Garden Oddities to Ogle

I believe that by now, we all have no idea what day it is and that we are bored!  Well, maybe it is just me, but I find myself waiting for cocktail hour (or hours).  It is too hot to garden in the afternoon so I sit and think up weird plants to try.  Here are my favorite four:

Pitcher plants in their artificial bog garden on my deck

​Pitcher plants (Sarracenia spp)  I love my pitcher plants and they have their own special bog garden on my deck.  They love hot sunny weather.  They are native to this area, but are protected in the wild.  There are many reputable online nurseries where you can get Sarracenia and other carnivorous plants and they all give excellent instructions on planting and care.  I got my plants from
http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com
I let my husband name my two plants and since he is a Cleveland Indians fan, they are Bob Feller and Herb Score (Well, they were pitchers!)  I love my boys and it is so much fun to see them grow and flower and they do flower!

Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus)
 
These are great foliage plants with their silver spikes.  If you are lucky, they will bloom and  first produce artichoke looking buds and then purple thistle-like flowers.
Once they bloom, they tend to die so plant several.  They grow from seed like champs.

Luffa squash attacking my house!

​Loofa (Luffa aegyptiaca)
 
Get ready for a spa bath.  You can plant his giant member of the squash family to make a loofa sponge to exfoliate.  After the squash dries out, you are left with a tough fibrous interior that makes up the sponge.  Mine has taken over the back of my house and even snuck inside the porch through a gap in the wood.
 

Arbequina olive tree (Olea europaea “Arbequina”)
The birds usually beat me to the olives so I doubt if I will be making my own EVOO any time soon.  I just like the silver gray foliage of my olive tree.  I keep it in a large container on my patio.  I noticed that even Lowes had olive trees the other day.  Mine is happy in its container and seems to like our climate.
 
Those are just a few of the fun things you can experiment with in the garden. These things will grow up north as well, but they will not winter over.  Try Sarracenias inside during the colder weather.   Since I am always pushing the envelope, I will be back with another blog on more garden oddities at a later date.  Right now, I am going to take a two week break while my garden roasts under the August sun.  Is it cocktail time yet?