Passalong Plants - The Book

Passalong Plants -the April/May Selection for the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club.
By the time this book came into my life, my world was already filled with plants passed along by other gardeners, so Felder and Steve [we were instantly on a first name basis] didn’t introduce me to the concept, but they gave all of us a great name for what we were doing, validated our experiences and filled an entire book with objects of desire. We were introduced to some quirky yard art as well as some truly odd plants.
The two authors, Steven Bender and Felder Rushing talk about individual plants in a neighborly, anecdotal way, sometimes lurching over the line into Jeff Foxworthy territory, but with genuine horticultural information under the kudzu. I have no resistance to this kind of Southern- style writing, treasuring old paperbacks by Lewis Grizzard and Celestine Sibley, enjoying the YaYa Sisterhood, and loving movies like Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes. If you can’t swallow garden writing served with a side of cheese grits, you may need a lot of iced tea to get you through the pages, but the plant stories are wonderful. I love my copy, sometimes rereading the book for fun, and sometimes using it as a reference for specific plants.
Many of the most tempting stories are about plants that won’t grow above zone 7, giving the Northern gardener a case of zone envy. Felder and Steve are currently considering a new book about Passalong Plants for colder zones, so if you live where camelias freeze, read this book first and hope they’ll write a companion volume in the future. Last March, I posted about meeting Felder Rushing, and mentioned that my copy of the book was written-in, and stuffed with notes. The extra pages at the back of the book were blank when I bought the book, but were soon covered in lists of plants and people. I noted daylilies named ‘Timeless’ and ‘Charm Bracelet’ as coming from Bernice, that Sweet Autumn Clematis was given to me by Ruth, whose plant came from Sophie. The Malva moschata was from Dorothy, Iris from Lorraine, Peonies from Patty, Sweet woodruff from Sherry, orange lilies from Laverne and that the Jack in the Pulpit was passed along to me by my mother. Most of the passalong plants in our Illinois garden stayed there when we moved to Texas in 1999.
But among the passalong plants in my present garden are two that traveled long and winding roads to live in Austin, Texas.
Look into the photo above and you’ll see some tall while phlox, cavorting with a white Echinacea and some Perovskia last July. The family legend says that my great-grandmother grew the phlox in Michigan in the early 1900’s. By 1924 she'd given a division to her daughter, my Grandma Anna, who took them to Chicago. Grandma passed them along to my parents in the 1950’s. Decades later, I took some of the white phlox with me to a rental townhouse, then to our first house. Another four years passed, I redivided the burgeoning clump and took some to our second house, then repeated the process and planted them in the square garden at the third house, seen below.

The phlox are blooming in the upper left corner of this decade old snapshot - with the head of an 'Annabelle' hydrangea flopped artistically across the center.
In the mid-nineties our son M. took some of the white phlox for his garden and after we moved to this house in .., M. returned the favor, bringing a division of the heirloom phlox down here - to make this the fifth home where we’ve grown them.
The journey of another plant began on April 13, 1992, when a garden club speaker in Illinois gave me wands of corkscrew willow - extra greenery from an arrangement. I managed to root one of the slender twisted branches and grew it in a whiskey barrel. The wand eventually expanded into an attractive tree, from which I rooted more cuttings, one for my son M. and a couple for my friend Barbara. We left the original tree in the whiskey barrel in Illinois, but after a while I missed it, and wanted one here. Both M. & Barbara gave me wands from their now larger trees, with no luck at first, but this piece from Barbara finally made roots in ... The young willow now grows in a big pot, placed so any drip of condensation from the roof will land in the container. Also in the container are some passalong agapanthus plants from Pam/Digging. I started writing this while waiting for a couple of passalong daylilies to bloom, but as I waited, the draft grew longer and longer, and now the daylilies need a whole post! Since I want to tell the stories of the passalong plants in our garden and the people who shared them with us – let’s call this Passalongs/Part One.

Country living

No, we didn't get cows. These are the neighbor's cows, back for a visit. Again. For the 50 millionth time.
Jasmine knows they shouldn't be here, and chases them. That scares the cows, and when they're scared they have a little runny-poop problem.
Maybe it's a defense mechanism and they're hoping that the pursuer will slip on it. Maybe it makes them lighter and it's easier to flee. In any case, Jasmine was a little too close. You can't see it well in this picture, but she has it all over her right side.
So guess what I spent a lot of time doing yesterday. Thanks a lot, neighbor.

Happy New Year from Benson, Arizona

Free at last! We head to Benson Arizona for a few days of R&R. We are staying at the Saguaro SKP Park. We belong to an RV group known as the Escapees (SKP - get it?). They have several RV parks and we can stay at a reasonable rate. The Park here in Benson is very nice but big - 700 sites. It is close to Tucson, Sierra Vista, Tombstone, and Bisbee. We arrive after 5 so we set up in one of the "Dry Camp" sites for $5/night then move to a rental site the next day.


View of the Mountains

On the hill behind us where the water tower is there are a Saguaro and StarThey are really cool lit up at night
Happy New Year!
Till Later!
Meanwhile, we keep on Trek'n
Melissa & Gary

Words are inadequate

For a number of years, Springbrook has been one of my favourite destinations for getting away, be it for a few hours, or the whole day. It was a big challenge in my earlier years as a serious cyclist. As I improved it became a quick ride to fill in on days when I didn't have time to do 200km+ efforts. I've even described it as "only" Springbrook at times recently -- this is clearly a mistake. Firstly, because the climb is still a challenging one, and secondly, because it can turn on days like this one at any time. Even before the climb started, it was "on" today.





As I got higher on the mountain, I encountered a cow who would only move when a camera was pointed in his (her) direction.



And ran into hills that might well be green, given that this place claims the second highest rainfall on mainland Australia.



However, it was up at Goomoolahra where things got really interesting. Here, mere words are inadequate, I'll just let what I saw speak for itself...













However, not everything today was pristine and beautiful. It seems the developers have discovered the place -- an old farm has been subdivided and covered in trailer parks. There are other dwellings that weren't there on my last visit. While the National Park is protected, the surrounding areas on the escarpment are vulnerable, and South Queensland has the fastest rate of land clearing in the world -- which isn't a promising fact. It also seems that the new arrivals on the mountain have brought all of the anti-cyclist bigotry up from the coast.

For all of that though, I was still smiling on the descent. Springbrook remains capable of turning on days like this one at anytime, it's power remains. While I have plans to leave the Gold Coast at the end of 2006, I will still treasure my time on this mountain, and it will be one of the things that I genuinely miss when I move on. I'm sure I'll shed tears on my last ride of the mountain.

Photographing the Lake Superior Ice Mountains

Last night I met up with my friend Bryan Hansel (http://www.bryanhansel.com/)to photograph the large mounds of ice that have formed along the shoreline in Grand Portage, MN. We met up about an hour before sunset and had a blast shooting the incredibly large and incredibly BLUE ice formations. When I set up this shot, Bryan was not in it but I knew if he was able to stand up on that tall mountain of ice it would really make the shot. So, I asked him if he could make his way there. Once he was in position I knew it was going to be a great shot. I think this is my favorite image of the evening.

Municipal planting Edinburgh

It struck me recently on my walk to work that the municipal planting goes through several phases on the 2 mile route from suburbs to the centre. Near the start, I pass what used to be a nondescript triangle of ground covered by creeping ivy. Recently this was cleared, and an amazingly pollinator-friendly collection of plants appeared. I don't know if it is a council site, or if local residents have taken it in hand, but the planting includes very un-municipal Rudbeckia, Tiarella, Cranesbill Geranium, Astrantia, Helleborus, Verbena Bonariensis, Japanese Anemone...





A little further towards town, this traffic island is planted with soft grasses, and Sedum, plus something I can't identify from a distance.





Very nearby, however, the invasion of the bedding Geranium begins.





And by Princes Street Gardens, the bedding could be straight from the 1960s.





Up on the Mound, which is the showpiece of Edinburgh's municipal bedding, there is a rather strange collection of plants this year, but it is an improvement on classic 1960s.

Man conquers mountain, but not without a price

As the subject matter of my blog would indicate, I consider myself to be in relatively good shape.
I go for runs pretty regularly, I weight lift and I can rip off a long bike ride without too much trouble. I won't be setting any marathon records in the near future, but I also won't be gasping for air after walking up a flight of stairs.
With being in shape comes the expectation that you can perform most physical activities with ease, even if it's an activity that your body isn't used to. The activity might feel taxing at first, but if you're in good enough shape, your body should be able to adapt to it as you go.
As I would come to find out the other day after doing a day hike near Seattle with my step brother Derek, that's not quite the case for me.
One of the goals I had while visiting Derek in the Pacific Northwest last week was to do a hiking trip of some sort. He's a pretty avid hiker and I figured the area was probably brimming with good trail options in the surrounding mountain ranges.
Derek suggested McClellan Butte, a 4.6-mile hike up roughly 3,300 feet of elevation. According to him, it was a popular trail in the area that featured a relatively easy climb and some pretty impressive views at the summit (the first photo is an actual picture of the mountain, it certainly doesn't LOOK easy).
One thing to know about my agreement to do this hike: I haven't done any serious hiking in years. The last trip I did was a week-long excursion in the Grand Canyon more than three years ago, and that had much more gradual elevation changes for most of the trek. I've hiked most of the parks in the Mankato area, but mountain ranges aren't exactly common in southern Minnesota.
Despite knowing all of this, I reasoned that I was in good enough shape to keep up with Derek on the hike. Besides, nobody wants to look like a wimp in front of their brother. So instead of asking him to slow down and rest more frequently, I pressed on and tried to zone out whatever pain might have been creeping up my legs.
About midway through the hike to the summit, my legs felt limber and my cardiovascular system seemed like it had adjusted to the activity. I figured that meant I would get through the hike with no issues and wouldn't have any residual effects in the days that followed.
As it turns out, I was half-right.
As the photo on the right would indicate, I did indeed make it to the summit of McClellan Butte. And aside from a pretty embarrassing fall in a snow bank along the trail, I handled the hike about as well as a novice hiker can be expected to handle it.
However, when I tried to get out of bed the next morning, it became obvious that the hike had written a check my body was having trouble cashing. My legs felt stiff, my knees were sore and my hips ached. It hurt to go up and down stairs and any attempts to stretch were met with angry shrieks from my leg muscles telling me something along the lines of "I told you this was a bad idea, you idiot!"
Matter of fact, my lower body still feels that way two days later. I've gone on a couple of decent bike rides since the hike, so it's not as bad as the first few days after a marathon (the time period I like to refer to as a "cardio vacation"). But for a guy who thought he was in pretty decent shape, it's a pretty surprising revelation.
Lesson learned: Take it slow with new activities. The hike was an absolute blast and one of the highlights of my trip, but I think my legs would've appreciated another rest stop or two along the way.

The concrete shore

Beside the entrance to the port of Leith is a housing development. Tall, anonymous-in-a-European-way blocks of flats stand on infilled land that used to be part of the harbour. The path that leads past them is our nearest access to the shore, good for looking across the Forth to the hills of Fife, or westwards towards the Forth bridges and the sunset. The blocks of flats I find strangely desolate, so I prefer to look at the firth as it opens up towards the North Sea.

Yesterday evening the sea was a luminous, icy blue. The setting sun picked out an oil tanker.





Below, the little lighthouse at the end of the harbour breakwater.

Loch Tay

Looking down onto Loch Tay from Ben Lawers. The University of Edinburgh's field centre, Firbush Point, is where our family cool canoeing takes place. The harbour is at the right in the shot below.

I prefer the hills to the water.

The Historic Church Calendar

"...the church calendar, if examined briefly, is entirely structured around the Story of Jesus. That is, the church calendar is a gospeling event too.

The church calendar is all about the Story of Jesus, and I know of nothing - other than regular soaking in the Bible - that can "gospelize" our life more than the church calendar. It begins with Advent, then Christmas, the Epiphany, then After Epiphany, the Lent, then the Great Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Paschal Vigil on Saturday evening), Easter, and then After Pentecost - with Ordinary Time shaping the calendar until Advent. Ordinary Time is the time to focus on the life and teachings of Jesus. Anyone who is half aware of the calendar in a church that is consciously devoted to focusing on these events in their theological and biblical contexts will be exposed every year to the whole gospel, to the whole Story of Israel coming to its saving completion in the Story of Jesus."

~ The King Jesus Gospel, Scot McKnight

Daytrippin': The Kern River and Red Rock Canyon

We've been having inordinate amounts of fun despite our being "stuck" here! There's just so much to see and do! For instance, a couple of days ago, we visited the Kern River - the drive along is spectacular as we wended our way towards Lake Isabella.
We stopped a couple of times and got to go... swimming! Here it was all snowing a few days ago, and now it's bathing suit weather heheh! There were two schoolbuses full of kids who just fawned over us and we were good girls and smiled a lot while they stroked our furs. Hard work, but some doggehs gotta do it!
The Kern River's cool, cause it has about as many rocks as there is water - seemingly endless amounts! And we're amenable to both!
We had as good a time running or swimming after sticks as we had just playing with each other!
There were pretty wildflowers to smell everywhere and we spied several squirrels too -
Th'above pitchur is one of Ma's faves, what with Avalon's lips all loose and Sammie's ears all a kilter, with big ole goofy smile! Yes, we're happy girls!

Looking up the Kern
Then we headed over Walker Pass, heading east towards Mohave. As we skirted Lake Isabella and worked our way in big winds up the pass, we spied colonies of Joshua Trees. Since Dad has (still) never seen J-Tree NP, he got out to check out these ancient relatives of the lily. Then we finally got to scramble in and around some truly ginormous rocks at Red Rock Canyon State Park - check it out here!

We are trippin' and lovin' this cool place. Mom didn't let us hang on the giant rocks for too long - thar's rattlers in there... But we did use our snooters to see if we couldn't spy a desert tortoise or two.

Then Mom serenaded us with our water bottle - we'd never seen THAT before! Have a pawesome weekend! We're outta here on Monday morning yippee!