These are a few plants that survived where my former home was abandoned, and where the new home is to be built. Some of them had been here since 2006 nineteen years ago.

1. Cereus peruvianus, night blooming cereus is from Brent’s former Miracle Mile garden balcony. I do not know why it is so spiny now. Maybe it is angry about being abandoned. Aeonium arboreum, common houseleek is from another friend’s garden near Monterey.

2. Crassula arborescens spp. undulatifolia, ripple jade, as well as the pinwheel aeonium below, remain unidentified. These names that I present here are merely guesses of their identities. Anyway, I procured this from a jobsite that I worked at in Hayward years ago.

3. Aeonium haworthii, pinwheel aeonium came from the same garden that the common houseleek came from near Monterey. The slope that it is attached to is actually too steep to stand on. Yucca recurvifolia, curve leaf yucca is from an old jobsite in Boulder Creek.

4. Aloe arborescens, candelabra aloe came from the home garden of an old friend in the East Hills of San Jose. It is higher on the same steep slope as the pinwheel aeonium and curve leaf yucca. It should grow better and produce pups for dividing with a bit of water.

5. Pelargonium graveolens, rose geranium impresses me most because it survived for so long, like the other perennials, but is supposedly not as resilient as they are. I found this in an old home garden in San Francisco, although I believe that it is common elsewhere.

6. Iris pallida, Dalmatian iris is important because it is from the garden of my maternal maternal great grandmother in Oklahoma. I acquired it when I was about four. Crassula ovata, jade plant was from my former home in town, where I lived after the earthquake.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

14 thoughts on “Six on Saturday: Abandoned”

  1. It’s lovely to see those resilient plants with the stories attached. So nice to see how they have survived by themselves, and to hear the history of where each one came from. There are a few plants like that around our place, that have sentimental value or spark memories of places and people, and it’s a special thing to share cuttings of some of those plants with friends and family, and pass their stories along to the next custodians… 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Although I took copies of most of what was left behind, I am very pleased to see that almost all of what was left behind survived. It is as if it was waiting for me to return and resume gardening around them.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  2. I had a glorious Cereus peruvianus monstrose for years. It only bloomed two years, but those flowers were magnificent. It eventually died, rotting away from a combination of our humidity and (probably) overwatering. I will have one tiny bit left that I just was looking at. It’s put out two roots, and it’s going to be gifted some cactus soil today.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. That is an odd cultivar. I saw impressive specimens in Arizona, but would not have guessed that they were the same species as mine. Actually, I did not recognize mine at first because it is so much thornier now. I do not know what that it about.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. They were all salvaged many years ago. I brought bits of them with me to the temporary garden These are just older specimens that were abandoned at the old home garden years ago, and somehow survived.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  5. Thanks for sharing the history of the plants and that you will be building a new home in this location. These are all fascinating plants, and obvious survivors! I’m imagining them as personalities (“angry about being abandoned”). 🙂 Please keep us posted on the construction and your new and these revisited plants.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Some of them do not seem angry. It is as if they understand what is going on. The iris is not where I want to grow iris, but will likely live there permanently now, just because I do not want to relocate it from where it has done so well. I am not so keen on the aeonium, but will not move it. It earned its position in the garden.

      Like

      Reply

  6. Apart from the iris none of these plants could survive outside here. How lovely to have plants with history. Where you lived after the earthquake???? Well, you dropped that in very casually but there must be a story there.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I lived in town for many years after the Earthquake, and enjoyed that home so much that I never wanted to leave. I relocated to another home that was just temporary until I built a new house next door, . . . but then did not build the new house. Finally, construction may begin on the new house early next year. I am not so keen on a new house, but do not want to relocate either.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment