9/21/09

Late summer idyll

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We have new cats. This time on Foeniculum vulgare where they belong.

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Aster chilensis

I grew this Symphotrichum chilensis syn. Aster chilensis--lots of it--from one single seedhead I pinched last year on Calif. public land. I'm not sure if I should even be saying that. You're not supposed to collect without a permit, but I couldn't help myself. It was just one single seedhead among thousands on the side of the road. Just a rationalization? Wrong is wrong?

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This is a plant I am entitled to have, Phormium 'Black Adder'. A gift from FitzGerald Nurseries by way of a circuitous path taken on Twitter. It's settling in very nicely between the gray, mounding buckwheats (Eriogonum arborescens). I love it.

'Black Adder'

The garden doesn't really have enough dark foliage, but I'm kinda picky about dark foliage.

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Well, I have some Atriplex hortensis.

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Soon to be, had some Atriplex hortensis? Yeah, I'm talkin' to you.

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6 comments:

CiNdEe's GaRdEn said...

Very pretty(-: The birds are too.
Are they as tired of the hot weather as I am? Tell them to stay in the bay area. Its miserable up here in Redding)-: Its 100 and suppose to be 103+ tomorrow. We had a light sprinkle of rain last Monday but it dried as soon as it hit the ground. I am ready for Fall weather!!!!

ryan said...

Great fern photo. I was just thinking I don't post enough photos of ferns.

hap said...

Aster chilensis is not endangered and considered a weed in some places... so don't beat yourself up. You are just spreading the gene pool.

Unknown said...

Still drooling over that 'Black Adder'... yum. I'm somewhat picky about dark foliage. Okay, no, I can't lie... there are very few dark-foliaged plants that I don't like. But some that I would elevate to "adore," like your dark phormium.

I vote to leave your atriplex hortensis, unless the birdies strip it of all of its seeds. It looks gorgeous all sun-bleached and dead in the winter! (Up here, at least.)

Christopher C. NC said...

More people should grow lots of plants from single seed heads they pinch on public lands. The success rate of controlled germination is often far higher than in the wild. You are increasing the population not decreasing it.

Anonymous said...

my mom used to say if EVERYONE came by and picked ONE flower off the pretty bush, soon there would be NO flowers left on it. haunts me to this day and she's been gone for 15 years, and i'm getting old, but ... i'm thinking ONE SEED isn't quite the same thing ... (unless 20 people come by to pick one each.) see? -haunted. (:
cynthia