Sunday, March 16, 2014

Foliage Follow Up - March 2014

Pam at Digging is hosting Foliage Follow Up - visit her comments to see everyone else's contributions to celebrating foliage. As always, I'm late! But this weekend was gorgeous, so I spent all the time cleaning and pruning and planting...

One of my two rhubarb plants came back:

Rhubarb in the tube...
 Since this one is all the way leafed out, and there is no sign of the other one, I'm going to guess that it's done for... Do rhubarbs die when they bloom? They don't really like the desert much, but this is year three for this one, so I can eat some now!

The giant un-identified agave is showing off a variety of teeth colors:
also showing some tip damage due to the cold...
I'm going to have to dig that one out of its tube and liberate some of the pups soon... before they grow through the tube!

 Mangave 'Macho Mocha' is starting to bloom:
There are pups under those leaves too...
 For foliage though, this part of the garden remains my favorite:

A. Blue Glow (front), blue fescue, A. "Little Shark" (x2), and optunias
 All the optunias are putting out new growth - time will tell if these are new pads, flowers, or some combination thereof:
unknown Optunia - if these are flowers, that would be the first year it flowers!
 These Optunia basilaris pads are showing a lot of spring growth too:
interesting combination of green and purple-ish
Shortly after this picture was taken, they got dug out of the tube and planted out to the hill side. Hopefully they like their new home...

Thanks for visiting my garden... I'm off to look at other bloggers' contributions to Foliage Follow-Up!

14 comments:

  1. Love the Mangave 'Macho Mocha', it is on my plant wish list. I really like the color of the Optunia basilaris . Thanks for visiting my blog and for the comment:)

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  2. I've never been successful with the mangave that is native here in Austin, but I know other gardeners have grown the 'Macho Mocha'--it's very pretty, as are all of your other agave/cacti.

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    1. thank you! I've never had any issues with Macho Mocha, but my mangave "espresso" did not survive the winter... thanks for your comment!

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  3. I don't know much about rhubarb, but I understand your excitement about waiting three years to harvest. My asparagus is just starting to peek up - and it's my year to harvest them! I love the "teeth" on your agave, but I cringed at the thought of you digging it - ouch!

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    1. I have exactly one asparagus spear this year... I'm not sure why? Thanks for visiting!

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  4. Pam at Diggng had a lovely post about digging up and moving Moby her blue whale.
    Respect!!

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    1. I've studied that post... it fills me with both fear and hope! Thanks for commenting!

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  5. Your agaves and 'Macho Mocha' mangave all look so happy and healthy. A few of mine got freeze-burned in our unusually cold winter, but at least now I know which ones are truly winter-hardy (silver lining?). Thanks for joining in with Foliage Follow-Up!

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  6. I think you are supposed to cut off the flowers when rhubarb blooms, because it weakens the plant, or maybe just takes too much energy away from producing leaves (the stalks of which you want more of). Maybe your second one bloomed last year and was too weak to return? I hope you show the Mangave bloom when it is further along. I'm excited to see that.

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    1. I'm excited to see that bloom also! I'll definitely be taking pictures... Thanks for visiting!

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  7. That unidentified agave is a beauty, Renee. I like the Mangave too and wish I could find one here.

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    1. Mine came from Plant Delights, and I think they still have them! I will have to figure out that agave one of these days. At least it has pups! Thanks for visiting!

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