Drive-bys

Today I have 3 very different gardens to share with you, all of them spotted on my travels around P-town. This first one I posted a couple pictures of back in 2011, but they've recently trimmed up their Yucca rostrata and they’re looking so fine that I had to share…

See, aren’t they wonderful?

And that shrub…

I should know what it is; I pick it up at a nursery 6 or 7 times every summer and then put it down when I remember it’s the one with the bad yellow flowers. Maybe I need to finally just buy one?

Here’s one of the fabulous trees in their hell-strip…

I am embarrassed to admit I can’t tell you what it is either. I am still pretty tree stupid, however I did recently pick up a copy of Trees for All Seasons: Broadleaved Evergreens for Temperate Climates by Sean Hogan, so hopefully I’ll be tree-smarter soon!

**late breaking i.d. from Mr. Hogan...Quercus hypoleucoides**

Now we’re driving across town to visit a friend, I've passed this garden many times but finally stopped to take pictures. I’m standing in the street to take this photo, that dense thicket of bamboo in the foreground is the hell-strip…

From the sidewalk...

There are palms too!

And thorny roses tied to a telephone pole.

Set free these could be quite the surprise for a passer-by!

Looking backwards...

This is the bamboo just visible on the right in the photo above. It borders the property of the garden I'm photographing and and apartment complex next door.

Obviously it creates quite a nice thick screen, I wonder how often it has to be trimmed back?

Here's the tall elegant bamboo in front of the house...

It looks like their banana bloomed last summer! And notice the palm above the garage, I wonder what other treasures are up there?

Between the sidewalk and short privacy wall are several trunking yuccas and euphorbias.

Those silver shapes up by the house must be wrapped bananas?

The bamboo definitely wants to test the strength of the sidewalk.

Driving by this house the tall Trachycarpus caught my eye, then I noticed the fabulous modern lines of the house, I want a house like this!

Opuntia...

Bad photo angle, that's actually two separate plants.

They've got a built in planter under the covered entrance. I'm sure you can guess how much I would love to have this feature at my house.

I did take these pictures a couple weeks ago, so they might have brought in the succulent containers once our weather turned colder.

I wonder about the Graptoveria and Sedum nussbaumerianum? I guess we haven't gotten that cold and undercover who knows, maybe they've been fine. I sure do like the combination...

 (yes I am seriously coveting that green mailbox too)