Monday, June 17, 2019

All you're missing is a banana tree...

Twice in the same week I had garden visitors look around the back garden and declare "all you're missing is a banana tree!" Both times we were standing about here, in front of the chocolate Albizia julibrissin.

So I moved slightly to the right, laughed, and pointed back there...

At my Musa basjoo.

It's hardly an impressive specimen—crammed up against the house and screened off by other plantings—and it's really only visible as you enter the garden.

But it's there, none-the-less. Soldiering on.

What are the chances that two different people (both men, if that matters) would—in the same week—look around my garden and feel the absence of a banana tree? Interesting.

On an unrelated note I planted a Clematis 'Polish Spirit' at the banana's base. So far there are no buds, but the vine is growing.

Won't big purple flowers look lovely against those large green leaves?

Weather Diary, June 16: Hi 82, Low 54/ Precip none

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

15 comments:

  1. I find life is like that... you won't for example see a particular thing for some time or have something happen for a period...but then suddenly you'll see or experience a cluster all at once. What do they say about things coming in threes? I'm not particularly superstitious but I think there's a grain of truth in it. Does that mean you're due for one more? LOL

    I think of bananas as fitting well in a tropical and lush looking garden, so maybe you could think of it as a sentiment that your garden struck them that way.

    Otherwise, my only other comment is that those gentlemen were obviously bananas about bananas.

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    1. I hadn't thought about the "three's" thing but you're right. I wonder if I cursed it by posting?

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  2. I don't look at your garden and think "tropical" but I guess something triggered that image in the minds of both gentlemen. Growing the Clematis up a banana tree is inspired.

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    1. My back garden is where the bromeliads are...and it's quite green and lush, compared to the front garden. So maybe that's the tropical vibe?

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  3. Your garden is divine. I can't believe any visitor would tell you what, in their opinion, is missing in YOUR garden... (Breathing. Counting to ten).
    The green of Musa basjoo leafs is spirit-lifting. Very cool idea to have the Clematis climb up the banana; the flowers will be the cherry on the cake.

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    1. Thanks for defending my garden's honor! Although I honestly didn't take it as them pointing out a negative.

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  4. Clematis flowers against those leaves would be stunning. You may have to wait until the plant gets up to the sunny level.

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    1. Ya, and unfortunately I returned from a week away to discover something has been munching on the clematis leaves, so that's a definite set back.

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  5. I envy you that albizia, as I have had two die on me here at the coast...

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    1. I love it, and just learned that if it gets too big I can cut it back to the ground and have it resprout without suckering, so that's a bonus.

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  6. If these visitors had read your blog for any amount of time, they'd know where to find your banana! Your garden is gorgeous and doesn't "need" anything else to make it that way. Love the clematis idea.

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    1. Ha, that's a good point! (about reading the blog)

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  7. Have you gotten any fruit off the acca sellowiana / pineapple guava in the years you've had it? And how has it handled the last few summers with the sometimes brutal droughts and heat? I'm considering getting 2-3 for our hellstrip.

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    1. Yes I have gotten fruit, and it likes summer better than winter. I had both my plants lose all their leaves after the winter of 2013/14, I thought they were dead. I blame the cold east wind. I do water them, sparingly.

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    2. Sounds like I might need to pick up a pair in that case. I'm always looking for more (mostly) evergreen plants to fill in the yard during the winters.

      And in fairness to your plants, 2013/14 was pretty brutal as our winters go; we don't get many like that.

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