So, you don't have a green thumb, but you want a plant that will look like you do, that will bloom all summer and is super hardy? Well, have I got the plant for you! Cannus.
This was not the post that I planned for my letter "C", but my original post just wouldn't come onto the page right, and it's too important of a topic to not give it my all. So, when I woke up this morning I decided to switch gears.
About five or so years ago we removed four huge trees from our front yard. They blocked all of the sunlight from our windows, they were so large that sun didn't hit the ground and the grass rarely grew. It made for a pretty ugly looking front yard. While I'm not a fan of cutting down all the trees on a piece of property, these just needed to go. In the place of the trees we built a large flower garden with landscape blocks. It has two levels and even has a water feature. I have always loved planting flowers so it was a perfect use of some of the space for me.
When we got the flower garden complete, it was time to fill it up. I had left a few small bushes from around the trees in it, but it was a large flower garden and the majority of it was bare. A blank canvas.
I like kind of unique plants. I went to a local green house and found things like pineapple lilly. I went to the day lilly farm and got some unique plants. My mom and Denis brought me some for my birthday. I still had a lot of space to fill though. At the time, a friend of mine was thinning out some of his flowers (I should have taken that as a clue!!!). He said I could come and get as many Cannus as I wanted. I took about 29 pieces of what looked like dead leaves and thought that would get me nowhere. I came home and planted them and sure enough, even though it looked like I just stuck a single leaf into the ground, it didn't take long and they were growing.
The first summer, nothing much happened. The second summer they looked great! They filled in nicely, they were so nice and green, and I had managed to get both red and yellow flowers. They were really pretty. Enter the third summer.....They grew. Not only did they grow, but they multiplied.... like rabbits! I soon realized why my friend had been thinning out his plants and why he said we could take as many as we wanted!
This spring I decided that the Cannus were just getting out of hand. We had spent several summers removing HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of Cannus from our flower garden. They are like gray hair I guess... you pull one and two more show up in its place. This year, I tried to KILL them. Tim, Cameron and I went out with shovels and tried to take them all out. We got the flower beds looking really nice, only to turn around about a week later and see little green leafs popping throught he mulch. The Cannus had returned. This past week when we got 10 straight days of rain... oh my how the Cannus loved it. They came back with a vengeance. Tim went out again and pulled more. An entire lawn and leaf bag full of them. Already I see some popping back up. We have tried spraying them with round up, digging down to the roots and yanking them out... nothing works.
So, if you don't have a green thumb, but really want to look like you do, plant Cannus. Put them in the ground, ignore them, water them occasionally, but only if you remember and watch them thrive like you've spent every day of every summer caring for them. Full sun, partial sun, shade, swamp land... they'll even grow through cracks in landscape blocks....they obviously aren't picky! They will make you look like a master gardener! Make sure you like them though, because you will NEVER get rid of them! And if you need some, I have HUNDREDS you are welcome to!
My original post was on child trafficking. A much heavier topic I must say. I just couldn't get it out on paper right. Maybe I can modify the title and make it a different letter post :) I just couldn't put it out there without really feeling like it was what I truly wanted to say. I didn't have the time to spend on it that I thought I would as adoption documents started moving this week and I've got three I600's to file!!! So, a bit lighter topic this week. Next week though... back to the heavy stuff :)
In Christ,
Charity
1 comment:
I don't like yard flowers at all!
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