Now that I've caught you up to date on the big picture of the garden transformation, I can focus on plant features, as well as day-to-day excitement. The first plant I want to highlight is a palm named Brahea 'Super Silver.' It was not in the original design of the garden, but my designer Troy Stephens had access to a couple great two-gallon 'Super Silver' palms so we couldn't pass up the opportunity. As young palms they are more green, but as they age the silver emerges. Here are the two that Max and I planted at the church:
We have a more mature one in our garden, and here is a photo that Max took at a friend's garden:
It will be exciting to watch as these two palms grow and start to show their bluish-silver true colors. You can learn more about Brahea 'Super Silver' in the Palmpedia here, and the website Flora Grubb's Guides also has some great info as well as a fabulous photo showing how they look when they trunk. One of the really exciting things for me when I look at the garden is not just how things look right now, but knowing the potential hidden within these plants and having a sense of how they might look someday. Another one that excites me in this same way is the Aloe barberae, which I guess technically has been renamed Aloidendron barberae (also formerly known as Aloe bainesii). Here's a recent photo of one of the ones in the church garden:
Someday this could grow as tall as the gutter on the church roof, or even taller. Here is an incredibly old one from the Wikipedia article on Aloidendron barberae:
This Aloe bainesii tree aloe is growing at Auckland Botanic Gardens, Auckland, New Zealand, and is about three meters tall. This photo has been released into the public domain by its author, Jasper33 at English Wikipedia.
For me, a new garden, with all the promises it holds, is even more exciting than a mature garden where everything has settled.
ReplyDeleteMy 'Super Silver' took many years to turn silver but now it has. Truly beautiful, and much less pokey than Brahea armata.