I learned something new today.
I learned that the “French Fork” facial hairstyle has absolutely nothing to do with gardening but was named after the utensil the French use for eating escargots.
They call it “fourchette à escargot”…and I keep threatening my daughter that I plan on growing and adorning one, just to push her buttons…(the facial hair, not the fork).
The French Fork is a little too straightforward for my aesthetic, but these on the other hand, these will turn heads! You could even elaborate and install tiny pots into the circles and plant them up with some trailing Sedum morganianum…it would be magnificent. Imagine one of these combined with an iced turban at a stop-light.
A large client install and an upcoming garden bloggers shindig at the Patch has successfully depleted our supply of Epsom Salts and Aleve, but thankfully it is cooler and we have even had some rain, yes rain!
It was such a rare and exciting event he forgot to put his pants on in his eagerness to get outside at the crack of dawn. (Stray sock courtesy of Kuminus Fangstratus).
This is his “Oh boy, I am in trouble again” face.
I spent the entire day working out in the rain, whistling and humming annoying tunes to myself.
The rain really helped to perk up everything, the first to react to the introduction of the strange wet substance was the sad loquats and
my hoja santa.
White stone-crop eagerly drank-up the moisture and doubled its dimensions overnight. You have got to hand it to these tiny succulents and their ability to handle prolonged drought.
Opuntia paddles thickened,
and satsumas ripened,
but oooohh how the artemesia looks bad. Look at them now!…
…They look like a louisiana swamp cypress trees, yes that is what they are, swamp cypress trees, very small ones…dwarf in fact.
With that confusion all cleared up,
I decided to do some clearing up myself. With the luxury of a steady rain falling on me, I pulled out the remains of my ghost plants which strangely made me want to go and eat blackened soft-shell crabs at Pappadeaux. Which I did that very evening!
Naturally she wore her new, favorite dress. She has been devastated since…
Her favorite pizza restaurant closed.
I now fear that I may never get to implement a scheme for that strange sarcophagus planter.
http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2010/07/%e2%80%9cgarden-coffins%e2%80%9d/
With the rain and cooler temperatures, naturally I had to try out some new additions in the Patch, like this strangely named
Agave potatorum,
‘Kichokan Marginata’
or (Dwarf Variegated Butterfly Agave).
It looks like a variagated Agave parryi and I like it.
It is a small growing agave to 12 inches tall by 18 inches wide with short gray leaves margined with pale yellow streaks and blood smeared spines. Another new variegated addition to the Patch is this Hydrangea,
I have never tried growing them before so I have to give it a try.
And this one was listed on my receipt as just “plant” anyone know what this is?
Can you tell this was an impulse purchase?
What great marginal frosting to the leaves.
Yes it has been quite the variegated week.
This sabal major unfurling a new frond caught my attention – very whale like.
And what is this?
Flowers in the Patch?
I think you can guess who was behind that chrysanthemum container.
Finally,
plant of the week has to be this desert trumpet vine which is gradually spreading down my fence line.
Stay Tuned for:
“It’s Electrifying!”
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This may take a while to load. Pause it, let it load, go have a cup-of-tea, then check out the hilarious asymmetrical mustache, this is the one for me.
Variegated Hydrangea? Really? In the Patch? If the ‘Powis Castle’ Artemisia did not make it, I give the hydrangea, oh, about a nanosecond in your VERY drought-tolerant garden. I have one that I’ve had for several years and it looks just about like your artemisia does now. Chalk that up to the record-breaking Summer of 2011. But you are growing the African Hosta, so who am I to say that you can’t grow the hydrangea! Shame on my negativism raining on your newly rain soaked garden! I really will be interested to find out how it does next summer, though. Your variegated impulse purchase heretofore known as “plant” is CHRYSANTHEMUM PACIFICUM (commonly known as Gold & Silver Chrysanthemum). I have grown that before, but I found that the bottom 6 to 8 inches of leaves turn brown and was left with a tuft of variegated foliage at the top. Wow, I am just the bearer of encouraging news today, am I not? Sorry. That was just my experience. Maybe I kept them too wet, too dry…who knows. I just ripped half of them out at a client’s yesterday because they were doing too well. So there. I hope you have the same experience. And that new agave is gorgeous! I am willing to bet some of those blood stained thorns are stained with YOUR blood. Those thorns sure look like they could do some serious damage to whatever they come in contact with. Oh, speaking of chrysanthemums, I love the container of mums! And I love the dirt under your daughter’s nails! A girl after my own heart :-) I always say, “A day without dirt under your nails is like a day without sunshine!” Thrilled you are finally getting some rain down that way. We are enjoying some of the wet stuff in DFW, as well.
Hi Toni.
I know, I know, it was one of those nursery trips, I like that…and that, I will have ones of those and yes one of those, you know how it goes:-) I did plant the hydrangea in an area that is covered with my only soaker hose, we will see – I will post about its likely demise later. Can you believe that artemesia? It looks atrocious yet a stand of it not 8 feet away looks fine, micro-climates.
Interesting on the Silver Chrysanthemum, I will let you know if mine do the same, it may not last long if this happens you bearer of doom and gloom :-)
The Agave potatorum, is my new favorite, so much color, It will more likely be blood-stained from Kuminus Fangstratus’s feet running over it, I am amazed he has not yet had a full-on impaling from my barrel cactus the way he tears around the garden. I keep thinking I will find him stuck up on the side of one some day.
That container did work out well, I have to admit that the colors work great in a sort of gravestoney sort of way, my daughter loves flowers and I do break down every once in a while to her constant nagging for more things “bright and beautiful”…”dad, why do you only buy green things?” “Because I do not care much for gaudy-looking flowers,” “But why? They are…blah,blah,color,blah” and so on and so on until she beats me into a purchasing submission.
Yes, so happy to get a bit of rain, though we really do require a lot more to get us out of this drought.
ESP.