Xeriscape Up Close and Personal

Here are a few close up shots of the individual plants growing in the front garden.

On the top left is Firewitch Dianthus. The flowers would be edible if it wasn't too close to the road. I love how it looks like some kind of sputnik plant with the flowers sticking off it in all directions.

On the bottom right is one of three blue fescue plants. It is the only one that sent up any shoot, which you can barely see is the beige wheat-looking thing shooting up in the upper right hand corner of the picture. Both these and some of the Dianthus were part of an internet order I made from the Big Dipper Nursery in Washington before I had a car. They came bare root (wrapped in a bag and newspaper, not in a pot) and were tiny. I hate to say it but I was extremely dissapointed with the order and will never buy live plants over the internet again.

I was so excited about the adorable blue muppet-looking pompom plant, it was a total bummer when I opened the order and saw a scraggly tuft of grass. Once I got a car and became a regular at my local nurseries, I saw many much larger and vigourous Blue Fescues for about the same price. The larger Dianthus you see in the picture was also bought at a nursery, the ones from the internet are the small ones in the back. Not to mention most of the other plants I got in this order died or hardly grew at all (an Astible- dead, Edible Ostrich Fern- dead, Ornamental Creeping Bramble which they said was a practically indestructible ground cover - dead, Red Trumpet Honeysuckle- barely still alive) Oh well, live and learn. I hope they recover and grow bigger next year.

This is one of the Dusty Millers.

As mentioned, they did not get any yellow flowers at all. I like how it looks a bit like a fractal or snoflake in this picture. The silvery-whitish fur on the leaves serves to reflect the sun, one of the ways these drought-tolerant plants work to conserve water.

I'm going to give Lavender its own special post.

Finally, here is a close up of the unidentified furry plant (I got this one on sale and didn't write down the name). It was maybe a third this big when I planted it, and that was in July. I can't believe how quickly it grew!

Does anyone out there happen to know what it is?