27 June 2013

Trois plantes importées

There's an awful lot of reading to do this morning, after yesterday's two U.S. Supreme Court decisions on marriage laws and benefits. I'm pretty happy about both — especially the one requiring the federal government to recognized all marriages performed legally in all the states. I'm glad too that California can go back to being the enlightened, forward-moving state that I think it is.

Anyway, I'll do my reading and reflecting and post just a few pictures of some plants that I and relatives and friends have imported to Saint-Aignan over the past 10 years. The first is one that I got from my mother before she sold her house in 2005 and moved into an apartment, where she doesn't have to worry about maintenance (things like a leaky roof).



In 1997 I was on sabbatical from my job at Apple Computer (the software division, Claris, specifically). I flew to North Carolina from California that summer, and my mother and I went on a road trip. We drove about about a thousand miles (1600 km) from my home town out to Champaign, Illinois — where I lived in the 1970s — and back. In the town of Carbondale, we collected a few cuttings of a nice sedum plant that has bright yellow flowers (maybe Sedum floriferum). I think this sedum variety might originally have been a European plant.


My mother kept the plant growing in her garden for years. In 2005, when she was getting ready to move out of the house, I went to see her and help sort things out. I ended up bringing a few cuttings from the sedum plant back to France with me. I've tried planting the sedum in different places around the yard and garden, but without a lot of success — until now. Last fall I dug up a clump of sedum and set it in a big pot. Look how it's growing this summer.


Another sedum plant that I brought back from North Carolina is called Donkey's Tail (Sedum morganianum). I've never seen one anywhere else in France. The ones in the picture above came from a very small piece of a plant that I actually found on the floor in a garden center in my home town. I scooped it up and put it in my shirt pocket. I brought it back to France. It grew. I put some in a second pot. That grew well too.


A third imported plant that I have growing is one that CHM brought me from Virginia. It's a cactus, and I've blogged about it before. It's in flower right now, so I want to post a photo for CHM to see. Voilà.

12 comments:

  1. We have donkey tails here but I must say, it is quite a while since I have seen one.

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  2. I've seen Donkey's Tails in the UK... but they weren't called that... I don't think they had a common name.
    It is the sort of plant I like... it just looks wierd!

    The jagged leaved Sedum looks very decorative... nice foliage.

    And the prickly pear flower looks fabulous... much better a real flower than the mini-cacti with dyed & glued-on everlasting flowers that garden centers seem to love to sell!

    When I heard the US news items on the Beeb I thought of you two... and then read about the mayor in France who refuses to wed a couple who have lived together for sixteen years, saying he would "rather go to the gallows"... so all the lwyers are hovering around for a right money-fest!

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  3. Great news on the Supreme Court's decision.
    Lovely plants and flowers for a lovely day. Especially loved the first sedum which is so green and healthy looking.

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  4. Tim, I got the name Donkey's Tail from a book written by Alan Titchmarsh. He's from Yorkshire!

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  5. “The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice”


    ― Martin Luther King Jr.

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  6. Thanks, Evelyn. These are confusing and emotional times. Dr. King had an optimistic view of the world.

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  7. Ken

    I wonder if it is not a Sedum kamtschaticum
    Russian Stonecrop

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  8. Ken, that's probably why I haven't heard the name... when I lived in Yorkshire I was more into veg plants than decorative!
    It is probably "local to Yorkshire!!" ;-)

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  9. "federal government to recognized all marriages performed legally in all the states" The only problem with that is the individual states DO NOT have to recognize marriages performed in states where it is legal. So until the gov makes it legal nationally, it's still a toss in some places. I can guarantee that without Federal intervention, it will never be legal in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana or Texas!

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