Agaves

“CUT”!

ESPatch Nov 3, 2009 20 comments

Syrphid Fly? or Waspy, green, grass-hoppery weird bee thingy, summat or nothin’?

This adult Syrphid Fly (I hope I am right with this identification) is unlike any I have ever seen in the Patch…It is green! What manner of creature is he trying to mimic? Most Hoverflies mimic bees and wasps to protect themselves from predators, this one even had a “buzz” sound as it flew around, trying to be even more convincing…but green? I know it is a fly as it has only two wings, short antenna, and large compound eyes.

Like a multitude of insects in the garden this week, it was completely engrossed in my fragrant mist flowers that are now going at full tilt, stinking up a whole section of the garden…now am I the only one but is the term “fragrant” used extremely “loosely” to describe the overpowering fragrance of this plant? I may not care for the stench of it too much, but the insects, the moths, and brown nosers seem to love it.

Can someone ID this bug?

Here is the mist flower its all its cloudy glory.

The favorite past times of the week, have been moth catching and handling…

…a spot of entomology…

and some obligatory bubble fountain fondling, his face says it all!

The fragrant mist flower also succeeded in attracting this…No, not Sid James, this…

A Great Purple Hairstreak,

Atlides halesus…

this has to be one of our most beautiful southern butterflies. Although it is most commonly known as the great purple hairstreak, it has no purple on it. The brilliant iridescent scales on the upper surface of the wings from which it gets its name are blue not purple. This is also a new visitor in the patch, the “fragrance” is pulling them all in it seems!

Here is the fragrant mist flower earlier in the year, with Mexican petunia, a hint of Barbados, and a loquat as a backdrop. As I was sitting down in front of the mist flower today, taking bug pictures, I could hear the audible popping of the petunia seed pods as the sun heated them up… throwing their seeds as far as they can muster, what a great explosive technique!

Next stop for me: Gregg’s mistflower!

Philippine Violet

Barleria cristata

has also now made it to the ranks of full bloomer. The dark foliage really sets off the purple blooms on this very “classy” looking plant. I plan to get a bunch of these planted at the far end one end of one of my beds, the dark foliage backdrop and height will work well for some lower growing frontal “poppers”…something that does not bloom at the same time, Mmm?

Another great combination planting is the spiky, soft leafed yucca, married with the fuzzy blooms of a swath of Mexican bush sage…

Salvia leucantha

The way the blooms weave their way through the yucca is an added visual bonus.

The contrast of the soft purple blooms with the spikey yucca just works,

I think this would also look great as a mass planting with a couple of large sotols! The height would almost be perfect, being a little taller than the yucca.

Here are mine with a line of Mexican feather grasses in the front, the embedded yucca and a few arching lemon grasses, and of course a few random amaranths thrown in for good measure. The sotol (far left) is in a different bed, but ohhh I can see the future so clearly now! I also have a young sotol planted in the middle of this bricked circular bed, (almost hidden in this picture). When mature it will almost fill the diameter of the brickwork, while still allowing all the smaller plants to fill-in around the edges… the taller “antler” plants will be moved.

Why do sotols have to take so long to grow anyway? It seems to take them forever to get going then, all of a sudden…

kaboom! Overnight it seems, they get enormous – love this razor-sharp plant!

Moving on…

Oh yes… I have been flailing around the Patch like Tom Hanks in the hilarious “bee scene” in the movie “The Money Pit” of late, why? Because of these…

“Got One”!

“Why you little…”

I am so tired of the mosquitoes this year, is it just me or has this been a “bumper” (ahem) year? To make matters worse they are also coming through the “Dude where’s my Car?” hole in the side of our house where the Tahoe came unexpectedly into our living-room for some very late afternoon tea some weeks back. An average movie-watching evening in the Patch now consists of everyone sporadically slapping themselves about their heads. To the outside world, we must look like lunatics through our windows. This endless slapping is always preceded by either a disappointed “Uurrgh”! Or “Got One”! At which point we all have a

“Walton’s moment”, all happy and supportive and such. Interestingly, and ironically, we used to have to slap our TV to get a clear, snow-free, reception, but since the collision (it happened directly behind our TV) it has miraculously fixed itself… amazing what a Chevy Tahoe impact can do for some temperamental consumer electronics.

We have even started to spray repellent on the hobbits at bedtime, it has got that bad – Frodo uses a whole bottle of spray at a time just to cover his rather large feet! The mosquitoes are eating us alive. Last night one particularly annoying mosquito became obsessed with the inside passages of my right ear, you know how you can hear them buzz when they get in there? This one kept it up for hours, almost asleep…bzzzzz, almost asleep…bzzzz… etc.etc. I can’t wait for a cold snap to kill them once and for all, can you tell?

Purple amaranth growing to great heights. The pine cone cactus provided some eerie Halloween atmosphere in my middle bed, with it’s slender ghostly fingers. The Jewels of Opar (bottom left), seem to make it into every post I write recently. I did learn today that it’s nickname is Old Lady Hat Pin, because the thin stalks and flower pods resemble the old fashioned long hat pins ladies used to use to hold their hats in place.

Looking down the throat of this agave, a shadow caught my eye.

Ripening satsumas. Almost there, this little tree is buckling even more now as the fruit have swollen, mmm, maybe that is the reason to thin them out somewhat? Anyway it is going to be a great fall harvest, to be exact 94! Give or take one or two.

Finally I would like to give my sincerest thanks to Linda and the super friendly film-crew at CTG for entering bravely into the ESP last Monday. The Naboos finally allowed everyone right-of-passage, after all the paperwork was completed. A lot of mouth clicking later we were all guaranteed that no-one would get hit with a poisoned blow dart…something that I have feared for weeks. The morning of the shoot, before anyone arrived, I stealthily walked slowly to my shed. I calmly removed a roll of silver duct tape. Cutting a length from the roll, I walked slowly back up to where the Botox Lady was loudly “resting”. I knelt like a knight beside her stone head, my hands unwillingly approaching her rather large snoring mouth, my duct tape at the ready… you will not believe what happened to me next…She…

Stay Tuned for:

“Silence is Golden”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“Panic in the Patch”

ESPatch Oct 22, 2009 26 comments

“Hit the button! Hit the button, now!”

Panic is setting in, in the patch. My eyes are being called upon to be extra critical… what needs to be changed? What would a set of fresh eyes see? More importantly what would a camera lens see? Is the lens forgiving? Perhaps there is a camera “weed” filter for the camera? Linda, tell me this exists?

The ESP is scheduled for a “Central Texas Gardener” film shoot shortly, and the Botox lady is very pleased about this indeed. She now shouts at me in her over-the-top Austrian accent every time I pass her…“Yoo-hoo, over zere, over zere, Are the cameraz zere to film me yet? Tell them to get my good side ya ESP, the side with my green hair, …Are the cameraz here ESP, Ya?”

She is diving me nuts!

Oh, have you seen her hair recently? The Botox Lady has turned into one icy, green-headed-mama, well at least on one side. She also has a new gained confidence based on the fact that she now has half a head of the finest green “ice-plant” hair! (She used to be the silent bald-type). She is obsessed with getting her five minutes of fame, I think she desperately wants to impress Bob over there at Draco Gardens, (I hear her mumbling his name occasionally when I am weeding). I can see her from my back window, straining her stone neck to try to see her reflection in the closest golden gazing ball, and she is constantly reminding me that the camera crew will certainly see all my horticultural negligence as soon as they arrive in the patch, UNLESS I clean up the area directly around her head.

Perhaps I will leave that little irritating patch of gravel in her eye and nose for just a little while longer.

The gathering of the Clan “Aphid” also seemed more agitated than usual, I caught them on this satsuma, discussing when to get their kilts out of the dry cleaners. I broke up their discussion rather quickly with a rather strong blast of my hose, which resulted in a lot of “colorful” language.

“Aye, but will all ye wee bugs re-unite and fight wuth me, William Wallace, on the battlefield, against the English”?

Oh shut your cake-hole, William.

Here they are, shortly before becoming high-speed, aquatic projectiles.

This little Satsuma tree is completely buckled over with the weight of the fruit it is wearing…I have not counted them but it is well over a hundred. This is really good as a few people in the patch can really trench their way through these fast. The fruit are really turning orange rapidly now, but are totally palatable for those individuals who just can’t wait.

I have the small branches propped up with anything that will work…chairs, stepladders, grandma Esther? What?

“Oh you think that is funny ESP”?

In an attempt to take some of the strain off the branches. I did not thin the tree earlier in the year, deciding to let nature run its course. The fruit that is touching seems fine, and all is ripening into what should be a bumper crop! And talking of bumper…

These potato vines are on the rampage! I planted these two plants, late spring this year. I always plant about five or six of these vines every year, mostly to hide parts of the patch I have yet to get to / figure out what to do, or areas that are just plain ugly.

They make great invisibility cloaks! These two plants are attempting to cover-up some pond hardware. I like this combination, and use it a lot in containers, for some fast, dynamic foliage color.

Some more foliage color comes from this Burgundy Canna-Lily that I have just shuffled over into its new home between a weeping bamboo, a large pampas and this palm grass (front). It took a bit of a beating in the move but will quickly recover, just in time to die back for the winter. The Canna will provide some well-needed tropical color to this predominately green area. It is satisfying to move something that immediately fills an aesthetic gap. The burgundy color works well with the steel gray of the pampas. Now, why did I not do this a few years ago?

Another new resident who has also moved into this area is this…

Thryallis, center. Nestled into a small pocket of shade, this should provide a small splash of color in here next year.

Another plant not lacking in the “tropical-look” arena is the mighty Century plant or maguey (Agave americana). This plants tribal markings makes it a favorite with the Naboo tribe and myself alike. If you are lucky enough to have a Westerly facing garden these plants take the sacrificial limelight at sunset. Needless to say, I have a “substantial” amount of these scattered perilously around the patch. Can you have too many?

The latest craze in the patch is “races around the pathways”, which invariably leads to “band-aids on the kneecaps” – granite hurts when you fall on it, like falling onto sandpaper…Oh yes, the ESP is so kid-friendly! Hey, it enhances coordination skills.

Ready…Set…

Go!

These tattoos are also all the rage.

Moving on to something you may remember from my last post…

Yes another hoverfly, this time in the depths of a Madame Ganna Walser, performing a precarious balancing act! I have to show one more shot as they are everywhere right now.

I caught this hover, hovering almost motionless around this lily. I must have been so annoying to this fly, do flies get annoyed? With my camera lens repeatedly blocking its path back to the lily interior.

This fly requires a panel beater, he has been in the wars apparently and dented his body armor. It sort of reminds me of my old pick-up truck right now, similar body color, (albeit less shine on my truck), especially after the “Dude, Where’s my Car” incident, unfortunately my trusty old granite-hauler has been declared “totaled”, but…

I will rebuild her…better than she was before, better, stronger, faster!

One final insect…or is it an antelope?

I keep this gazelle in a matchbox and take her out of my pocket in business meetings occasionally to feed her a carrot or two. It always gets a few strange looks, but I don’t care.

Moving more sanely on…

This pin-stripped pink trumpet vine/desert trumpet vine

Podranea ricasoliana

This vine always puts on it’s finest suit this time of year. The vine is popular in South African gardens where it is known as jacaranda. Many South African botanists suspect that this climber may not be indigenous to southern Africa and that it was introduced here by slave traders. All the sites where both Podranea ricasoliana and Podranea brycei are found have ancient connections with slave traders, who frequented the eastern coast of Africa long before the 1600’s. It has become such a widely grown garden plant in all the warmer parts of the world that it may prove difficult to find its real origin.

Podranea ricasoliana can be propagated by means of layering, or by removing side branches that have rooted by themselves. To encourage Podranea to root by layering, take a low growing stem, lay it along the ground without breaking it off the mother plant, bend the tip to a vertical position, stake it in place and bury or cover the part that is touching the ground with soil. My plant actually did this naturally, without any human intervention. These two vines in close proximity have created a monster!

My Amaranth has got so large so fast, I am staking quite a few of them to stop them falling over.

Another purple that pops up sporadically are the morning glories.

Finally, a little more hardscaping…

This area has been looking a bit ratty for some time, there was a completely dead dwarf miscanthus in the middle that I removed, and the one on the right of the picture was also not looking too brilliant, with its half torched side. While I was getting dirty in this little area, I had the idea to have another access point to the main pond. I ripped out a bunch of inland sea oats and the remaining half-baked miscanthus, then moved the potted canna ( the one that I featured earlier). Finally I transplanted the little Mexican feather grasses to make way for a new short granite pathway.

Here is the final, more orderly result. It is really nice to have another angle to view the pond from.

And to finish…

Gregg’s mistflower Oops Mist flower Eupatorium havanense (thanks for the correction Bob) and an ornamental pepper. Candles and fireworks!

One of the first Mist flowers opened up only today.

Stay Tuned for:

“A “Patch” Work Orange”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.