On Monday of this week at around 5:00 a.m. I headed into the kitchen and saw out the window a great fluttering of blue and white wings flailing awkwardly and nearly filling the whole window! There is a narrow patch of grass and a brick path between the house and my pond, not a lot of space for a blue heron to land or take off. It almost looked as if it was a failed attempt to land but having just arrived on the scene, I couldn't tell. The fish were hiding in a covered spot I built into the bottom of the pond. Had they been aware of the predator? When I approached, they swam up to greet me and all were present and accounted for. Had the unsightly electric fence around the pond done its job and frustrated the big bird? It sure works wonders to keep the raccoons playing in the water features that are for them and away from the fish. Before rebuilding the pond and putting up the electric fence, both raccoons and herons feasted on my finned friends, for the last three years, no one has bothered them except for one time when I left the fence off after weeding around it and the raccoons visited. So far, the heron hasn't been back to the sushi bar. What a lucky start to the week.
You may remember that on Tuesday Hosta 'Empress Wu' for which I'd been searching for some time, practically landed in my lap at a local nursery.
On Wednesday, I got a nice email from Kelly Dodson from Far Reaches Farm who had looked at my blog and was kind enough to send the following plant identifications. It was a very nice thing for one as busy as he to do.
My guess was Cypripedium (Lady's Slipper
Orchid) 'Lothar Pinkepank' In fact, it's Cypripedium parviflorum which Kelly got from a small nursery in northern Minnesota in the late 80's as a salvaged plant from new road construction.
I guessed that this was some sort of Kirengeshoma but it's actually Diphylleia grayi.
And the moment we've all been waiting for: This gorgeous grass that ripples with the slightest breeze... "The mystery grass is featured in the current Gardens Illustrated in the container gardening article and is Melica uniflora f. albida although it is identified in the article as M. altissima ‘Alba’ I think. It is around under both names but the current RHS Plantfinder has only one listing for the M. altissima and quite a few for the uniflora so we’ll go with the popular vote."
Thanks so much Kelly for the plant identifications!
On my way home from visiting Willow Tree Nursery, I saw the following outside of a business called Tacoma Boys. More on that tomorrow!
With a week this lucky, Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket!
