Thursday, April 16, 2020

Where the verbasum are...

If we head out for an afternoon sanity walk, we take turns calling the route. Andrew's are direct and all about putting in the steps. Mine are meandering and all about seeing interesting things. I remembered a place about a mile from here that I'd walked by years ago...there were verbascum...

This time we approached from the west, last time I came in from the east.

There were at least as many verbascum as I remembered, maybe more.

The house and its plantings weren't quite quite on par with what I remembered (and do you think I could find my earlier post? No matter how long I spent looking for it? No. No I could not), so I'm not sharing any overall shots.

Just the verbascum.

But that should be enough. Those slightly stringy things you see in the bare-soil parts of the hellstrip? They're old bloom spikes laid out, with hopes of seed being released into the soil I assume.

Weather Diary, Apr 15: Hi 68, Low 49/ Precip 0

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12 comments:

  1. I really like the way it is used here, a weed for some assumes the role of imaginative ground cover in a difficult place. Well done, folks. A bit of humor: I worked one summer at a forest service visitor center. On the interpretive walks I led, I always pointed out the "Indian toilet paper". It isn't, in fact, the small fibers are quite irritating.

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    1. Ouch! But the leaves appear so soft...

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  2. While I love the Verbascums, it is the hedge that caught my eye. Almost impossible to grow hedges like that in areas with deep snow. Please go back for a photo when those flower spikes are all in bloom. I am sure it will be impressive.

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    1. Growing up in Eastern WA I remember that. I had a small arborvitae hedge that hid my patio from the street, one winter it didn't get wrapped with twine and it was splayed out in every direction come spring.

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  3. I see this as another example of the differences in our climates. Verbascum (and I've tried several) doesn't last long here and never self-seeded. I'm pretty impressed by this display, although some variations on the theme would have made it more interesting.

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    1. Nothing beats the wild verbascum in central Oregon. Beautiful weeds.

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  4. You'll have to come back when they are in bloom. It must be magnificent to see them en masse.

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  5. I too have difficulty growing Verbascum. I got one to finally return reliably, but never re-seeds. I add my vote for a bloom shot.

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    1. If it returns, isn't it reseeding?

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    2. It's the same plant growing at the same spot, as far as I can tell.

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    3. That's interesting. Usually Verbascum olympicum (which I think these are) or Verbascum bombyciferum are biennials.

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