East Side Patch

"Ox-Tongue in Cheek"

ESPatch Feb 25, 2009 0 comments

Star Jasmine Trachelospermum jasminoides.
Here are the flowers, thousands of them.

The air all around my property is currently heavy with the intoxicating aroma emanating from this mature star jasmine, it is quite something. It is so potent we can even smell it inside our house!
Even when you leave the premises the scent it seems, is somehow imprinted in ones nasal passages.
I have this one, actually it is two, clambering over a 12 foot section of fence, it has entirely engulfed it, as well as spreading at least a hundred feet down my fence line. It would cover my entire house if I let it, it continues to try. You can see it trying to spread across the ground to the house, it is also blooming there aswell!

Another “stinker” passing wind right now is the good old Mountain Laurel.

The fragrance from this laurel is attracting multitudes of battling hoverflies, each trying to gain territorial rights to it’s purple bounty, and what a bounty it is. I have also seen the hover-flies flying in coordinated groups, working in unison to claim rights to the shrub from other challenging insects.

I am not making this stuff up!

“Mmmmm smells good enough to eat” – but you probably don’t want to do that.

Pretty though they are, the seeds of the Mountain Laurel are toxic.
Native Indians used to drill and string them for necklaces. I plan to
do a similar jewelry project when it goes to seed, and I think I know someone
who would like to do the stringing…

“I see my future is going to be filled
with pretty red seed-beads.”

Another purple bloomer drawing a crowd is the Purple Oxalis regnellii Atropurpurea

This plant flowers best in the spring then continues to sporadically bloom throughout the summer.

This next succulent has been through the wars. Just as it was developing flower buds it got nipped by a frost. The ends of it’s green leaves went brown and the flowers just dried up.

It looked really bad. I contemplated whacking it to the
ground so that I didn’t have to look at it again, but
something inside me said to wait, after-all it was still
mostly green. So wait I did…and I waited. Over the course of
last few weeks I have seen the top of the plant “recover,”
(the leaves still look pretty badly scorched) and today…

The most amazing waxy blooms, presented in their very own natural vases!

It looks like it is going to have a lot of flowers.

The warmth has also shot up quite a few flower spikes. I struggled for and ID on this plant and have settled on Gasteria (ty Romani)

The name ‘Gasteria’ comes from the Latin word for ‘stomach’ due to the shape of the flower. I will post a picture if it will hurry up and bloom already – it is taking forever! It sort of looks like a plant that would take its merry time to do anything, don’t you think? It has that prehistoric flavor to it.

The genus Gasteria is a genus of leaf succulents endemic to South Africa. Gasteria habitats are subject to erratic rainfall patterns and therefore the genus has evolved to become drought resistant plants that can do without water for long periods of time. Most Gasterias tolerate low light levels and grow in shady places. They can be easily hybridized with Aloes to which they are closely related.

“Don’t look at that one, look at mine! look at mine!” “Ahhhh”
Gasterias are almost all stem less and have thick, tongue-shaped leaves that are interestingly arranged in dovetailed ranks. They are spotted in white or dotted with pale papillae (warts). Gasteria are locally known by the common name ox tongue (beestongblaar in Afrikaans), because of these tongue-shaped leaves. The plant is also known as ox-tongue cactus or cow’s tongue plant.

“Looks like Betty and Bill were late to get their Gasteria
in this year Honey.”

Gasteria is sometimes planted on thatched roofs
because of a belief in its ability to repel lightning,
Sempervivum (hen and chicks) were planted on
roofs in Europe for the same reason.

“beestongblaar!” “Ahhhh”.

In tribal culture the plant is believed to have magical properties. Consuming a variety
of gasteria that camouflages itself extremely well is believed to impart a degree of invisibility
to a hunteror warrior. The warrior on the left obviously found, and ingested, a particularly large swath of it!

Has the gentleman on the right constructed some facial adornment with a couple of the plants leaves?

Another flower spike that has developed with alarming speed comes from my Aloe Vera. It usually
sends up one or two of these a year. This is the only one so far this year.

The species is frequently cited as being used in herbal medicine since the beginning of the first century AD, because it is mentioned in the New Testament (And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes). Better he brought these than these:
So far so good on the barrel cactus front. They appear to be doing fine in their new home. I took a recent trip to the newly located “Miguels Imports” primarily to find a couple of containers for a landscape I am working on. If you have not been yet I would highly recommend a visit (the new locale is on Burnet road). The property is really impressive, as is their collection of fantastic pots and furniture / decor. They are also now selling a limited offering of xeriscape plants; lots of agave, sotols and these little chappies that I picked up. Several puncture wounds later (these little ones were worse than the potted transplants) and here are the new siblings in their new pre-school environment.

Moving right along to citrus.

“You’ve been stitched up mate!”…spider perhaps?

And venturing forth to my Mexican Lime:

Covered in blooms from top to bottom. Some of the limes on here are from last year, I should have probably removed them but I liked the way they looked …it was a little bit of summer in the winter months!

Some other crazies observed in the patch this week:

I caught this unidentified seed-pod scampering around the rocks near my pond, very abstract form.

I watered this mist flower yesterday and a Texas Paper Wasp immediately
jumped right on it for a well earned, cooling beverage, after all it was a
freaky 90 degree day in February!

Waxy, fresh new growth on one of by burgundy cannas, it seems like yesterday that I cut this one all the way back!

A freaky Bulbine, pointing the way to go!

Looking down the throat of a Crossvine, Cross-Vine,
Trumpet Flower Bignonia capreolata

Watch out for this Agave spike…you could end up sleeping for hundred years…
ahh if only I could be so lucky!

“Stories in the patch!”

Stay Tuned For:
“Curb your Enthusiasm”
All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

"Pieces of Eight"

ESPatch Feb 18, 2009 0 comments

“I’m warnin’ ye ESP, one more ridiculous
pirate analogy in this blog
and I will cutlass yer barrel cacti, if you catch
my drift…savvy?

Pieces of eight, pieces of eight…
This was the scene on Morris Williams golf course the other week. A large “pandemonium” or “company” of our very own, feral Austin Quaker Parrots (Myiopsitta monachus). These birds are also known as the Monk Parakeet. The birds originate from the temperate to subtropical areas of Argentina and surrounding countries in South America. I had hit a very uncharacteristic “non-slice” golf-shot to end up pretty close to these birds, I hopped out of the golf cart with my I-Phone and started snapping, hence the poor image quality. These intelligent birds were feasting on some freshly sewn golf course seed, whilst simultaneously excelling at various Phd programs.

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia My winter Post Oak
The Monk Parakeet is the only parrot that builds a stick nest, in
a tree or on a man-made structure, rather than using a hole in a tree.
There is a huge nest in the light tower across from Cafe Mundi, on
the East side of Austin. So how did these birds end up wild in Austin?

“Arrr…more of a ‘monk’ey man me-self.”
Rumor has it that a “lady” released 10 or 12
of these birds on purpose almost a couple of
decades ago. I often hear them having a
pandemonium on one of the large Pecan or
Post Oak trees around my property, their
shrill calls very distinctive.

“A ‘lady’ released them you say?,
Well yes, I’m a lady, then It was I,
I released the monk parrots!”

Japanese Holly Fern unfurling Cyrtomium falcatum.
The recent moisture has sprung this fern into a growth spurt. Interesting how the leaves are packed in really tight within the curling frond. Holly ferns also makes a great house plants because they can withstand dry air, drafts, and low light levels. Holly ferns are native to Asia.

The pigmentation on the Holly fern leaves is also very unusual with it’s dappled design.

A new horsetail Equisetum arvense emerging from my “bucket bog” looking very Balanese-esque. This has given me some “adornment” ideas for my future 15ft agave stalk wind instrument.
Horsetail reed has a rich history of healing ailments, today, horsetail continues to have medicinal value. The plant’s stems are rich in silica and silicic acids, which help mend broken bones and form collagen, an important protein found in connective tissue, skin, bone, cartilage, and ligaments. Therefore, horsetail is used as a supplement to treat and prevent osteoporosis.

The drizzle this last week also brought a ton of these spiraled chappies out into the open, as well as a few million weeds.

So many weeds…so little time. My granite front bed, beneath
my Vitex tree was under attack from the dreaded dandelions.
It took me an hour to extricate these monsters with their
annoyingly deep, “snapping” tap roots..

Wet Oxialis triangularis – Purple Passion / Shamrock plant – this clump grows under my Giant Timber Bamboo.
Can you tell I am experimenting with my Christmas fish-eyecamera?

I forgot just how “out of touch” you feel when you are using physical film and a manual camera, I have to say that my confidence dropped with every dull sounding “clunk” of the lense. I went to Precision Camera today to pick up the film, fearing the worst, as it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised. Out of my 24 exposure 35mm film, I think I may have 4 or 5 interesting shots, I can live with that as a first attempt with a new fish-eyed “analog” camera.

And here is the green variation Oxalis regnellii in full bloom right now. This plant also makes a great indoor plant.

Desert Willow Trumpet Creeper, Podranea ricasoliana
This plant is also known as Port John’s Creeper, Zimbabwe Creeper. It is a member of the Bignoniaceae family to which our native trumpet creeper also belongs. It however isn’t as invasive as the trumpet creeper and doesn’t come up from ground shoots but it may root by layering where a a vine contacts the soil. It is said to be native to South Africa, mine is sporadically blooming right now for some obscure reason, typically it blooms in the late fall.

I thought I would post the mountain laurel bloom from last week (left).
Here it is this week, with the purple blooms beginning to emerge.
Amazing development in only seven days, I guess that is why they are
short lived, fast to emerge-fast to die, they never seem to last long enough!
The color change from the middle picture to the right picture happened within
two days, and naturally I missed it!

Here is a detail of one of the Mountain Laurel blooms, looking like some Art Deco lamp fixture.

Today I decided I would cut back some of my now rather leggy Gopher plants Euphorbia biglandulosa. The Gopher plant is a shrubby evergreen perennial that looks like something from another planet. This native of the Mediterranean has long, arching stems that are lined with fleshy, grey-green leaves. The sap you see on the right picture is very poisonous if ingested, and there is plenty of it when pruned as you can see. As an experiment I stuck a few of the pruned heads from this plant into the ground of my new middle bed to see if anything will happen. I am not holding my breath.

A few final images in the patch this week:

“I can’t stand it when you cry like this!”

I got so annoyed with this lavender that is some four years old, I decided to trim it back
to within a foot of it’s life. It was looking so bad with a couple of feet of woody growth
then a thin top layer of spears, I had to do it, it was the humane thing to do.
I am hoping it rebounds with a much more compact growth habit.
Fingers crossed.

A Sotol as seen through my “fish eye” lens. “Oh my god, they have discovered warp drive!”

This book-end of a cactus, succulent, errr, flat plant thingymabob is developing a bloom…what is this? Some type of living rock cactus perhaps? A very bizarre plant and equally bizarre bloom on a flat taper stalk. I wait with baited breath!