Weekend roundup

Asclepias tuberosa
"Hello Yellow" seeds

It was a lovely 70+ degrees in the garden this weekend, and all the plants were growing away as if it wasn't January. I managed several hours on both Saturday and Sunday:

Echium crisis control. I don't know what the problem is with Echiums at PG, but ours like to fail spectacularly. This usually manifests itself as robust and speedy growth for a year or more, and then simply falling over in whole or in part and lying on the floor, dead, for no apparent reason. It's genus-specific, so I doubt foul play unless you believe in resistentialism.*

Anyway, our lovely variegated Echium fastuosum "Pride of Madeira" which suffered the loss of a couple branches last year (creating a hole in one side) lost a few more branches at the weekend. The hole is so big that I had to fill it. Happily I had a 1 gallon Leonotis leonurus (Lion's Tail) waiting in the wings, and planted that in the hole. Take that, pathetic Echium!

Matt mulched the Aloe nobilis hedge by the steps. I weeded the middle front bed and moved some Aeoniums around there. I also weeded by the steps, and found a number of baby Stachys byzantina (Lamb's Ears) and Nicotiana langsdorffii near their parents in that area. I transplanted that seedlings to various spots.

Early Jessamine
(Cestrum fasciculatum)

I also mulched parts of the left bed and moved a Pelargonium x domesticum (Geranium) "Martha Washington" to the Wrong Way sign area. Next I decided to propagate our Cortaderia selloana "Silver Comet" by division. Well let's just say the Cortaderia won. The name "Cortaderia" is derived from the Spanish word cortadura, meaning "cut" or "cutting." In the space of 10 minutes my bare right arm was slivered from wrist to bicep and I spent the evening wondering what sort of lotion would soothe the throbbing pain. Who would have thought a grass could do that? Resistentialists, that's who.

On Sunday as we were leaving Jim came up and offered his help. I felt like a cad leaving (we were hungry and tired) but Jim was happy to weed in the dog area without us. Thanks Jim!

* Resistentialism is a theory that states that "inanimate objects are out to get us."