Random observations

As you hopefully already know, I'm busy with creating a pond right now, so I don't have too much time for other things in the garden. I did take several photos the other day, so here they are.

An almost random collection of observations. Starting with the Semiarundinaria okuboi bamboo. I just love the leaves on this species, and although some of them are yellowing before falling (many of the temperate bamboos drop some percentage of their leaves in the fall), they're still big, textural, and beautiful.

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Speaking of bamboo, I noticed what seems to be flower structures on one of my Shibatea kumasaca plantings.

This is one of my favorite smaller bamboos (maybe reaching 5' - 1.5m - tall in my climate) with its short, wide leaves.

This one was in a pot for most of the summer before I planted it, and I think that stressed it -- stress often results in bamboos flowering. My other planting from the same parent plant has been in the ground since last year and shows no signs of flowering.


Right next to this plant is one of my Salvia leucanthas, and this one branch was dripping wet this afternoon, somehow not drying out from the rain we had the night before:

I bet I could make a towel out of those fuzzy blooms!

This plant is putting out huge new stems from its base:

It's much too late in the season for this, but I think the hot dry summer put a lot of plants into a type of dormancy and the return of cooler, wetter weather has woken a lot of them up. I'll have to dig up these plants and store them in the garage for the winter, so seeing the fresh growth concerns me a bit.


The Spanish flag vine self-seeded the last couple of years, and has only started blooming in the last month or so:

It's a nice late-season burst of color. I need to plant this somewhere next year, but I'm not sure where. Most of my vertical structures are already reserved for other flowering vines.

I'll find room somewhere, or maybe just let it grow as a "groundcover" as it is here.


Speaking of late-season color:

Firesticks (Euphorbia tirucalli), finally taking on some of the color I expected it to have all summer long. This plant is getting so large I'm not sure how I'm going to overwinter it. It spent last winter under lights, but I don't know if I have the room for that this year.

How about a couple of beauty shots of bamboo?

Finally, the huge Datura inoxia plant that's growing in a crack in my garden has been releasing seeds:

The spiky pods split open, dropping dozens of seeds. Since there are probably a hundred pods on the plant right now, this has the potential to be a problem. More on this very soon.

And that's it for today. Time to grab the shovel and get back to the pond project!

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