Wimps And Monsters

Summer and fall, the wild sumac, Rhus glabra, growing along the roadsides is quite attractive. It has showy flowers and great fall color. The pinnately compound leaves are a nice contrast to the much more common simple leaves of the deciduous forest.

Sumac was on my list to get for the garden. When a volunteer showed up in the dung department it was moved to where I wanted it on the slope below the scenic byway.

I must have transplanted it three seasons ago because it is now in the leap phase. Other than some hail damage, it is looking good. Maybe it will even bloom this year. I hope it is female. They have the showier seed heads.

I knew it was a suckering, colony forming shrub when I planted it. I expected and wanted that. This is definitely the leap year. It has suckered like mad sending up more than a dozen new stems up to ten feet away from the original plant.

Have I planted a monster? I see annual removal ahead of unwanted shoots to keep it contained to the allotted space. This year it is free to roam.

I planted some rated to zone three, common as dirt cultivar of arborvitae on this same section of slope for some evergreen winter interest twice. They have been killed outright and severely damaged by no where close to zone three cold both times.

When I saw how much the sumac was trying to spread, I just thought, screw the arborvitae. They are in the sumac's way. Well it seems there is a little life left in the ones I planted too early this spring. I will weed around them for one more season.

This is it. Life or die. Wimp.

I planted another alleged monster on this same section of slope, the Plume Poppy, Macleaya cordata. In it's first spring it has gone from one stem to four well spaced stems. That is certainly a sign it wants to multiply and move. It would look nicer if it had not been pulverized by hail.

I might worry more about aggressive plants if the garden was not already full of them. The Goldenrod surrounding the Plume Poppy is just one example. Wimpy plants just can't compete.

That is why it makes me happy to see the Kousa Dogwood growing robustly. That just isn't the case with so many things I have planted. There is a lot of slow and steady from battling the elements and competition. There is also a lot of death and disappearance.

My elements are more extreme at this elevation. Most years the peppers biggest hurdle is the cool. Highs in the upper 70's most of the summer isn't quite to the peppers liking for producing fine produce. I usually get one good harvest though.

This year the peppers were punctured by hard pellets of hail and have to start over. My poor peppers.

Have you ever seen parsnips bloom? They are eight feet tall and over my head. They must have thick skin because the hail didn't bother them.The stems are dinged and bruised, but the plants are standing tall.

For now the parsnips are the monster in the roadside vegetable garden.