Joe Pye Is Here

It is a sign that summer has started the wind down process. Did we ever have summer? Not according to the temperatures we have had so far and certainly not according to the okra.

We have had rain. Lots of rain. Of course we always have lots of rain up here. This year we just got more. The tall flower meadow has been enjoying it.

The Rattlesnake Master, Eryngium yuccifolium has stood up fairly well to it all. It tends to be a flopper for me. It would probably be sturdier with less water.

Always late to the show, my amorphophallus of unknown species doesn't even wake up until June. It reaches full growth in two months and shortly fades away. Before disappearing it has been kind enough to produce bulblets at the point where the leaflets meet. I have been potting those up and increasing their numbers.

The pots spend the winter in the unheated basement next door. I think this year I will plant one of the new bulblets to find out if by chance they could prove winter hardy. This bold foliage would be a nice addition to the shade garden.

The largest one must be about five years old by now. It came as a tiny bulblet plucked from the top of the leaf of an amorphophallus in a garden in Florida.

Summer may have begun the wind down process, but it winds down with a rousing crescendo of which Joe Pye is only a small part of the show.