Every desert garden should contain a few specimen plants that invoke some fascinating story. Herschel Larrik's garden is an example of a garden which contains many stories, sadly untold, because Herschel has long since left his beloved garden. Luckily, the people who bought his home are avid gardeners, with the same love for his carefully collected Baja native plants. He started collecting when it was not illegal to do so and he related to me many stories about his trips and how carefully the plants were brought back in his old pick-up truck and camper! The new owners will host next March Gardener's Club meeting. What a treat!
We have favorite specimens in our garden, too. Our huge Madagascar palm (Pachypodium lamerei) was found at Home Depot...a six inch high plant I found in the cacti section. It cost less than two dollars. We thought it was a cactus because of the spines and planted it in a small pot which it rapidly outgrew. It was transplanted many times into ever bigger pots. Finally it grew to be roof high...a large trunk , with top heavy single tuft of foliage. A windstorm toppled it and broke off the entire top, leaving a bare stump. Next season, the stump developed arms and became the gorgeous specimen in the photo.
It became so heavy that help was required to transplant it to it's present location. It has proven to withstand light freezes ( drops leaves ), hot summers and requires just moderate water. While dormant, hardly any water. It has been a safe nesting area for cactus wrens and for hummingbirds. This plant grows rapidly and always elicits oohs and ahhs from visitors. Ours has not bloomed, yet, but older plants will display clusters of white tropical looking flowers! WOW! In the time since I wrote this post, our plant BLOOMED !!! ( Did it guess I was writing about it? )
A word of warning: These spines are treacherous. Do not plant near walkways.
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