to a water cooler hearing my teacher say "Just one drop of water is all you need, Markitha!" I realized that I've been drowning plants ever since I started! LOL I've been known to over water a plant or two (namely Ivies). So, with that said, I stand corrected. Keep 'em comin' guys and thanks for responding!

These are such fabulous stories. My first plants that I remember as "mine" were marigolds along the side of my house in Dallas. My mom gave me a little area of the garden and I planted them. I watered them every day, used to go out and check on them four-five times a day. THey got nice and bushy, and Iremember telling my mom I bet I could win a marigold competition with them! So funny.
My mom later told me she was "terrified" they were going to die as I was so attached to those four marigold plants!
My mom is still my best partner in gardening.

I was 5 and living in AZ at the time. I got the idea that we just had to grow pumpkins- You know the nursery rhyme- Peter Peter Pumpkin eater. I was very excited that I was going to plant pumpkins. And I could do it all by myself- I didn't need any help. I ran out to the backyard, to the patch of dirt(not a lot of grass in our yard) I tripped and fell skinning my knee spilling the seeds everywhere.I can remember lying there in the dirt crying and pushing the spilled pumpkin seeds into the cracks in the dirt. Pretty soon I wasn't crying and I planted the whole bunch. A HUGE number of them sprouted and I /we watered them. They took over the whole backyard and even grew into the yard behind us! The biggest pumpkin was growing on the other side of the chain link fence and the neighbor used to tease me about HIS pumpkin. Well, one day, I cut the vine, I was so mad, I didn't want him to have MY pumpkin! I found out years later that that neighbor had been watering the pumpkin patch for me! We did have more than enough pumpkins and my parents had stories and the pictures of me watering the patch and the pics of all of the pumpkins. We all love gardening in my family. Only grew pumpkins the once. Sue