Friday, April 24, 2015

A few of my favorite plants in the garden in April...

As planned a strip of sod along the north side of the garden has been removed and I'm busy planting it up. While laying out the plants I got to admiring this Astelia. You're probably wondering why, right? It sure doesn't look like much.

Well, because it's come back from the dead. It was one of several Astelia that bit the dust after our cold winter of 2013/14. In my hurry to make the garden look good for the garden bloggers group when they toured in July, I pulled out dead plants and filled the spots with something else. This one slipped by, mainly because it was hidden by other plants and the hole it left wasn't so visible. Turns out it wasn't dead after all. What's the saying? "Patience grasshopper?" Lesson learned and I will try to allow my plants more time to recover before pronouncing them goners.

Did you spot the serrated leaves behind the Astelia? They belong to a long time favorite, Eryngium agavifolium. One of the very first plants I bought for my garden, many more have followed.

While technically evergreen they're really just getting started for the season, big growth will appear over the coming weeks as they get tall and push out longer and longer leaves (and this photo shows just how much debris I still need to clean up in my planting beds, please excuse the toes!).

Here's a great description of this plant from The Desert Northwest: "This Agave impostor from South America has thick green leaves with spiny margins, forming a clump of rosettes to 18” or wider. However, unlike some Agaves, this plant won't keel over and die if it gets a little wet: in fact, about any range of soil moisture is tolerated. Thistle-like flowers on 5' spikes may appear in late spring. Very easily grown on any sunny or partially shaded site. Hardy to at least 5 °F." They're also a Great Plant Pick for Pacific Northwest gardens.

And I have to share this from Far Reaches Farm: "Bold toothed leaves like an Agave (agavifolium). Cool how that Latin makes sense sometimes even to us non-Latinos..." (haha)

Those spikes are just as painful as they look.

And the flowers (which typically show up around June) are incredibly attractive to bees, they love those things...

Want more spikes? Then Eryngium venustum is for you! I've featured this one as a fav in the past.

It's blooms...

This little guy showed up this spring at the base of an Eryngium venustum. I was hopeful that it was a seedling from that plant, but it's looking more and more like an E. agavifolium.

It's pretty cute with those tiny spikes! Have a few favorites in your garden this month? Please tell us about them!

All material © 2009-2015 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

24 comments:

  1. I have two of those E. agavifolium and I love them. But cleaning up the mushy leaves around the base in early spring is a lot of no fun. How cool that you got a seedling. I've been admiring that lush clump of Hakone grass in your top photo, just to the left. Mine never look that good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a pair of extra tough gloves I wear for that task, and it still hurts! Naturally also end up pulling a few yellow leaves throughout the season, grabbing them with my bear hands not thinking about how much it's going to hurt!

      Re: the Hakone grass, all it takes is time. I bought so much of that plant when we first moved here. I've given away tons but still have a few mature clumps.

      Delete
  2. Beautiful Eryngium agavifolium! Shame the ones I put at the front of the house didn't do well hence had to be replaced. Might try again planted out this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder why? Were they in your blue containers? I think they need free run to be happy.

      Delete
  3. I love it when a you accidentally get a a shot of your cute painted toes in a pic! You're always sporting perfectly painted toes!! I have one Eryngium and it's pretty darn cool. I'm on the hunt for another as I really appreciate how much the bee's like them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are so many cool Eryngium Jenni, you need several! I tried to crop my toes from the photo but decided what the heck...

      Delete
  4. Oh, your perfect toes :) Love 'em. As for the astelia....yes, Loree - I have noticed sooo many phormiums around town that were "dead" from that same PKW that have come back looking pretty good. I too was in a hurry to spruce things up for the Fling that I dug up three "dead" phormiums and other beauties I thought were dead. I bet if I had waited, Grasshopper, they would have come back. I'm thrilled for you! That's awesome. The Eryngiums are sooo cool, you got me hooked on them. E. venustum is on my grocery list this year for sure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We've learned haven't we? I remember something Sean said about planting a 5-gallon phormium next to the "dead" one while you wait for it to return. There's something to that...

      Delete
  5. That Eryngium genus has so many great plants in it! The only reliable one here is the native E. yuccifolium, the awesome-named "rattlesnake master". It may not be spiky enough for you, but you'll never worry about losing it during the winter!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love the "rattlesnake master"...sadly it doesn't love me. I'm on my third plant now and it looks like I may finally have found the right spot for it.

      Delete
  6. Great picks! Got to get an eryngium. My fav right now is my melianthus. It stayed evergreen and bloomed.
    Jim N. Tabot

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay! That's wonderful Jim. Mine was looking pretty tattered (some bits hammered by frost, others fine) so I cut it back, knowing I'd be sacrificing the potential blooms.

      Delete
  7. Eryngium didn't do well for me previously but I'll have to try them again. Here's my favorites post: http://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2015/04/my-favorite-plant-this-week-hoya.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! I hope you do try them again, there are so many!

      Delete
  8. Great selection there. Not sure wht my picks would be apart from the sepervivums starting to get into growth and the first signs of the tenticles snaking out for the clumps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My sempervivum are late to perk up this year, still in their sort of shriveled up. Glad yours are looking good.

      Delete
  9. I love Eryngium venustum! Such a cool plant. I need to add it to my garden. Maybe I'll try eryngiums again. I do like them, but I had a bad experience with Eryngium variifolium going totally nuts with reseading in a small bed. I'll just have to try them where it's ok if they go crazy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd try and divide mine for you but I've been told (by Kelly at FRF) that's not a good idea (no success). And I wish I had problems with them reseeding in my garden!!!

      Delete
  10. Agave imposter that doesn't mind wet feet is a must for Danger Garden. Erygium shared by Michael at Plano Prairie Garden didn't make it in my hot, dry garden. Love the flower spikes.

    I've got new plants to share for April and a make up link from March:

    http://rockoakdeer.blogspot.com/2015/04/favorite-plants-in-garden-for-april.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well since you can grow the "real thing" with such success (agaves) I guess I don't feel to bad for you...

      Delete
  11. Oh no, think of all the plants you've pulled out that may have lived on! Only kidding. But I do always hold on to that hope for a while when I have casualties, and it's usually always fruitless. Those eryngiums look tough and nasty, in a good way of course. I think I like E. venustum the best.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seriously though, you're right! But then how long do you let something struggle on? It's a tough call...

      Delete
  12. I love the Eryngiums! Still working on a place in the garden for them (too much shade), but I love them! My link: http://plantpostings.blogspot.com/2015/04/plant-of-month-butterfly-weed.html

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Comment moderation is on (because you know: spam), I will approve and post your comment as soon as possible!