Flower Friday : : Leucodendron

Not much else blooming in our garden right now but the leucodendrons, which are a type of protea never fail. They bloom at this time of year and maintain their blooms for months. Cut, they last forever. There were five or six of these plants scattered about the property when we moved here and as we learned about irrigation, moles, voles, bugs, birds and bees the leucodendrons  seemed bombproof. 

About two years ago, they began dying one by one. We can't see any reason why they should and but now we are down to two. If we could figure out what happened to them I would like to replace them, but that would make no sense without knowing how to keep them alive. On the other hand...it seems to be the basic story behind gardening. My friend Tobi, the Master Gardener, has many of the same problems but a lot more confidence than we do about what to do about them. There's never a dull moment when you're digging in the dirt.

OilMan has managed to prune his roses and the plum tree in between torrential downpours. It didn't rain very much today, so he got a lot done while I did some shopping errands and went so see my friends at Hammond Autowerks to get a new battery for my car key. Who knew the key even had a battery until my car started telling me I needed to replace it. It was a lot cheaper than last week's four new tires....