Walking through the garden I noticed the new foliage on Lupinus albifrons (silver lupine) looked a little different. Larger, “greener,” less intensely silver.
Darn! It’s going to bloom.
But that silver foliage is why I love this plant and why it’s growing in my garden, I don’t want flowers I want that foliage! (stomps foot, acting like a 2-yr old)…
At times like this I feel like the curmudgeon gardener, a complete bah humbug’er. What gardener doesn’t love flowers?
Well me, actually. At least on the plants I adore for their foliage. I’ve been known to cut the flowers off my hostas and some cannas. Why let a silly little flower distract from that exceptionally lovely foliage?
Although I will admit I’ve learned that some canna flowers can be appealing, these all got a pass last year.
The towering (bee friendly) blossoms on an Echium wildpretii are so dramatic, they lend a certain craziness to the garden. Especially when they’re combined with their smaller (hardier) cousin, Echium russicum
Even the foliage lover in me has to admit this one puts on a pretty great show…
But that rosette of long, thin, silver leaves is so spectacular, I always hate to see it go.
While I eagerly anticipate the annual blooms on my common Yucca filamentosa, including ‘Color Guard’ shown here…
I dread the day any of my Yucca rostrata decide to bloom. I’ve read that blooming sets them back and slows their growth, zapping their vigor. However I think it might also result in branching. Which could be cool. Here’s one that’s branched into three growing tips and its neighbor. Not in my garden though, sadly.
Of course the grand dame of all dreaded blooms is that on an agave. Since they’re monocarpic a bloom means the plant dies.
It usually lives on through pups at its base, or bulbils that form off the bloom spike, but who wants a big mature agave to die? Not me, well, if I was lucky enough to have one.
When growing in a container, as most of my agaves are, blooming seems to take a little longer. But just last week I heard of two container grown agaves here in the PNW that are blooming, so it does happen.
Bulbils from what I think was an Agave angustifolia ‘Marginata’…
Plants, they’re gonna bloom. What’s a curmudgeon gardener to do?