Looking down from the deck, I see the Dragon arum opened.
Let's have a closer look.
What can I say--it was an impulse buy. Happily, it doesn't smell like death. Yet. It's supposed to--it attracts flies as pollinators. I didn't know that when I bought the bulb.
I found out about the bad smell after I bought it and decided not to plant it because I figured my boyfriend would object. But when he found the bulb starting to grow in the garage, he suggested I go ahead and plant it anyway. Even after I explained the noxious smell of death part, he said go ahead. )Sigh( If that's not true love, I don't know what is!
In the same bed:
Yellow monkey flower.
Salvia and penstemon.
A visitor complaining about poor service.
Asarum caudatum, wild ginger:
Not the culinary ginger, but you can make a refreshing tea from the roots. Or so I've read. Maybe I'll try that next year when the clump is big enough to divide.
Geranium maderense:
A groovy biennial. Before dying its second year, it throws up a huge infloresence of sorta rank-smelling flowers. If I let the flower die, the geranium will self-sow heavily in my yard and I'll have these plants popping up for years to come. And so will my neighbors. Heh, heh.
This deciduous fern comes up every year. I should learn what it is.
Coreopsis gigantea:
Native to the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. It should be dormant right now, but this one's only a year old. Maybe it'll be dormant next summer. It makes a big display of sunflowers with the first fall rains.
The tree fern will grow out for a couple years before it starts to grow up. I will be happy if it makes it to ten feet before we sell the house and move. I've got some yellow clivia planted behind it. Once the fern gets up, I think some Nicotiana and Cineraria would be nice in front of it. Maybe a Lapageria growing up into it.
You might guess this is a dahlia if you know what dahlia stems look like. You'd be right.
Dahlia imperialis. It grows ten feet in one year and makes big flowers in the dead of winter before going dormant and blowing over to start again next year. Here it was just a few months ago.
Aother big grower: Bartlettina sordida.
It will outgrow its space this year and I'll have to make some difficult pruning decisions. Well, it'll be fun.
Behind it, Illicium mexicanum. Mexican star anise. I'll show you pictures of this one when it blooms.
The garden: a work in progress...always.
Last gardening-related post here.
