I was out for a Sunday morning bike ride around town yesterday with Mi Esposo and we passed a drought tolerant garden, with artichokes being the focal point. I love the silver and grey-green colors of the plants. I’m going to have to remember to go by when they are blooming. They will bloom as giant thistles, worth it for not harvesting!
Drought tolerant garden
Beautiful artichokes will become gigantic thistle if not harvested
I don’t have the room in my garden for growing something this size, but maybe in the future as I rearrange the garden. They are quite the show stopper.
Tagged as:
artichokes,
Drought tolerant
Echiums - aka Pride of Madeira - are in bloom now and the other morning I stopped to look and admire this clump that grows a few blocks from my house. The light lavender color is unusual. The close-ups of the flowers are beautiful, aren’t they? Echiums can be considered invasive because they are not native, get very large, and reseed pretty easily. They are pretty plants, but do need a lot of space to grow into. I had one in my front yard for a couple of years, but I finally removed it because it was a monster, and it made me itch every time I rubbed into it. Fortunately, I can enjoy it in other yards, and down by the waterfront where they grow prolifically.
Tagged as:
Drought tolerant,
echium,
pride of madeira
Living in Southern California near the beach, I have sort of taken for granted the interesting selection weird plants that grow around us. I was wandering through Balboa Park last month and came upon a giant yucca that was a classic Dr. Seuss shape and when I started looking around with that perspective it became obvious to me that I was looking at plants that must have been inspirational to Ted Geisel aka Dr. Seuss in his drawings for his famous books. Look at these pictures. Do you agree?






BTW, the book that made reading “click” for me was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
Tagged as:
cactus,
Dr. Seuss,
succulents