My Plant Family
My father bought a house about a dozen years ago. I still do work on this house for him, usually on weekends. From general maintenance, working with the plumbing, water heater, air conditioning system, the swimming pool as well as landscaping, I was given unlimited freedom to explore all aspects of this house.
Yet when I saw this house for the first time, I found a love for something I never previously knew I had. The owner of this home was in my assessment, a master gardener. His name was Glen, and from what I learned, he was some kind of an engineer. Looking back now, I would have to say he was a master gardener, because he had five or more feet tall bleeding hearts that surrounded the entire house!
My guess based upon what I now know is that they were Bleeding Heart Valentines, and this is the one that I have:
The colors of the flowers were not only such a profound red, but the unique feature of the heart-shape they displayed had an eye-catching grip on my attention as never experienced before. I have concluded that even if nasty spider mites or any other contaminant that ever attacks and destroys (hopefully not, lol) a bleeding heart that I may have, it will be replaced immediately and without question from here forth.
It is unique, beautiful yet fragile, however a plant I can appreciate and love. I then took a chance on another bleeding heart, buying two luxuriants. Unfortunately, the nasty spider mites obliterated one of them, and I had to dump the entire pot into the trash. However, the other one did survive, even though it was attacked as well:
Then I somehow realized the plants that I had around me, but never spent much time understanding or learning what they were or what it took to take care of them. They are everywhere around here. They are extremely popular in the Midwest, and you will find them surrounding many homes. You will also find them planted around apartment complexes and even fast-food restaurants. Cousins of the Japanese Bonzai trees, the Boxwoods:
I originally had bought two Green Mountain Boxwoods. I purchased them because of the ease of working with them, the low maintenance etc. We did have a very nasty drought here in Indiana, and with my very weak understanding of plant-life, I lost one of my two green mountain boxwoods.
I did give them both names, lol. From the movie ‘Ghostbusters’, one was named Gatekeeper and the other was named Keymaster. Keymaster was the one who died, but Gatekeeper is the above pic, alive and thriving.
But at my Dad’s house, as mentioned Glen knew what he was doing with gardening, and I have discovered four green mountain boxwoods (but here is only three) on the property, thriving as well to this day:
If I were to take a guess about which type of boxwoods that I see everywhere around properties, restaurants, businesses etc., my guess would be that the type of boxwood is a Green Velvet. That is pretty much why I bought one:
My previous maintenance job was at an apartment complex in a very rich side of Carmel, Indiana. To understand how rich Carmel Indiana is, if they wanted to be the state capital, they could likely do it. Their highschool is as big as a division two university!
But while working there, I noticed one boxwood that looked a whole lot different than the rest, which I gleened were all green velvets. But this one in particular was barely a foot tall, and had a perfect conventional light bulb shape. I concluded that it had to be a Green Jem. I loved it, bought one and am attempting to train it to get that light bulb shape as well:
One day I was browsing a nursery department at a store. It was almost fall, but I wanted more color in my balcony garden. My attention was easily stolen by the Balloon Flower, so I brought home a purple and white mixture:
I love seeing them constantly “popping” out blooms. I had originally bought about eight purple and white balloon flowers, and they were beautiful. But nasty spider mites ate up all but two last season. I plan on rebuilding my vision of purple and white balloon flowers sometime soon.
If I were to take a guess about why I bought a Monkshood, I would have to say it was totally at random. I think I just googled plants in general or something like that, and was totally captured by the Monkshood petals. Unique and beautiful seems to always get my attention, lol. So I bought two of them:
It was only after I researched the monkshood thoroughly that I realized it is one of the most poisonous plants in the world! I read a story about how a horse had eaten a fourth of its body weight and died. I read how third world tribes extract poison from it for their arrows. I also thought it was way cool to put a label on the pots that says, “Danger, Poison” lol.
On my way to do some side-work, I stopped by at a nursery (my second favorite nursery). A campanula bellflower ‘viking’ caught my eye:
I was elated to find out later that it attracts hummingbirds!
Just recently, I decided to dive into annuals. I had an extra pot that previously had an array of balloon flowers in it, but was currently empty. The celosia china town said “take me home!” lol, so I did, buying seven of them:
Determined to attract hummingbirds, I bought four wide brim hosta lilies:
I then wanted to complete the balcony picture from the ceiling down, as all plants of course, were arranged on the balcony ledge only. I chanced on two boston ferns:
Somehow, while looking at my balcony from the outside, I thought about how a border around the balcony opening would be cool. And since the trumpet vine is a hummingbird favorite, I brought one home about two weeks ago:
I was even warned at the nursery that “these can grow up to 30 feet.” I smiled and replied that my vision was for the vine was that it would be trained to grow around a strategic border around my balcony opening:
To the far left is the trumpet vine. Across the top and bottom of the balcony measures eight feet. The sides measure three feet. So my guess is that the vine will wrap around the balcony border one and a half times. I just hope I can control the vine’s growing path lol!
Then to complete my plant family was something totally unexpected. I don’t know what it is, but it just started growing this season on its own. I have no idea what it is, but a guess says it’s some kind of tree. I call it my junk tree:
I nearly pulled it to use the pot for something else, but then it hit me that I could go ahead and let it grow—in honor of Steve (see previous post about Steve). It is currently just over two feet tall and healthy. I did learn that it will wilt in extreme heat (85+ degrees) and will wilt. So when weather predicts that much or more, I bring the junk tree into the house. I also make sure it sits in minimal direct sunlight.
***Update: After an intense research on a tree indentifier website, it is very possible that this is an American Elm or a Birch Tree, still investigating...:)
I’m excited to see the vine grow and eventually flower, the lilies to bloom, the monkshoods to burst with many petals, and all of my plant family grow and bloom!
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