Some fun surprises

Surprise One

Musa basjoo is a favorite plant of many including myself. I've enjoyed mine, especially this one which I see from my back door, for years.

From the other side looking back toward the house

(The variegated daylilly in this shot is a souvenir of my last visit to Heronswood just a week before they were shut down.)

I have sometimes viewed (with envy) images of Musa basjoo with red spots & thought that they must be mislabeled; surely this is m. sikkimensis or something else. I  have been assured that the labelling was correct.  Hmmm.

A while back, I was at the Home Depot and they had just received about 300 Basjoos in one gallon pots.  I paid them little mind until, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a splotch of red on one of those lovely green leaves.  Could it be?  One tries to remain nonchalant at moments like this.  I moved rapidly toward the tall aluminum rack and found this one out of three hundred with red markings.  I was able to wipe most of the drool from my chin before I got to the cash register.

 Now, where will I plant it?

Surprise Two

On the way back from Jungle Fever, I decided to stop at the thrift store in that neighborhood and found this faboo chair.  While I love and admire teak furniture, things in my garden sometimes disappear so I'm wary of putting anything of much value outside.  I never said I wasn't tacky!  Anyway, I can have my morning coffe or talk on the phone while sitting here looking at bananna and bamboo foliage and pretend I'm on vacation in the tropics or at Morticia Addam's place which our house resembles.

Surprise 3

There is a place that creates momuments/headstones not far from me.  They create samples which are, for some reason or another, discarded after they've been displayed.  The names on the stones are ficticious, sometimes the artwork is nice, and I like to use them as pavers.  For me, they illustrate, along with the garden itself, the cycle of life, death, and rebirth so I find the stones beautiful and thought provoking.  Recently I found this one, with lovely artwork,  in the discard pile.   Did I mention that they are free, my favorite price? 

Surprise 4, an early birthday present.

About three years ago, I decided that a large statue of Buddha that I saw at Jungle Fever would look really swell in a clearing in my timber bamboo grove. To check for scale, I placed a mannequin there.  He sort of stayed around for a while so I put a gazing ball in his neck, a pot  in one hand and a trowel in the other illustrating the garden shopper's dilemma:  I bought this, now where will I plant it?  Fun joke for  a while.

I hinted that I'd like the statue for my birthday and that I'd get more enjoyment out of it now than I would if we waited until September when I'll have less time to spend in the garden.  Fortunately,  Jungle Fever keeps these in stock and Tom agreed with my flimsy logic so over the weekend, bought this guy for me.  It's as tall as the life-sized mannequin but is made of solid concrete which is much more dense than the hollow fiberglass it replaced.  It was great fun (?) getting him out of the truck, through the darden and onto his pedistal.  I kept thinking of the blog, It's not work, It's gardening. Alan, this WAS work.  Anyway, I think the change is for the better and looks a little more respectable and grown-up, not that I'm particularly either of those.

What have been your favorite garden surprises lately?