Could Use the Rain

Today is overcast although I think there is only a 30% chance of rain. We're running our irrigation again although we hope Mother Nature will help soon! I took another nice shot of the Colchicum seen above. We have lots of questions from visitors about these as they appear everywhere (8,000 throughout the gardens). That clear pink color is quite noticeable as this bulb peeks out between and amongst plants. I wish we had the budget to plant more although the planting window (August) for this year has passed. See a previous posting for more info on Colchicum.

Below is the tropical elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta). For us, this plant has gone thru a long transformation from a "grapefruit-sized" bulb (actually a corm) ordered from Florida that was planted in a pot in April and nursed along to be this bold giant. This species is also the edible Taro that has been cultivated in tropical regions since 5,000 B.C. It is thought to have originated in Malaysia although is very widely distributed and naturalized now. Both the leaves and corms are edible after being cooked. Our interest of course is the bold effect in the gardens. We'll wait for a hard frost to knock down the foliage. Then we'll dig the bulb, cut the foliage, rinse all soil off, air dry it and store it at 55 degrees F until the following April where it goes thru the same cycle again. We lose some stored bulbs to rot and still purchase 50 new bulbs each year. There are many exciting species and varieties of Colocasia as well as it's close relative, Alocasia. The unsightly bottom picture shows some yews (Taxus) that we're removing today that died after being submerged for 16 weeks. These yews have been shaped and pruned 2-3 times each year for close to 20 years. Too bad they'll be gone as we'll have to start over with new plantings (perhaps more flood tolerant woody plants!!!).