All six here this week are foliar, without flowers. I suppose that floral subjects would be more appropriate for June; so, perhaps next week.
1. Ilex aquifolium, English holly certainly looks vicious up close. It grows wild from seed in the landscapes. I canned several as if we might find a use for them, which is unlikely.
2. Abies grandis, grand fir was collected from the wild near Smith River. A few are now canned here, although we have no idea what to do with them. They are such grand trees.
3. Picea sitchensis, Sitka spruce came with the grand fir from near Smith River. It is also difficult or impossible to accommodate in the landscapes here. Collection is a bad habit.
4. Heliconia psittacorum, parakeet flower is considerably more useful than the previous three. For now, though, it remains canned on a silly shelf outside my bedroom window.
5. Saccharum officinarum ‘Pele’s Smoke’ sugarcane came with the parakeet flower from Brent’s garden in Los Angeles. It is almost too easy to propagate, so we have quite a few.
6. Saccharum officinarum ‘Purple Ribbon’ sugarcane is an old heirloom cultivar. It was acquired after ‘Pele’s Smoke’, but already has as much potential to propagate too easily.
Anyone who would like to participate in this meme should peruse this participant guide for Six on Saturday.
Tony Tomeo 
“silly shelf”? Please explain yourself. Lovely pictures, Tony.
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Oh, the shelf is like a planter box, but without the box. It is just a shelf that holds eight exposed #1 cans. It looks fine from inside, but from outside, it looks silly. It looks like this. https://tonytomeo.com/2023/12/03/the-hedge-on-the-ledge/
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Now I understand, thank you!
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I like the different sugarcane stem colours. Are they sugarcanes, as in, they could be grown as a crop to harvest to produce sugar commercially? Or are these cultivated varieties for ornamental use?
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‘Pele’s Smoke’ is an ornamental cultivar that supposedly can produce sugar. I have never seen it make a cane big enough to extract sugar from, though. ‘Purple Ribbon’ is (or was) one of the more common cultivars for sugar production.
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The sugarcane made me think of the sugarcane juice I used to get from the little Vietnamese shops in Seattle when I lived there. I would always have my eyes open for the signs they put out when they had it on offer. The trees are lovely. My spousal unit dislikes any tree that is pine or pine like in a home landscape. In the forest, he likes them. So if my crab apple has to go, it will not be replaced by pine. I could put my little Cornus alternifolia to the east of where the crabapple is – I think it would get enough shade frm the line of Thuja on the property line.
I think we had that holly in a built in planter on the side of the house where I grew up in San Diego. I was able to take a tour of that house a few years ago and it was interesting to see how it looked. I liked whta they did with the front yard and house interior, but was sad about the loss of the fruit trees. Some of the best navel oranges I ever ate were from a tree to the left of the garage, and we had an amazing Eureka lemon (that died when my father still lived there – overproduced, underpicked, split right down the middle. Mandarins and valencia oranges too. Well, I suspect people did not want to water trees and wanted a backyard they could “use” never mind the patio above what to us was the orchard.
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Sitka spruce and grand fir are excellent trees in their forests, but even for those who appreciate conifers, they are impractical within home gardens, or even for our larger landscapes at work. I did not realize when I took these pictures that most of the subjects were so useless for home gardens. ‘Pele’s Smoke’ sugarcane is a small ornamental cultivar that is proportionate to home gardens, but ‘Purple Ribbon’ is too big and coarse. The holly is quite unpopular because it is so prickly.
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Holly is a lovely native plant here – though you’re right that it’s quite vicious-looking! I love the two types of sugarcane. Not sure we could grow this here, but it’s a tempting idea.
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The holly is unfortunately naturalized somewhat here. I do not get the impression that it is naturalized enough to interfere with the local ecosystems, but I do not know. Even here, where winters are mild, the sugarcane dislikes cool winter weather. I probably should not be growing it.
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The Sugar Cane stems are fun–that must be great to be able to grow them in your climate. In your photos they remind me of Rhubarb, which is my exciting crop right now. I enjoyed your focus on foliage. Nice post.
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Thank you. Now that I got sugarcane, I have no idea what to do with it. ‘Pele’s Smoke’ is an ornamental cultivar, so only needs to look good. However, ‘Purple Ribbon’ is grown for sugar, which is more work than I need.
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