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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Thursday, December 31, 2015

New Drought-Tolerant Tree - Is There Life After Death?

When driving by these topiary trees in exposed aggregate pots on a sidewalk where they bake in summer and shiver in winter, I feel sorry for them.


Behind them is a concrete block building which recently got a new tenant and a snazzy and bright paint job.  The poor trees were left behind by the former occupants and were neglected for a few months as the building was vacant.  Two, like the one above, survived.  One did not.  Well, it was done with life as we know it (or was it just unsightly?  Either way, it's dead now.) but has been reborn in a way.


It's quite vibrant and eye-catching in this light industrial, mostly- bland-colored area.

Because of it's position, so much closer to the street than the building behind, it really grabs attention. The sign on the building now says "One Word Plastics" but I didn't go inside.  Now I'm wondering what it is that they are about but an internet search turns up nothing, nada, zilch, zero so next time I'm in the area I'll find out.  Anyway, dead tree becomes garden art - we've seen it before with deciduous trees so why not conifers as well.  Come to think of it, what were you planning to do with that Christmas tree ...
Happy New Year's eve and may 2016 be happy, peaceful, prosperous, and find you surrounded by love.

18 comments:

  1. Thanks Peter, same to you: Happy new Year! At first I thought "oh, no, not Kosmic trees too!", but then I realized that on this scale it's quite nice. Very Seussian.

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  2. Hmm. At least it won't need watering.
    A very Happy New Year to you too Peter.

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  3. Just One Word: Plastics

    "I just want to say one word to you. Just one word," he intones portentiously: "plastics." Audiences howled and the line instantly passed into the folklore of late-twentieth-century America. With its connotations of the imitative, the shoddy, the unnatural, and the inauthentic, this single word seemed to condense all the disquiets that were coursing through American culture in 1968, the year of the film's release.

    Good reading: https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/reviews_in_american_history/v025/25.1raeburn.html

    Funny that the word was "plastics". I think "computers" would have been more appropriate, but that is hindsight.

    Peter, I want to thank you for the fun, the humor, the beauty you have given me throughout the year in your blog posts and your generous and thoughtful comments.

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  4. Happy New Year Peter! May the Force be with you!

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  5. Color is good, and that's certainly a lot of it...

    Happy New Year!

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  6. I join the rusty duck in thanking you for a year's worth of pleasurable posts and the community you have created here. I'm looking forward to many more. Happy 2016.

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  7. A little leftover paint and the next thing you know it's street art of the garden variety.

    Happy New Year Peter!

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  8. Happy New Year, Peter. I hope everything you touch in 2016 will be real, not plastic. May there be icing on your cake, not paint on dead plants.

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  9. I love it when nature throws a colourful party in my garden – no so keen when it is done artificially but I suppose if keeping things alive and green is out of the question then this could be an alternative. Possibly. Maybe.
    Anyway, wishing you a happy New Year and all the best for a great gardening year!

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  10. That would be fun if it wasn't so heartbreaking. Or it would be heartbreaking if it wasn't so much fun.

    Happy New Year!

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  11. That's.....colorful. That line about plastics comes from the movie The Graduate, I believe. Happy New Year! I hope 2016 is a wonderful year for you.

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  12. Yes, it looks like a poodle. Happy New Year!

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  13. Plastic tree, oh, no...
    Happy New year, Peter, I wish you good health and happiness!

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  14. Wouldn't that be something? Groves of retired technicolor Christmas trees scattered throughout the neighborhood, I'm laughing just thinking of it.
    All the best to you and yours for the new year!

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  15. It's very Seussical! Happy New Year! :o)

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  16. Is this what they mean by a fate worse than death?

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  17. Haha, that poor plant! Happy New Year Peter :)

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.