Monday, December 28, 2020

Play with your plants (a love note to my palms)

To say that I dread gutter cleaning day is an understatement. It comes only once a year but it looms quite large in my mind. The project itself is bad enough, it's cold and my husband risks injury climbing the ladder while I stand below and hand him buckets which he passes down full of soggy, slimy, leaves. Dump, repeat. To add to the fun there's always a disagreement or two about the proximity of the plants in our lives. I'll spare you the details.

This year, while he was feeling plant murderous, he was able to channel some of that energy towards one of our palm trees, the Trachycarpus fortunei. It had an extremely bountiful fruiting year and the weight of the fruit clusters was weighing down several of the fronds, the whole thing needed a trim. A few Magnolia laevifolia branches and passiflora vines came out as well. The resulting pile of plant parts on the patio was massive. This is just a portion of it.

The poor tree looks naked now, at least to my eye. 

Of course by next spring some of the other fronds will have relaxed and not be so upright in form.

We left a little fruit in place. I'm not sure if any critters eat it, but I like the way it looks.

Stepping back a bit you can see another of my palms on the left, a Trachycarpus wagnerianus that has not yet matured to a blooming size. To the right of my Trachycarpus fortunei you can see the neighbor's trachycarpus peeking up in the distance. It's because of the proximity of this plant that I've got all the fruit on my tree. Trachycarpus fortunei are dioecious, with male and female flowers produced on separate trees. 

A close-up shot of the Trachycarpus wagnerianus. I like the smaller fronds this plant has.

And here's my third palm, another wagnerianus.

I do have a fourth palm, a different species, Rhapidophyllum hystrix (Needle Palm). It's a slow grower and is still hidden at the base of the first tree, the Trachycarpus fortunei.

Or as I'm calling her now, momma. 

Because boy has she got babies at her feet...

I stopped counting at a dozen.

I've seen one or two random seedlings before, but they usually die off from lack of sun and/or water.

Not this year! I think it's because last spring I redid the area in front of the palm (here), digging around in the soil, giving it all more light and of course being sure to water in the new plants well. So, we have babies!

Now I'm getting off subject but since I was back against the neighbor's garage I snapped this shot of my Rhododendron sinogrande, this is her best side.

I have a couple baby rhododendron in there too, and they've put on a lot of growth this year. These are plants I purchased in small 4" pots, not babies of my larger plant.

Okay, circling back around to the pile of cuttings on the patio and the reason for this post in the first place!

I've been working things into the weekly yard waste bin as space allows, and was left with a few palm fronds and fruiting branches that are still to heavy for the bin, they need to dry up a bit first. 

So I figured, why not play with my palms and get a little artistic?

This is a variation on my usual mantra to not toss prunings in the bin or compost, but rather to work them into a vase and enjoy them indoors.

In this case, it's patio art! To be enjoyed outdoors. The patio is empty this time of year anyway, it needed a little beautification project...

Play with your plants!


Weather Diary, Dec 27: Hi 50, Low 40/ Precip 0 

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

18 comments:

  1. From the first photo of plant debris heap, I waited for the artistic burst that would surly come; I knew I couldn't possibly discard so much plant matter beauty before getting more joy out of it, and I was certain you couldn't either. I wasn't disappointed!
    BTW, I love the fuzzy fur on the palm. It looks positively huggable, although most likely not as soft as it looks.

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    1. The "fur" is actually pretty soft, but watch out if you hug, the short stalks where the past fronds were cut are definitely hard.

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  2. I am always surprised to see Palms living outside in your garden. They will probably love the trim and look quite perky this spring and summer. I love your foliage/berry mandalas.

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    1. I am so happy to live somewhere palms can grow...I definitely do not take it for granted.

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  3. I like your impromptu flat palm arrangement. My mother hated palms and heaped so much scorn on the mammoth ones that surrounded my childhood home for so long, I developed an aversion to them in the process. But those, probably king palms, are very different than those you grow and do admire the sculptural leaves of yours. My husband clears our gutters every 4 months here and, though he never curses out our trees, I share you apprehension about the hazardous process.

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    1. Yes I know a lot of people in warmer climates who dislike their palms. Ours is finally at the height where I can't do the clean up myself, luckily Andrew still can. I'm not sure what happens when that's no longer the case.

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  4. I hope this very day is the one google earth choses to use air or satellite photography of your house.

    Where did you get the Needle palm? I failed to find a source in recent hunts.

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    1. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Fingers crossed. Oh, my needle palm came from Cistus, a gift (one of so many) from Sean Hogan. It was just a tiny thing then.

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  5. If Chewbacca was a palm tree... he'd definitely look like these! Love the patio mandala, too.

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  6. ONLY YOU would come up with something so surprisingly beautiful. I wish I had a fraction of your creativity.

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    1. I think you have more than a fraction ... so there.

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  7. Oh very nice! It feels good to tidy up sometimes, doesn't it? I would have no idea how to care for palms. Your artistry at the end is fabulous.

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    1. They need very little care, that's about it!

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  8. When I was little we lived in a place where one could not buy Christmas trees, so we had to improvise. One year my mother took two leaves from a fan palm (no idea the species, but leaves much like yours) and mounted them on the wall, overlapping vertically. We were able to hang the ornaments on them just fine, and they made an excellent tree!

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    1. What a wonderful memory, your mom was very creative! I collect ideas of alternates for the usual Christmas tree and might have to try this one in the future. Thanks for commenting!

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  9. Those fronds and fruits are just too wonderful not to play with. Tell Andrew to count his gutter blessings. Spring and fall we usually have to do weekly gutter cleanings from leaf litter, Given the rain at those seasons we can't take a chance on the gutters clogging or it will end up in our basement. After Mark's fall on the deck last May, I said he was not allowed up on the roof ever again to do the gutters. Now we have to pay a company to do it for us. Better safe than sorry.

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  10. Sharon MaurinDecember 29, 2020

    Love your design. I would leave it there till Spring or till it got yucky looking its such a statement. I was just looking up gutter guys tonight to fix our leaky one.

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