Sour Diesel

Sour Diesel is loud in every sense the word has. The smell walks into the room before the plant does — fuel, citrus, something faintly illegal-feeling even where it is perfectly legal — and the effect is the same energy translated: bright, chatty, ideas arriving three at a time and none of them waiting their turn.

Fair warning, told with love: this is a project plant. It grows tall like it is trying to see over the fence, takes its sweet time finishing, and will absolutely inform your neighbors of its existence. In exchange it hands experienced growers one of the great harvests in the catalog. If this is your first plant, take a teen and a deep breath, or start with something in the Forgiving column.

Wants: real sun, real height, real patience. Forgives: honestly, not much — that's the deal.