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The emphasis may have been on the Oxblood Lilies yesterday, but today it's all about the way the Persian Shield/ Strobilanthes dyerianus looks with the glossy camellia leaves in the shade of a pecan tree.
Sharing Garden Diana also featured her magnolia on her GBBD post, but I'm not sure what kind of magnolia she has. This is my 'Little Gem', with the aggregate seed heads in various stages of development. I wanted to catch that fuzzy, rusty color underneath the leaves. A regular, full-sized Southern Magnolia would never fit in my small garden so 'Little Gem' was pressed into service and I really like this small tree. I'd still prefer the plain green-leaved gigantic magnolia if we had more space, but the fuzzy brown color is not without charm.
This trio of succulents lives on the patio table. At left is a "Ghost Plant" -some species of Graptopetalum in a planter my husband made out of a rock. In the center is a Passalong plant from DivaoftheDirt Mindy - she gave me a few leaves in 2009 to root. It's called Donkey Ears - I guess it's a kind of Kalanchoe. At right a little sedum-type plant came with the label "Cobweb Houseleek". It lived through winter in this cool pot I found when out with Suburban-Wildlife Dawn in 2008.
The last plant is more of a hope for foliage than actual foliage! Last winter was so harsh that succulents were killed - including most of an Agave macroculmis from Yucca-Do that I'd had for years. After the mushy parts were cut off, three pieces of leaves were left. I stood them up in this well drained, partly shaded bed under a holly and occasionally hit them with the hose. One piece rotted quickly, but right now one of the pieces seems to be tight in the ground. Is it even possible for a new agave plant to grow from a leaf?
