Bird of Paradise
Shelley called up this week and told me I should stop by the house she is selling on Salem Street and check out some plants with blooms shaped like someone making an obscene gesture with their middle finger.
Of course, that sounded like a fine diversion, and certainly some vital research to share with readers.
The plants are volunteers in her yard. She is quite certain the seeds arrived after she bought a bouquet of flowers at the Davis farmers market, where she sells her pottery. She composted the flowers and after time some new ones grew in her yard. She wasnt sure what they were, but liked them and let them grow into approximately 3-foot bushes.
Giant globe allium is one of the more unusual bulbs gardeners can plant this fall. But one gargantuan plant could set you back $10 and there’s no money back if it gets eaten by a squirrel.
One day she was reading a gardening article in a magazine and saw the plant. The caption said it was elephant head amaranth. Its a lovely magenta color, and you cant help but smirk a bit when you think about how the blooms look like a middle finger.
These babies might make a nice statement if a bouquet were sent to a disappointing ex-boyfriend or that neighbor whose dog keeps coming into your yard to leave love offerings.
The Web site for Seeds of Change, www.seedsofchange.com, claims that the long tentacles on the blooms remind people of elephant trunks, not a middle finger.
Hmmm.
Bulb commitment
Tommy and I have been having some very serious talks about our future. About this time last year we had just started dating and werent yet talking about things that required a long-term commitment such as planting bulbs. Its too early to plant bulbs, but weve been perusing the gardening catalogs that arrive at both home and at work.
We had a heart-felt talk about bulbs recently. Theres a lot to consider really.
Do we go for bulbs that will naturalize and be around for years and years? Do we shoot for just one season of glory knowing that the bulbs are just a one-shot deal? Should we make a large investment or just get by on the bare minimum? Is it worth the trouble at all when we could just wait until spring and buy cheap primroses as soon as they are in stock?
For example, daffodils do really well in the Chico area. The daffodils will come back year after year, if Tommy doesnt mistakenly dig out the dying bulbs thinking they are wild onions. If you buy a big bag of daffodils at a local big-box gardening center, you can scatter them all over the yard. Even the ones that get eaten by squirrels arent really missed, because you dont remember where you planted them, and you certainly didnt count them.
On the other hand, tulips are incredibly elegant and somehow have a more classy feel to them. I think of it like the difference between Audry Hepburn (tulips) and Meg Ryan (daffodils). Daffies, as I call them, are bright, sunny and pretty, but tulips somehow have a longer neck and sense of pseudo-royalty.
However, as I explained to my beau with a certain air of erudition, tulips usually dont do well the second year in Chico and if they do they are sort of tarnished and disappointing. Some people dig them up and give them a chilling in the refrigerator to trigger another year of good growth. However, I can never remember where I planted them after the leaves die back.
Hyacinth are lovely and incredibly fragrant. But the bulbs are fairly pricey, and again, I havent had much luck with second-year rebirth.
One favorite for bulbs is freesia. These little bulbs often come back a second year, and make amazing flowers you can enjoy indoors. Theyre so fragrant there is a reason the scent is used for shampoos and soaps.
Other fun bulbs to ponder include things such as giant alliums. (See photo above).
These can be pricey, up to $10 each for the giant globemaster.? But there is a lot of pleasure to be had in watching the flower head slowly unfold from its papery encasement and giving you a bloom the size of a salad plate or a toddlers head.
Garden glamour
Shelley and I were chatting recently about how much fun it is sift through one of the myriad of gardening catalogs. But we both agreed, these catalogs are a lot like womens magazines. You never grow a flower as flawless as the photos in the catalog. The photographers make sure there is dew glistening on the petals. The varieties are so idealistic they look like they were painted by Thomas Kinkade. Garden catalog photos are likely airbrushed, and sometimes those catalogs just downright lie.
As we sipped iced tea on a Wednesday afternoon, Shelley turned to page 20 of a popular garden catalog and showed me a gallardia fanfare, a plant with trumpet-shaped petals that arrived in a 2 1/2-inch pot. It set her back $10.
Then she reached for a pot on her patio and showed me the anemic-looking plant with four leaves that had arrived about as dead as instant noodle soup. Then she pointed to a pot containing the Gallardia Arizona sun she had bought for $4 at Lowes. It was flowering and surviving well, despite the recent 100-degree weather.
The worst part about Shelleys mail order disappointment is that her husband caught her? when the mail-order package arrived and she had to fess up to spending too much money on frou-frou plants when something less decadent and cheaper made her happier.
Blog launch
Last Friday was Sow Theres debut on the Chico E-Rs www.norcalblogs.com. The paper is expanding our blog offerings and trying to broaden the range of voices we offer readers.
I like the idea of having a blog. OK, I love the idea. All those times I am doing research and come across something cool, I can now post it on the blog even if there isnt space in the printed version.
(Check out the picture I posted of the giant globe allium, www.norcalblogs.com/sowthere).
Also, theres a chance for readers to interact more quickly and share a funny story with other readers.
At this point I want to use it to help flesh out ideas for the printed version, practice writing the column throughout the week and then picking the things that resonated most.
Sow There! loves first-year tulips and full moons. For feedback, send to P.O. Box 9, Chico, CA 95927 or hhacking@chicoer.com.
