Lurking Green Old Friends

 With nothing prepared and not much time to conjur up a new post - especially that Garden Photos Event reminder I said I'd do last time (and the time before) - I thought I'd publish this post which has been lurking about unfinished in my drafts since the end of March. 

 I haven't finished it - I was going to add some more photos and a couple more plants but can't be bothered haven't got time.

⌇  ⌇  ⌇

 I can't remember when exactly, but not too long ago - within a year or two, I'm sure (maybe three?) - Jon said something somewhere about plants that he'd had for years having survived/coped with several moves, and I'd replied with some examples of my own.

 Well, after showing my pot-bound bonsai* Acer in the previous but one post, I thought I'd do some research - i.e. trawl through loads of old photographs - to find out just how long that Acer had been if not flourishing, then at least suriving in its shallow, blue-glazed pot.  And find out I did. 

 Along the way I also discovered the origins or early days of a few other green old friends, so I've collected them together here so as not to have wasted all that time and effort for nothing.

* Thank you, Mitzi. 

Acer palmatum: After much to-ing & fro-ing between batches of photos from 2010 and 2011, I can safely say that my Acer has been with me since mid-late 2010 at the earliest or early 2011 at the latest.  I didn't buy it in the blue pot it's currently growing in - I'm pretty sure it came in the usual plastic pot and I then decanted it into a terracotta pot before moving it on to its current home.

 

This is my Acer's first photographic appearance - a cropped & enhanced shot from a set taken on 2 May 2011 at the second Castle DeVice (the one I shared with SP).  I think it must have been drunk on fertiliser as it's staggered over.

And here is its first appearance in the shallow, blue pot from exactly one year on.

 This Acer can been seen at Castlette DeVice in May and July 2015, and Chateau DeVice in 2018 at the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event, no less (on the far right of both photos), before it moved to Hexenhäusli Device with me in early 2019.  

 

Spanish pine: This was grown from a seed that fell out of a huge pine cone my landlord brought back from Spain sometime between 1999 and February 2009 (which is when I moved out of the original Castle DeVice).  It's growing in an almost identical shallow, blue pot as my Acer, and can be seen lurking in the background of the two photos above.  It is also lurking in the undergrowth of a couple of photos from the July 2015 Acer link: A spray of needles can be seen between the two Acanthus flower spikes, and also waving in front of the Angelica leaves.  More lurking can be observed by the table & chairs in Hexenhäusli Device's shade garden photos from my entry to the Infomaniac Garden Photos Event in 2020.

 

 Now a seasoned lurker, a couple of curved branches and another spray of needles of this pine tree can just about be made out in the shade garden photo of the previous post (against the fence, behind the far right Magnolia flower).  However, it can be seen best in the photo above from May last year (which didn't end up making the cut into this post) lolling against the fence.

Magnolia: This was a birthday present from a friend at some point between 2000 and 2008.  I can't find any photos of it from the original Castle DeVice, but its fresh, green leaves can be seen on the left of the first Acer photo in this post as well as the Spanish Pine photo above, and a couple of flowers can be seen in the May 2015 Acer link, too.

 On the right is a photo of it from 2nd May 2009 at the second Castle DeVice, and the photo below is from the beginning of this month (the 2nd).

 

 

Ginkgo biloba: Given to me by someone at my previous work, so it must have been before the end of November 2011 which is when I changed jobs.  I found photographic evidence here on the blog back in July 2013 (scroll past Ming and Gerbil Device), the little Ginkgo sapling is in the small brown plastic pot with the white label sticking out of it (on the right of the photos).

 

June last year.  You can see its distinctive butterfly shaped leaves behind the chair.

 

 

Eucomis comosa: I bought a "Sparkling Burgundy" pineapple lily from Hadfields garden centre in North Walsham 10 August 2013, and featured it here on this very blog the next day.  And now I have a dozen or so (mostly taken from offshoots, but a few from seed) with more on the way (from seeds sown a week or two ago).

Two "Sparkling Burgundies" from August last year.

⌇  ⌇  ⌇

 

 So, do you have any garden stalwarts that have been with you for a decade or more?  If so, please share in the comments - and better yet, include a photo or two with your Garden Photos Event submissions at the end of October!