Inaugural Foliage Follow-Up

This is my first ever Foliage Follow-Up, and it has perfect timing: just yesterday I was marveling at my gorgeous and HUGE Stachys byzantina (a.k.a. Lamb's Ear) Helen von Stein!

Helen von Stein Lamb's Ear and 'Valentine' roses

I tried them once in my old garden and they died, but not before looking profoundly craptastic. Not sure what the secret is this time except they're in a slightly elevated bed? But whatever, I look like a Lamb's Ear rockstar.

Then there's the Canna 'Flambe', with it's glowy goodness:

I flippin' love Canna 'Flambe'

My Pennisetum 'First Knight' doesn't make for a spectacular photo, but it's actually growing (which was questionable a month ago) so it deserves recognition:

Pennisetum 'First Knight'

I tried to capture a decent picture of the 'Ruby Falls' Weeping Redbud, but I don't think I succeeded in doing it justice:

Weeping Redbud 'Ruby Falls'

It's a funny looking little tree, and I do mean little. It's only about 2 feet tall, and the top of it is totally flat. It looks kind of out-of-place in the front bed with all the Salvia, Canna and Yucca, but I ain't moving it.

The Chocolate Mimosa requires no words:

Chocolate Mimosa

 But it DOES require two pictures:

My pots against the fence, with Bamboo Muhly (which may or may not do okay in that much shade) and my now-tiny 'Sun King' Aralia (which definitely will):

And because potted plants need love too:

 No idea what any of these are, but I love them together.

I blew my whole wad on a single Foliage Follow-Up, didn't I??

Mother Nature in action

This amuses me:

That's a Salvia Clevelandii, which blooms purple but has two random white blooms. Why? Because it can.

As an aside, deer HATE the smell of this plant. They were boldly eating my roses until I planted this single plant, and they haven't been back since.

And then there was the Leonardo DiCaprio of Yuccas:

"I'm king of the world!!"

Lastly, as I was sitting on the back patio recovering from digging up a big stupid stump, two little birds landed on the grass and started squawking furiously. I walked over towards them, thinking maybe a baby that had fallen out of a nest? They flew up into the trees above the fence, but kept screaming. 

As soon as I sat back down they went right back to the grass to yell some more, so I walked back over there and looked around more carefully. Turns out they were yelling at this:

I was mildly freaked out - I've never encountered a snake before, and there he was right by the back patio! I never saw one in my old garden and we didn't have those in Hawaii either, so I don't have a lot of practice dealing with them. He was looking right at me and I did notice that his head wasn't diamond-shaped, so I thought that meant he wasn't poisonous? 

I hollered for Ryan (who took the picture as the snake took off), and apparently it's just a rat snake. Glad I didn't kill him. Even more glad I didn't encounter him during any of the ba-zillion times I was sitting on the ground panting from digging the stupid stump out. From now on I guess I'll look before I flop!

There are SNAILS on my siding

Where are they going??

There's nothing up there, snails!

Someday I will have dirt-colored siding, so you can't tell when it needs to be power washed. Don't judge me.