Random Outlaw Fun

Recently, pal Alison and I attended the Heronswood Fall plant sale and my heart skipped a beat when I saw this Trevisia affinis palmata on the Windcliff Plants table.  Earlier this summer, exceptional gardener and plant freak, Mary Palmer,  posted a picture of hers and created instant plant lust.  Dan Hinkley says that his specimen has been hardy outside during even the coldest winters in his zone 8b garden.  This beautiful thing comes from the mountains of NE Vietnam.   My Trevesia palmata 'Micholitzii' and Trevesia palmata are hardy only to 25-30 degrees and  their even more deeply-lobed and cut leaves (Snowflake aralia is a common name)  have made it worth lugging them in and out of the house each year.

Birthday money was meant to be spent on something frivolous, right?  Sometimes I wonder why, when there are so many perfectly fabulous, hardy, tried and true plants available,  I'm  so easily excited by something new and unusual.  Crazy.   

Staying with palmate leaves but moving from Araliaceae to Euphorbiaceae, Jatropha multifida, purchased three years ago as a seedling from Etsy, lost it's leaves in the greenhouse a couple of winters ago so last winter, I decided to keep it indoors.  It lost it's leaves again during the coldest, darkest part of the year.  However, they keep growing back once it gets brighter and warmer again. Bare branches may not be everyone's idea of an attractive houseplant but the naked stick look is more than made up for by the foliage when it's present. 

Hey, what's that? 

This is the second time blooms have appeared this season.  

Gentiana 'Alex Duguid' is an older variety of autumn-flowering Gentian.  They had me at autumn-flowering.  From the Far Reaches table at the Heronswood sale.

There were some Valley Nursery reward dollars in my account that needed to be spent so this beauty came home with me. (Like I need another bromeliad...)

From the Odd Plant Sale came these new additions.  Those name tags are around here somewhere...

Many years ago, I planted Tropaeolum speciosum at the feet of Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Van Pelt's Blue' thinking that the brilliant vermilion blooms would look good clambering up the oh-so-blue foliage.  That Tropaeolum  never did much but this year,  one nearby jumped over and decided to climb toward the sun on the blue Chamaecyparis (A.K.A. Port Orford Cedar) which made me exceedingly happy.

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Van Pelt's Blue' appeared briefly at a couple of nurseries about eight years ago and I got three tiny saplings.  They then seemed to vanish from the trade, perhaps because of the fungal problem that beset the Port Orford Cedars.   However, recently Youngblood has been delivering them to several area nurseries.  This is such a stunning blue color which gets even better in the winter.  If you see one, snap it up as one never knows how long this window of availability will be open.  By the way, my three little saplings are now about ten feet tall and don't seem to mind a bit of pruning.