Thursday, April 20, 2017

Twenty Six Feet

Add we have a new record...

I stepped out to get the mail the other day and glanced down. Oh my.

That's a baby Tetrapanax.

Which traveled all the way across our front garden and under our sidewalk to come up next to the house, approximately 26-feet away from mama over there in the corner (tall stalks, just leafing out).

The previous record was about 11-feet, that one went north, under our neighbor's driveway and came up in their front yard. Wow, 26-feet, that's impressive. Nice work Big T!

Weather Diary, April 19: Hi 56, Low 47/ Precip .37"

All material © 2009-2017 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

18 comments:

  1. So, are you happy about this or frustrated?

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    1. As long as the tall branches leaf out (and they are) I am fine with wherever it wants to send up babies. In my prior experience the babies only appear when the original plant is fighting to live on. The year the tall stalks were killed back I had babies everywhere! The babies are easy to remove if you just want them gone, a little harder if you're trying to get enough roots to transplant them.

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  2. Run, run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm a tetrapanax! Hmm, doesn't flow as well as the original. That certainly is impressive. Despite planting two in my own garden last year, along with various other spreaders, some part of me still has an initial feeling of panic at the thought of such running tendencies.

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    1. I noticed another one on the other side of the front porch yesterday...

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  3. Will it make it under the house into the backyard next year?

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    1. If we were on a cement pad (no basement) I might be concerned. Seriously.

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    2. Duh, I forgot you have a basement. Nobody around here does.

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  4. Maybe the baby was looking for warmth close to the house! That's impressive movement. I wonder if it'll be as tough here. Your gift plant still only has 2 leaves, although one of those is new growth that replaced one of its original leaves.

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    1. Has Denise ever mentioned getting babies from her plant? Makes me wonder...

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  5. Why again do you keep your bamboos in stock tanks? Big T looks like it needs some competition... ;)

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    1. Ha! Because I can pull out these runners with 2 fingers, no tools required!

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  6. That's a pretty impressive record! So what happens when we leave our gardens? Will there be tetrapanax groves up and down the coast?

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  7. Strange that Tetrapanax doesn't spread nearly as much where I've used it here in the Bay Area, at most about 8 feet. 20~30 feet spread would scare me, especially in a design client's garden.

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    1. Curious, I wonder what the difference is?

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  8. So far the farthest I've seen babies is about 6 or 7 feet, it went underneath one of my culvert planters and came up on the other side of it. I'm waiting to see them coming up in the circle of front lawn. They really are easy to get out if you don't want them. Normally that spreading tendency scares me, like Evan said. But I'm willing to cope with this.

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    1. Ya I don't understand the people who freak out about this one, they are so easy to pull! (unlike bamboo...Alan!)

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  9. I get it. If runners are easy to remove and you love the plant, go for it. I do give those a second thought though, just because of the extra time that could be spent maintaining something else. But, if it is infrequent unless death threatens the parent; enjoy! :)

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