The Hideous Mutant Plant

Nature is wild... in many senses. In this case, I am using the word "wild" instead of.... "far-out"... and although that would be appropriate, too, it would be with a lot of trepidation and skepticism.

Last Monday I was treated to a day at The Getty Villa in Malibu... it was a beautiful day and on the new path leading to the main garden is an Echium - Pride Of Madeira - healthy, happy and beautiful. Here it is:


(Click on the picture to see a larger version...)

Now - a couple of years ago, mine looked like that, too... but then there was that killer frost several months ago (in January) and the entire plant was very severely frost burnt. In fact, it looked pretty dead to me. Then - it seemed to recover. So I started trimming off the dead stuff. And that was when I noticed that it didn't look quite right. A couple of weeks went by before I decided that something was definitely wrong. What had survived the frost was looking like some weird kind of cactus…


The more I looked at it, the more it disturbed me. I loathe cactus anyway - even succulents can be a tough sell to this misplaced English country cottage gardener - so the bizarre change in this specimen's DNA structure due to the frost, which is the only thing I can think of to explain the revolting mutation, made me conclude that this was no longer a Pride of Madeira, or a pride of anything for that matter. It had to go and the sooner the better. I was starting to have nightmares.

One last look:


Ah! Like an unwelcome houseguest… it's gone! All that remains are a few dead branches - and those will be gone by nightfall. I'm tempted to drench the soil with some sort of disinfectant - like bleach - but that might be overkill. I'll let that area lay fallow and see what happens.

Isn't Nature wild?

Romancing the Rose

"I haven't much time to be fond of anything. But when I have a moment's fondness to bestow, most times... the roses get it."
~ (William) Wilkie Collins ~

I can certainly understand why Mr. Collins said that! When we lived in Ireland, my husband put up outdoor floodlights for me so I could garden at night after we got home from work. Every spare moment I had was spent in the garden... or at the Phoenix Park Garden Centre just outside the park's Castleknock gate. The arthritis in my hands has limited me a bit now - but there are still very few things I'd rather do than play in my garden.

Here are a few of this year's first flush of the roses in my garden...

(click on each picture for a larger view)

Above is David Austin's "Hero" - (the original one, not the sport known as "Huntington's Hero") with "Gold Medal" - just outside the window of my breakfast room…

This is "Auguste Renoir"...


And these (below) are the remarkable "Color Magic" so named because it's color starts out as a lovely middle pink and progessively changes color until it finishes up as a deep red.



I read somewhere once that someone quite famous in the gardening world said that every garden should have peace... so - this is my "Peace" as it looked today...

The yellow rose behind it is "Graceland".

One of the year's first roses...

"What a pity flowers can utter no sound! -
A singing rose, a whispering violet, a murmuring honeysuckle, -
oh, what a rare and exquisite miracle would these be!"

- Henry Ward Beecher -


In spite of the definite pink color this year - this is "White Delight"… one of my all-time favorite hybrid tea roses.

The Angel's Trumpet

Oh! What can I say? I had SO hoped that this beautiful specimen might recover from the killer frost that hit California in January since it was protected somewhat by thick hedges on two sides... but sadly… tragically… it has not.

Here it is just a mere six months ago, covered in beautiful creamy-white double blossoms, and so intensely (and romantically) fragrant at night, which is why I just had to have it - for the fragrance… and of course, for the romantic notions that the fragrance evokes.



And here it is now, the poor thing... I took this picture yesterday... it looks... well, it looks dead...

Yes - I fear this Angel's Trumpet has probably gone to the big garden center's incinerator in the sky.

NOTE BENE/WARNING: this entire plant is extremely deadly, every single bit of it, so BEWARE!!! it cannot go on the compost heap and should be kept out of bounds (if you have it at all) if small children or young pets have free access to your garden: if one tiny nibble is consumed from any part of the plant, the next sound that's heard is that of an angel's trumpet...

(Please look up the botanical name: BRUGMANSIA (Datura) in the Sunset Western Garden Book for more about this incredible plant.)

The Pansy Quest

Well... disappointingly, I have not had luck finding frilled or ruffled pansies... and as it is now April - pansies of any sort are becoming very hard to find. I will just have to content myself with the masses of all the other varieties that I have. They are all so pretty and such a delight - they bring an instant "I feel good!" feeling when I look at them.


This year I've put them mostly in pots that I've placed just outside the bedroom slider, on both sides... I admit it's a little hazardous to use that door now but since they are the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing at night (with the outdoor light on...) I think it's worth the risk.


I like to underplant larger plants that are either in pots or in the ground - and I like to plant spring blooming bulbs in layers and then crown them with... pansies, of course. There is a pansy to complement almost anything. Except possibly cactus...




Here you can see the danger involved in using the sliding door in the bedroom... most of the pots are well clear of it, but there is still the vague possibility that my husband - or even worse, that I - might trip over a pot of pansies, stumble and fly into the pool which is about 4 feet from the brick step. Still - the timeless charm of the pansy is well worth an unplanned dip.