“Shaken not Stirred”

ESPatch Jun 21, 2010 14 comments

Lots of new blooms in the heated Patch this week. As you can see, my front yard vitex agnus-castus tree has almost finished blooming and is setting a ton of seeds, so many seeds infact, that it is weighing the tree down to the ground. It is always something with a vitex!

You would think that with all these seeds, I would have little vitex trees popping up everywhere, but I really don’t…

Well, maybe just a few.

The low hanging branches now require us to perform a considerable amount of stooping and absurd limbo maneuvers to get to our front door.

I put up with the nonsense and neurotic tendencies from this small tree / large shrub for one reason…pollinators, and swallowtails…they go crazy on it!

Staying at the front of Patch, my one and only rose courtesy of Lori over at http://gardenerofgoodandevil.blogspot.com/ has started to bloom, to the delight of my eldest who always complains to me about the lack of “flowers” in the Patch.

“And you said we do not have flowers.” I made a smug point of telling her, as I pulled the stalk of this lily behind her ear.

The inside color of the rose (I have no idea what it is called, Lori?) as an added bonus, picks up on the house trim color.

She does have a point though, I naturally gravitate toward foliage and texture in preference to “flowers.” The amaranth on the left has got huge because it always receives a wash of water when I empty the paddling pool, I like the way it plays on the burgundy color of the rear canna lily.

This little Mexican weeping bamboo was part of the root-ball from the main plant when I moved it from the front of the house. I planted it not really thinking it would develop into anything and kept watering and watering…finally it pushed up some tiny stalks, and made my day. It looks great contrasting with the wide Hoja Santa leaves that I keep snapping off to allow more light to penetrate.

Talking of foliage, my pride of Barbados plants have been taking center-stage in my cactus/succulent bed this week.

You know it is summer when you see these burning embers swaying in the wind. A really great tropical look, and one really tough plant.

Another summer salvia sizzler. Even the blooms on this plant seem to be gasping for cooler air…can you feel the Texas heat yet?

And panning back a little further, the refreshing powder-blue flowers on this Agastache ‘Blue Fortune Hyssop’ (excuse me) are really pulling in the bees. This is one of the plants I received from High Country Gardens / Gardening Gone Wild photography competition, it seems to like Texas! This deer-proof plant has a great licorice scent to the leaves, and along with my mist flowers and vitex is an amazing bee and butterfly magnet. The pale blue blooms visually pop against a dark backdrop such as this canna.

See!…more flowers!

Coneflowers and Phlox…

…even my oregano is following suite!

“Forgetabout the flowers, plant more nut trees ESP, y’ hear me?”

I keep seeing this albino squirrel all over the Patch, lounging here, hanging over there and I have no idea where the New Jersey accent came from. Every time I look up into the oaks, there he is…studying me with unblinking, pale pink eyes…Brrrr!

Moving on…

“Hand over the Jewels of Opar Goldmember”!

“You are mishinformed Mr Bond.. I have no jewels…a terrible shmelting accident.”

With the discovery of this little plant hiding behind this bolder, my jewel count is now up to three new Opars! This is what they looked like at the end of last year…

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2009/10/halloween-2009/

Finally…

Has anyone ever witnessed one of these? A most bizarre creature that caused tears and a run into the house for my elder hobbit…all thighs and feelers and an apparently strong desire to stay firmly attached to her!

Stay Tuned for:

“Tales of the Unexpected”

All material © 2010 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

Go shaky England!

“There is a Monkey in my Giant Timber!”

ESPatch May 6, 2008 0 comments

Giant Timber Bamboo (4 years old)

I have 5 giant timbers, all at different ages. The oldest is now 5 years old and a monster, it must be 40 feet tall with 3-4 inch diameter culms. I usually trim up the lower branches for a more architectural look and cut down the smaller thinner culms.

New culms shoot up toward the end of the Summer at an alarming rate, then develop leaves the following season.

1st year – culm growth 2nd year – leafs grow out of the culms

As a clumper giant timber bamboo is a trouper, it seems to withstand cold-snaps, doesn’t seem to care if its base is in shade. In fact I have a theory that they will grow larger if they can sense that sunlight is available above a tree canopy. I have mine growing through 2 two pecans and a post oak. It adds great elevation as a perimeter backdrop and obviously offers a really tropical aesthetic.

The only problem is the monkeys, this little monkey seems to have taken up permanent residency on the lower canopy of my newly founded ‘privacy grove’ . . . (My goal is to visually screen the house in the background).

Screams a lot too – I think it may be a Howler Monkey! Amazing dexterity though – makes it to the top branches in seconds!

A word of warning about Giant Timber Bamboo – it is very expensive (for a few initial nursery ‘sad-sticks’), and it takes quite a while to become established. As for dividing an existing clump, I did it once and severely regretted the decision. I thought I would save a few dollars, after all, how difficult could it be to divide a clump of this stuff ?

As it turns out, very difficult indeed!

I destroyed, and I mean destroyed, two shovels, one pick axe and all that is considered socially acceptable within the confines of the English language. I tried axes, saws, tiny nail files, everything! What I really needed was a chainsaw.

I finally managed to separate three or four culms from the main plant and transported the clump via my wheelbarrow to its new home. I planted it and it did grow successfully, a lot faster incidentally then any I have ever purchased at a nursery – but never again!

Other notables right now . . .

Purple Coneflower Echinacea purpurea (Asteraceae).

Buddleia: Butterfly Bush

Buddleia is at home in disturbed areas of ground such as road cuts or new development sites. Historically its flowers have softened wartime London’s bombed areas and the slag heaps of Welsh mining towns.

First figs developing on the tree and the first flowers on the Hollyhock,

. . . and the first ripened fruit on my sad, blight-ridden tomato plants

Stay Tuned for:

“My Tomatoes are Manically Depressed”

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

flowers

“Shaken not Stirred”

“Tales of the Unexpected”

“There is a Monkey in my Giant Timber!”

“My Tomatoes are Manically Depressed”

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