Black Stemmed Elephant Ear

I have had elephant ears in most of the places that I have lived. There is something very appealing to me about them. They have the architectural structure of the leaves and stems, and they look very tropical. I saw these in Lowe's and was intrigued by their black stems, so I decided to get them. I planted them out last year and they grew. Around this time last year I noticed an odd looking leaf coming out, and on further investigation I saw a flower on them. Now in all of my years of elephant ear keeping I never got a single flower out of them. I didn't expect much out of them this year because I forgot and left the bulb in the ground over the winter and I thought it died. They came back slowly this year, and now again I have a flower on it. It's definately a very odd flower, but it's another one for my gardening record books. :)

Front Yard Happenings 8/2/08

Why just the front yard you might ask? Yesterday Maw was looking out the back window and he said "What the heck is that"? That was a.....skunk. Somehow it must have squeezed under the back fence where it crosses the run-off ditch. So I find myself not that curious about what's going on in the back yard, although I did go and check to make sure that it was clear this morning. You never can tell what might be lurking around the corner after all. Actually I went out front to get some pictures and intended to see what was going on in the back, but Quickbeam had enough of her mama wandering around outside and made it clear that she was tired of waiting. So I figured the back yard would be for tomorrow.


These are some of my Gingersnap roses. They are very vibrant orange when they first bloom, but as they start aging they fade into beautiful peach and cream colors.



This is the Rozanne Cranesbill geranium blooming out in my "shade" garden area.

This is a bloom getting ready to come out on my black-stemmed elephant ears. I was very surprised to see it bloom last year, and moreso this year. I thought they hadn't survived the winter, but they came back from runners. I didn't think that it would bloom again this year because of the challenging start, but apparently it got over it. :)

And finally, although it isn't blooming, here is my Japanese Painted Fern, dappled in sunlight. It seems to be much happier now that I transplanted it from the container.