Tuesday, November 3, 2015

WWTT #22, Edward was there

One afternoon last week I had a date to meet up with my husband at Schoolhouse Electric, oddly I found myself running early. This never, ever, happens, I'm usually always late. I don't even know how to handle being early - so I decided to stop at Pomarius Nursery, that should take care of it. But as I was arriving Wes and Peter were leaving. We chatted a bit, they handed me this AMAZING metal container they're carrying at the shop (only $14.99!) and then had to take off for an install.

Isn't it fabulous? It reminds me of a smaller version of that old zinc planter I've been lusting after for ages. Anyway...I looked around, fell in love with several things, and slowly made my way back to the car. What? I still had time to kill. Okay, I'll stop in and catch up on some great parking lot plantings I first wrote about in 2013.

That's when I hit the brakes and shouted "What Were They Thinking!?!?!" although to be honest there was a swear word in there.

Someone had taken the scissors to the tips of these perfectly lovely Yucca rostrata.

Who does this?

Look at those gorgeous leaves, left in their natural state, a little spiky at the tip.

And the hacked version.

Looks like there was a bloom, also hacked.

Okay incredulity aside I tried to understand how this could happen. I suppose someone parked and was walking into one of the businesses not paying attention to their surroundings and walked into the spiky tip of one of the Yucca rostrata. They are near eye level, and everything cut off was extending beyond the curb but...BUT! This is so wrong!!!

The Pineapple Guava behind the small Y. rostrata was left to stretch it's arms.

And although I could see a few questionable cuts on the Ficus is was pretty much left alone.

There's even fruit!

The Arbutus unedo has been left to do it's thing (and what a stroke of genius planting a tree with that beautiful bark right next to the wooden wall).

Oleander blooming!

In Portland!

Thankfully this pair of stately Eucalyptus grow up, rather than out - which may have caused them to become a target.

The Catalina Ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus var. asplenifolius) however...

Well, you know.

I do love this tree, and if not for all the litter I've been told it drops I just might have planted one in my garden.

Isn't it gorgeous?

As are the exposed branches of this Arctostaphylos (yes, exposed via some abrupt pruning).

But look! Olives...

Left to grow crazy and wild.

But still, I have visions of the poor hacked Yucca rostratas seared into my retina. WWTT?

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

33 comments:

  1. Surely a safety/liability thing I'm sure. But in some parts of the country it's difficult to find an un-pruned shrub -- maybe these people came from someplace like that.

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    1. You've reminded me of the time I pulled into a parking spot and stared in disbelief at the image before my eyes. A hedge, completely squared off hedge, made of Arbutus unedo (strawberry tree). You could see a bloom or two that escaped the cut. There was even a fruit or three, but mostly just hacked off branches. Why plant a shrub with beautiful fruit if you're never even going to let it bloom?

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  2. that parking lot in Northwest Portland is a spectacularly planted area, we visit it each time we go to PDX

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    1. Glad you know of it, I agree. The plants are such exceptional choices!

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  3. I agree with Alan. Liability. These Y. rostrata should never have been planted there. Down here, the same thing happens all the time with Agave americana (the "pineapple" look). I love succulents, as you know, but I wish people wouldn't plant them in the wrong spots.

    The Y. rostrata in the last photo is truly ugly. What a crime! I would gladly have come to Portland to rehome it (before its haircut, that is).

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    1. Sadly I agree, that the hacking was done for liability reasons. However I believe it was a huge over reaction, having the luxury of having been in the space I can say someone would have to go out of their way to walk into them. They aren't planted in a tight parking situation, not anything like the monster Agaves I've seen planted too close to sidewalks that result in arms being severed (I'm referring to the Agave arms, of course).

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  4. I think I'd give the WWTT award to the people who planted Yucca rostrata too close to the edge to allow for full spiky glory without hazard to passers-by.

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    1. If they were in a tight spot I could agree, but there is plenty of open space, someone would have to walk right into them, essentially as though they were planning to walk right into the curb, in order to come into contact with them. There are overhanging branches on trees and shrubs all over my neighborhood that pose more of a threat to passers-by than these did (IMHO).

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  5. In the south, we lament those who try to keep a crepe myrtle a bush rather than let it express itself as a beautiful, multi trunked tree. The ungraceful chopping is referred to as crepe murder.

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    1. Believe it or not we can grow Crepe Myrtles here too, and although not nearly as common it does happen. So sad...

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  6. Sacrilege! You know whomever did or requested the chopping has no idea how long that once-beautiful Yucca rostrata took to get that size. It's a bit heartbreaking. The rest of the plants, for the most part, do look great! I don't think I know this parking lot, but I might try to suss it out with the airport as a clue...

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    1. Airport? Wrong direction MM...the clues are Pomarius and Schoolhouse. It's actually just down the street from Pomarius.

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  7. Some people should have their hands cut off!

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    1. Wow...maybe just tied behind their back? Less messy that way.

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  8. Criminal garden act. But, it will grow up and grow out. There is always that to be thankful for.

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    1. Good point, even though they are fairly slow growing time will heal...if allowed.

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  9. Love that planter and the price is unbelievable. Need to see if I can find those.

    Beautiful parking lot plantings, with the exception of that one poor plant. Whoever did that should spend some time with real spikies then they'd know the Y. rostrata is pretty benign even with a head-on hit.

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    1. Sadly there were a couple of Yucca that had been chopped, not just one, but I love your take on it.

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  10. It's too bad that whomever was responsible for caretaking didn't move it rather than butcher it. Like Gerhard, I see that kind of thing done to agaves down here all the time.

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    1. I think the first seriously butchered Agave I saw was at the Berkeley Botanical Garden. It was as though a guillotine came down from the skies and just chopped everything at a certain line. The horror.

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  11. Crikey, what an abomination. This is the result of mow-blows who know absolutely nothing about plants. Don't get me started.

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  12. When I first saw those yuccas, I assumed the tips of those leaves had been damaged somehow and someone preferred the cut ends to brown tips, but your explanation is more likely. What, in our climate, would give Yucca rostrate brown tips to that extent? I walked through that area a couple weeks ago and noticed a lot of the same things. Sean has been talking about it, too (it's one of his installs). Sounds like there are some big (and ludicrous) changes being planned by whoever owns it, including (if I remember correctly) removing those yuccas. What morons! On the plus side, those eucalyptus are absolutely gorgeous. And I would totally grow Lyonothamnus if it was just a tad hardier. Maybe someday, when I actually have my own garden.

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    1. Your assumption is proven to be the case over and over again with Phormium in California, I was shocked to see all the buzz cuts there. I wondered if Sean had seen this horror, glad to know he knows about it. I wonder what they'll be doing with the things they remove? Hopefully Sean is all over that

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  13. Interesting. I didn't expect to see that, so I was trying to figure out what kind of Yucca that was until you explained it. ;-) Very weird. But the olives ... nice!

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    1. The olives were amazing, I've never seen "trees" (these were more like shrubs) so heavy with fruit.

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  14. Lovely pot, so your style! Poor yucca - though I'd take my unpoked eyes over its spiky leaves any day, LOL.

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    1. I doubt you'd be silly enough to walk into it!

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  15. Cool pot and a great price! Gotta get to Portland again one of these days! Lots of great plants in the parking lot but the yucca mutilation is sad.

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  16. Time for someone to sneak in at night on a rescue mission. I always drool over those Oleanders.

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  17. Right plant, wrong place. :(

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  18. Who does that sort of thing you ask? A barbarian, that's who!

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  19. Probably the only upbeat comment on this spiky-plants-in-public-places issue: after a student impaled himself on an agave at a local school, our district mandated that all spiky plants had to go... and I got some nice agaves (parryii), and several varieties of cactus. Free! Also: that new container is sensational!!

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