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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.

Friday, July 20, 2012

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?

10 comments:

  1. Wow that chair is a big ole flashback to my senior pictures in high school and my early days working for Pier One Imports, thanks for the memories!

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    1. You're welcome. Weren't those chairs just the grooviest things in the world?! These days, I wouldn't put one inside but with that unfinished back porch, one can either finish it correctly (next summer)or camp it up. Now, where did I put my flourescent posters and black light?

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  2. wow! I love it! The chair is pretty fabtabulous. And I of course love your bananas and your special find is cool too. I almost bought siam ruby banana this year that I saw at Maple Leaf in North Vancouver. But there were just too many things I wanted soo badly there that it got left behind. Any idea kind yours is? Your statue also looks really tropical!!! It could be Thailand as far as I'm concerned with those timber bamboo! Epic! Either that or Indiana Jones esque which in my books is killer! I have been known to hum the tune of Indiana Jones everyday for years.

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    1. Glad you like my surprises. Thailand/Indiana Jones esque is what I was going for. I think that the my find just may be a musa basjoo as a few of them do have splotches. Siam Ruby is GORGEOUS but really wants heat - a lot of it. I've had it a couple of times and it just sulks outside in the ground or in a pot. The only time mine really was happy was when it was in my glass room with the door closed where it baked at 90 degrees and above. While I winter over a couple of tropical bananas in my cool dark basement, Siam Ruby couldn't handle the harsh dormant treatment and croaked. Heidi at Dragonfly Nursery reports similar results even though she was much kinder to hers in the winter (sunny greenhouse never below 70 degrees - dead.)

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  3. OMG ! ... I love your statue to bits .. I have a meditation Buddha of fiberglass or some light material .. he sits in a Green Panda bamboo corner with a purple corkscrew willow and some other nonsense plants .. but the serene presence overcomes my additional nonsense and it is peaceful there.
    I also drool over your fabulous bamboo .. I will never be able to have that type but I will always love it.
    It would have been a hoot to have a film crew watch you guys place that Buddha in the garden .. work is too "light weight" to describe how difficult it must have been !
    I found you from Barry's blog and asked the same question and I have asked him a bazillion times .. can I dial the radio show up on my computer ...zzz he is slow with pointed questions ! haha
    Joy : )

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    1. Hi Joy,

      Glad you found my blog! Barry said that if you go to his blog at the appointed time (7:00 on Monday, I think) and click on the garden gate picture, you'll be able to hear his broadcast via computer.

      The statue is very peaceful and the bamboo grove is serene but don't be too jealous. I planted a small pot of that 13 years ago, before I knew anything about barriers and now it's threatening to take over the world. Every year I have to go out and dig roots and squash unwanted culms for a month or two. It's sort of a love/hate relationship. And thank goodness for my understanding neighbors! I imagine when I'm gone, someone will eradicate it, along with most of my garden, so that they can have a nice, respectable lawn and a tasteful something-or-other edged with neatly trimmed boxwood.

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  4. I love all of your surprises, even the sample headstone. Your new statue looks great sitting in the bamboo grove. I consider Musa basjoo every once in a while, but have never gotten one, I don't want to have to baby it. Hmm....it might be worth it for one with spots like yours. Do you do anything special to over-winter it?

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    1. Glad you enjoy my tackiness. Nope, don't baby the Musa basjoo at all. I'm lazy and am really busy in the winter so the banana is on its own. In cold winters, it dies to the ground but comes back fairly quickly. Having been knocked down two winters in a row but not the previous year, it's a little slower than it has been in the past so maybe I'll wrap it this year...maybe.

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  5. Awesome stuff! The headstone stepping stone is great as is the chair (similar to ones a friend had in her living room when I was a little kid).

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    1. Glad you like the stuff. I enjoy fun and funky (obviously.)

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