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Monday, June 5, 2023
Dissecting my Hover Dish plant remains; there is life
When things turned cold last December I completely forgot about taking down the Hover Dish planter over the front porch. 
Once I remembered and commented on it Andrew offered to take it down, but by then I could see it was full of ice and figured it was too late anyway.
Fast forward several months, and last week I finally got around to asking him to take it down so I could replant it. He's tall enough it's not too difficult for him, I'd be risking life and limb to do it myself. I was surprised to see signs of life. This planting has been through extreme heat with no water (broken ankle and I didn't look up), and then 72 hours below freezing, filled with frozen water. How could anything growing in 5" of soil suspended in the air live through that?
Opuntia polyacantha x cymochila 'Peter Pan'
I don't know what possessed me to plant these low-growing cactus in this planter, but I did... and they're still alive. Amazing.
Equally amazing, this small Agave bracteosa is still alive.
Ditto for the larger one!
Sempervivum struggling but alive, not so for whatever agave those used to be...
This poor opuntia qualifies as alive, but I'm so tired of looking at its scarred and oddly colored back-side (the view from inside the house) that I'm going to retire it to the great compost pile in the sky. Bye-bye.
A weed blew in and was quite happy, and the purple leaves of the Yucca aloifolia 'Blue Boy' were only pretending to be alive.
Why did I put this agave in the hover dish? It looks to have been a beauty. Of course it fell apart in my hands as I tried to remove it.
Have you ever seen such a black leaf? It looks like charcoal.
I don't know why I needed to share all of these images, who wants to look at dead plants, right? I found it interesting though. Maybe you did too.
Here's what I replanted with, going in a completely different direction! Super tall black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'), Lonicera nitida 'Lemon Beauty' (completely inappropriate long term, but I thought it would be fun for awhile), Muehlenbeckia complexa ‘Big Leaf’ and Sedum confusum.
It's nice to see lots of life up there again!
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Much better! Black mondo adds elegance to any composition.
ReplyDeleteEven if now you can't remember what 'possessed' you to plant that hover dish as you did, I'm sure it was lovely when it was new and fresh (I tried but couldn't find a photo).
Did you keep the Agave bracteosa? It deserved a medal for toughness!
Chavli
I kept the large Agave bracteosa, I was going to keep the small one but ended up breaking off the base when removing one of the bad leaves.
DeleteI love the new look of your planter.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Me too.
DeleteLove the new combo. I found it fascinating to see what survived. We are all dealing with climate change, so it’s instructive to see what that means in other gardens.
ReplyDeleteI recently read a FB post from a local nursery owner who looked back on the winter events and dissected how damaging it was. Interesting read. Especially since he had the nerve to insult all of us who called it a bad winter as we were watching our plants melt.
DeleteIt's always interesting to see what survives weather extremes. The new combination is much more cheerful, though.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it is (cheerful). I really have a hard time putting together this hanging planting because I want to use things that aren't year-round bullet-proof here. Hopefully this combo works.
DeleteBlack mondo grass is one of my very favorite plants! Tough and somehow pretty much always looks great. That's a great looking nice fresh combination.
ReplyDeleteI empathize with the opuntia ugliness but really, after this crappy winter I would find it hard to pitch an actual survivor. I'd pull the top pad and re-root it sans scarred nastiness. But maybe not in that dish!
I considered using nothing but black mondo, but in the end went with a mix. As for the opuntia, I have so many of that same species that look kind of meh, many of which I already pulled out of the ground and tossed...
DeleteI love the remains - they are elegant in their own way. Memento mori sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteYes! Exactly.
DeleteI'm blown away by the tenacity of the survivors. I hope you've rewarded them with a sweet spot in the garden?
ReplyDeleteI love the new iteration. Very much!
Yes, for the largest Agave bracteosa and the Opuntia polyacantha x cymochila 'Peter Pan'.
DeleteI'm still baffled by how cold it actually got this winter. How did I not realize?? I forgot to bring several things inside that had made it through previous winters outside (like a rabbit foot fern). And my one remaining Agave bracteata which was in the ground... well, both are completely toast. I bet better drainage in the container is what saved yours. The new arrangement looks great!
ReplyDeleteThe drainage hole on the bottom of the planter had a 7" long icicle coming from it at one point during the melt, it was pretty fabulous.
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ReplyDeleteI can't believe anything survived in a block of ice. The new planting reminds me of a great wig! Love it, especially the black mondo grass.
ReplyDeleteHa! Now I'm gonna see a wig too.
DeleteI'm surprised anything survived life in the mini glacier ! My Agave bracteosa 'Monterey Frost' looks like hell but it's still alive- it was the rain I think and not the cold. A new direction is one of the great things about being a gardener and yours turned out great !
ReplyDeleteIn my (limited experience) that Monterey Frost is a wimp! I'm glad yours it doing a little better.
Deletemazing that some of those poor plants survived at all! My Agave bracteosa is no longer with me. I had one here in Phoenix that I babied along for a couple of years but it died. I love the plantings now and they should get noticed more easily--so delicate.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that your Agave bracteosa didn't make it in Phoenix. Not tough enough for the desert?
DeleteAmazing how resilient plants can be. Love the new rendition.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteAmazing, indeed. Some plants are so incredibly hardy--even ones we don't always expect to be so. I noticed a couple of Gladiolus plants I missed survived the winter outdoors in my zone 5A garden. Crazy. Your new planting is perfect.
ReplyDeletePerfect? Thanks Beth!
DeleteI was interested! I did a lost of post-mortem inspections here in Austin too, after a tough winter. But we're well into summer mode now, and that is all forgotten for the moment - ha! Love the new look of your Hover Dish. I have a blue one on my front porch, so great minds...
ReplyDelete