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Norman Winter, a Mississippi horticulturalist and writer, wrote a feature article named "Leopard Plant Is Made For Shade" in today's Southern Gardening column. If you would like, click on the blue colored link above to read it. I have just a few of these strange plants that I got from a nursery in Washington state. Mine are not the spotted variety that gave rise to the name "Leopard Plant" but rather the solid green 'Gigantea' type with large dinner plate sized leaves. I like them only for the foliage and not for the dinky and weedy yellow flowers, and I have found they love dense shade and lots and lots and lots of water. For some silly reason I get a kick out of saying the Latin name "far-FOO-gee-um jah-PON-ih-kum". Perhaps I am remembering my fun classes of high school Latin years ago. My favorite courses were Latin, algebra, and geometry. To brush up on your Latin pronunciation of the botanical names of plants, just click this blue colored Fine Gardening magazine audio index link to hear whatever you want to scroll to.
As I try to THINK SPRING I remember the saying "Hope Springs Eternal" so I am HOPING these very late planted yellow daffodil bulbs will get a growth spurt soon and bloom this coming spring. My plan was to have a bright combination of colors in this patch. I also know you can't hustle Mother Nature who does as she pleases so I will just have to wait to see what happens.
Mother Nature uplifts and rejuvenates all of Creation with the miracle season of spring. It is just ahead so let's be positive minded and THINK SPRING!
When I lived in Southeast Asia many years ago I visited Chinese gardens in Hong Kong and Singapore and fell in love with their diversity of plants. Click the word CHINESE in the title above to read about the flora of China.
Since it is the beginning of Chinese New Year and in their zodiac cycle this is the Year of the Ox. As a gardener I am thankful for the wonderful plants we grow today that originated in China. Can you imagine what we would do without having rice, tea, soybeans, oranges, cucumbers, lemons, peaches, apricots, ginger, anise, ginseng, and the hundreds of species of rhododendrons, magnolias, camellias, viburnums, gardenias, jasmines, forsythias, primroses, chrysanthemums, etc., etc.?
Many years ago I bought several dozen of these colorful handblown glass fruits and vegetables to fill up an old, ugly cracked bird bath (which would never hold water) for a punch of color in a dark out-of-the-way corner. Truth be told, it is a tacky sight except on dreary and cold days in January...like today...when my garden looks dull and dead and frozen solid at 25 degrees. I am amazed at how bright these colors have remained after all these years of exposure to the ravages of weather. When people see this mound of color they can't resist asking what it is and my answer is simply: "A bright spot just for January".
Left click on this photo to see the small details.
Norman Winter, a Mississippi horticulturalist and writer, wrote a feature article named "Leopard Plant Is Made For Shade" in today's Southern Gardening column. If you would like, click on the blue colored link above to read it. I have just a few of these strange plants that I got from a nursery in Washington state. Mine are not the spotted variety that gave rise to the name "Leopard Plant" but rather the solid green 'Gigantea' type with large dinner plate sized leaves. I like them only for the foliage and not for the dinky and weedy yellow flowers, and I have found they love dense shade and lots and lots and lots of water. For some silly reason I get a kick out of saying the Latin name "far-FOO-gee-um jah-PON-ih-kum". Perhaps I am remembering my fun classes of high school Latin years ago. My favorite courses were Latin, algebra, and geometry. To brush up on your Latin pronunciation of the botanical names of plants, just click this blue colored Fine Gardening magazine audio index link to hear whatever you want to scroll to.
