It’s late May and we were gone for two weeks, during which it actually rained. You can imagine. I’m sorry I didn’t take any “Before” pictures. Spent all day yesterday hacking back the Mexican primroses from the sidewalk garden. That it not a nice way to talk about a wildflower, especially such a pretty one, but they do have takeover tendencies and look very raggedy once the first blooms are done. They’ll be back.
Succulents are always doing something interesting and exotic. I keep meaning to write a piece just about succulents. Unfortunately, I have very mixed luck with them; I think they like to be left alone much more than I am prone to do. This one lives in the steel raised bed Floyd made for me last year.
The original purpose for the steel bed, and the cage that sat atop it, was for growing tomatoes in a way that the rodents couldn’t get to the fruit. However, every year I need to relearn the fact that I am constitutionally incapable of growing most foods. So this year, I transformed the fabulous steel planter into a garden of rocks and ignorable perennials.
This guy above lives in a whole different part of the yard, on the north corner of the house beside a little stone patio, and I waited two years for the first blossom. It’s Acca sellowiana, better known at least to me as a pineapple guava (no pineapples and no guavas, story of my life). It’s an evergreen shrub that produces these exotic flowers in the spring. Worth the wait.
I mean to do a whole piece on cactus flowers because they are so amazing. One thing that kills me about them is that little bitty cacti have no problem producing flowers bigger than they are. The one above looked like a big pink hat and, as often happens, lasted one day. The cactus itself is maybe four inches tall.
On a happier note, the duranta (of the family verbenaceae) is finally coming into its own. The first year I planted it, deer came along and ate the tender buds every single time they appeared. I moved one of the duranta into the back yard where it’s safe but gets less sun. This guy lives in the sidewalk garden but has somehow avoided becoming a midnight snack.
For no reason I can explain, the deer visiting this spring had a craving for the buds on the Mutabilis rose in the side yard. This is a great kind of old rose that has blossoms that change color during the day and create a shrub full of pink and pale orange flowers that remind me of my favorite Good Humor popsicle from when I was little – it was half raspberry, half orange. I can never get a good photo of Mutabilis, but this will give you an idea at least of the colors I’m talking about:
Fortunately, I have a spare one of those in the back yard, too. Bwahahahahaha, deer!
