Monday, August 24, 2020

Andrew's Top Ten (Today)

After reading the July 2nd post "My Favorite Flowers: A Post By Facilities Manager"—over on the blog Chickadee Gardens—in which Tamara's husband, David, selected his favorite flowers, I asked Andrew if he would consider doing something similar. What, I wondered, would he chose as his favorites? He was able to chose from all the plants in the garden, not just the flowers, because there just aren't that many flowers in our garden! He pointed, I snapped photos, and he made notes about what qualified it as a favorite...

Manzanitas/arctostaphylos, he pointed at A. x 'Austin Griffiths', but said any of the three counted—I photographed Austin, with his little sister 'Monica' photobombing on the right, Andrew wrote: "Trunk color, smooth bark contrasted with cinnamon peels—plus I like how 'arctostaphylos' feels when you say it"

Opuntia species: "Flat slabs stacked at odd angles, memories of parents yard in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico"

Dasylirion wheeleri/Desert spoon

"Thin blue leaves with sharp teeth, domed crown—produces sotol"

Echium wildpretii

"Fuzzy leaf, fast growth to tall height and cone of 1 million blooms"

Tomatoes!  

"summer fun/sunshine for inside of me"

Aloe plicatilis, now Kumara plicatilis: "Bold trunk with giraffe-tongue leaves"

Pitcher plants/Sarracenia species

"Leaves like Dr. Seuss musical instruments"

(what are you laughing at?)

Tephrocactus

"No leaves, no trunk—drawn by a mathematician"

Corokia cotoneaster

"Hanford bonsai—thin angular with tiny tiny leaves, spaced out"

Haworthia tessellata

"Miniature, geometric, dinosaur pattern, pencil-thin bloomspike"

That's it—today at least. I'm sure if I asked him tomorrow I would get an entirely different answer.  Perennial favorites like Clifford (the Magnolia macrophylla) and Sammy (the tallest Yucca rostrata) were passed over, and I think it was a more interesting list because of it. I really enjoyed seeing what he saw, and how he saw it, as we walked around the garden—hopefully you saw something new too! This was a fun exercise that you might consider doing with your non-gardening partner.

Weather Diary, Aug 23: Hi 84, Low 58/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2020 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

19 comments:

  1. I enjoyed Tamara's FM's post and yours as well. Andrew's description of what he liked about the plants he selected were wonderful. I loved his description of the leaves of Kumara plicatilis (even if the leaves on mine aren't nearly as perky as yours). I'm tempted to ask my husband for a similar list but, given his relative disinterest in the garden and his extreme color-blindness, I can't imagine what I'd get, if he even agreed to cooperate.

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    1. I think you should ask him anyway, it could be great fun!

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  2. Andrew has an eclectic taste and the imagination of an artist. It was fascination to get his point of view; I think he is a romantic ("sunshine for inside of me"!). I hope you'll do it again sometime. Interesting information about sotol... a lot of desert plants are in the service of fermented drinks.
    What a fun name is "Truth or Consequences"!

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    1. Truth or Consequences used to be Hot Springs, NM. They renamed themselves after a game show!

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  3. I agree it is always fun to hear what people think about your garden.
    I did laugh at the musical instruments because I heard the music. :)

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  4. Andrew has great taste.

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    1. Is this where I say something about the fact he married me?

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  5. Loved his choice of descriptive words.

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  6. Now that is an interesting and insightful exercise. He picked some cool things I don't recall seeing before. Now I need to ask my spouse what his favorites are.

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  7. Asking a partner to tell you what he or she likes/dislikes can be tricky, said from experience. (My faves were generally the most hated.) Andrew has a batch of beauties to choose from, so many fun planting. I continue to adore Haworthia tessellata.

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    1. He'd joked about his favorites list being any plant that wasn't touching the house or capable of hurting him, so I honestly wasn't sure how this was going to go.

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  8. He’s a poet in his descriptions! I love this and will see if I can get my non-gardening husband to cooperate for a similar exercise.

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  9. Ha! I LOVE this. Good on ya. Maybe we should do "Partner Posts" the first of every month or something along those lines. Andrew's eye is very cool, I appreciate the eclectic group of plants (and food) he chose, especially the Hanford one. Good stuff. Facilities Manager says howdy to you both! :)

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    1. Howdy back to FM! I think I'd be more likely to get cooperation if we did it quarterly (seasonally?). Thanks for the inspiration!

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  10. What a special post! I love Andrew's haikus. I hope you'll revisit his favorites down the line!

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