In the mean time (cheater alert, you garden purists should just go away now, lest you be infuriated with me) I took a look around the house and realized I do have plenty of flowers blooming, even in January, on a vintage lampshade...
And on a couple of these metal wall plaques
On my cheap IKEA chair (there's one for the husband too, and a matching ottoman)
This art deco sconce has stylized flowers on the backplate...
And on the glass shade
My husband's artwork usually has an exotic bloom or two. Here the flowers are being pollinated by bats.
Our sofa pillows feature flowers of a sort
And this old wooden frame has carved flowers all around the edges
Photographs of magnolia blossoms on the mantle
And another sconce with a floral motif
This pair of vintage floral prints are impossible to photograph well...but I love them. Such lush floppy blooms!
They brighten up a wall in our dining room...
And on the other side of the room, in a built-in cabinet are a couple of Redwing platters, I wish I had the whole set. Or on second thought maybe that would be overwhelming, better to just mix them in with solid colors.
And because I love to wear flowers too, here is my favorite stainless steel bracelet. Made by a local artist from scraps leftover from her day job, making signs.
And every woman needs at least one pair of red shoes, even better when they have a flower on the toe!
Thanks for playing along with me on my fake bloom day. Like I said...next January there will be at least one bloom to show off on Bloomday. I promise. To see some of those lucky gardeners around the world that do have flowers in January visit May Dreams Gardens and scroll down to the long list at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!
I’ve been upset about these splotches and fairly confident their existence was somehow tied to the fact I was unable to get to the garden and uncover this agave when our cold snap was over. This same plant weathered similar freezing weather last year with no problem; the only difference being I was able-bodied then and gave it plenty of attention (covers off and on as the weather dictated). This year it remained covered for a week and a half.
Edema occurs when the roots of the plant are absorbing moisture from the soil but the leaves stomata are closed (due to the weather conditions and the plant being covered reducing photosynthesis) and the plant is unable to transpire at the normal rate. The internal water pressure builds up to the point that the bottom of the leaf surface ruptures and creates “water-soaked blisters” these lesions then turn into the yellow/brown “scab-like” areas.
From the San Marcos folks…”We likely compounded the situation by covering our crops of Agave 'Joe Hoak' with frost protection cloth (Agryl fabric) the nights after the rain because of frosts warning associated with the tail end of the storm. This would have trapped moisture around the plants and also limited transpiration the following day when the plants were left covered.” (
And he continues…“Because this is a physiological disorder no action needs to be taken. It will simply be a matter of time before the damaged foliage is replaced by new foliage. The temptation to remove the damaged leaves should be resisted for two reasons 1) The damaged leaves are still functional and will assist in a speedier recovery and 2) Cutting off the damaged leaves may cause the plant to look unnatural, and possibly even more unsightly than if the damaged foliage remained.”
I remember first driving by this house in NE Portland in 2005, seeing this agave and being blown away! My naive gardening mind thought if they could do it then I could do it too! Not taking into account the steep rocky foundation on which this house sets. I soon found out that great drainage makes all the difference as the beautiful agave I planted our first summer rotted into a pile of slimy mush a month into our wet Portland winter.
I was really disappointed the day the homeowners ripped out the dead agave and failed to plant another in its place. When you’ve had such success why not repeat it? Maybe they were new owners who didn’t appreciate what they had inherited?
My commute still takes me by this house almost daily but it’s never been quite the same since the agave bloomed and died.
The last thing I did in the garden was 
In my opinion one of the greatest rewards of gardening is constant discovery. There is ALWAYS something new in the garden, not always good, but always new. Things are moving forward whether you’re a part of it or not. I don’t have kids but I imagine raising children is similar. Everyday a discovery as their little personalities form and their minds learn the ways of the world. If your not there to see it you might just miss it. As I write things are moving forward in the danger garden without me.
So what am I doing in the mean time, since I am not gardening? Well obviously I’m garden blogging. I’m spending lots of time on other gardening blogs; discovering new ones and enjoying a little voyeuristic gardening. January is definitely plant and seed catalogue season so I am doing a bit of dreaming. Not so much spending, as I am usually an in-person shopper, but this may be the year that changes. I’
But something is missing. There is no dirt under my finger nails. Now before you go thinking I’m having a big pity party for myself I am keenly aware that my situation is temporary (that’s the plan at least!). Eventually I will heal and put all this behind me, it will be only a bad memory. But the what if’s have my mind wandering. What would I do if I 
I purchased Sharp Gardening when we first moved into our house back in 2005 and I was planning the front garden. With chapter titles like “Swords and lances”, “Spiky rosettes”, and “Spiky flowers, spires and straps”, I felt like it was written just for me!
In the introduction the author starts by defining The Sharp Palette: “Sharp Gardening is based on the use of spiky, sword-leaved plants, many of them evergreen, including large specimen exotics with an architectural profile. These are complimented by low-maintenance perennials with flowers or foliage that echo or contrast with the forms of the larger structural plants; and ornamental grasses complete the look with their contrasting forms and bristle-sharp pointed tips.” 
And then paints the Sharp Picture: “Well-designed gardens owe their success to contrasting shapes and sizes and this is no less true in the case of the sharp garden.”
And finally on to Creating the Sharp Look…where as a new Portland gardener this must have been the first place I read the words that experience has proven to be so true “Since plants from arid areas of the globe can withstand temperatures below freezing only if kept dry, where rainfall is high in the winter months – which in a temperate climate it normally is – a combination of wet and cold can be disastrous. Too much rainfall and frost reduces some barbed spears to mush” (so sad and so true!) “The odd night of frost in dry conditions may not do too much damage, unless the plant is half hardy or frost tender. But more often than not, it is prolonged wet weather followed by a burst of frost that deals the hardest blow.”
Yikes! He’s describing our Portland winters exactly. Yet for some crazy reason I keep forging on with my spiky obsession! In fact he even goes on to issue this warning…”If you are gardening in an undrained frost pocket, in deep shade or on leaden clay soil, be wary of pursuing sharp gardening! However, if you are without or can improve on these problems, the possibilities for enjoyment are endless!” Clay soil? Check.
I guess I paid more attention to the next bit of advice….”By choosing the right plants and giving them the appropriate growing conditions, the sharp garden look is yours for the asking. You won’t get it right the first time, but you should have a lot of fun exploring possibilities.” Yes the exploring (and buying) is very fun! 
I learned so much about the plants I love from this book. And now upon my second reading I am discovering things I had forgotten, like my first introduction to Astelia, Fascicularia pitcairniifolia bicolor, and Puya would have been in reading Sharp Gardening.
The chapters that follow introduce the sharp plant palette along with detailing the plants needs along with plenty of design advice and fabulous pictures (all photographs by Jerry Harpur, scanned and used with permission of Timber Press). So many exciting sharp plants to fall in love with! 
Sad. We could have stayed at the 
The one that stayed in the garage is fine. It had to deal with another 2 nights of 13 degree temperatures yet it looks perfect, what’s up with that? Anyone have any ideas what’s wrong with the ones I brought inside? 