You wouldn't believe what I just found in the middle of the road. This is a tree, of sorts, that I have wanted in my garden for quite some time.
I am not going to tell you what it is yet, but you can guess if you want to. But first, let me explain the inside joke that anyone who knows me is in on, and now you will be too.
When I was a kid, my siblings and I would sometimes " borrow " a thing or two while walking around the neighborhood or even in stores. We were kids!
I'm setting up a new pot for this beauty while I'm explaining the backstory....
Anyway, we wanted something and we would take it home, not thinking that we might be asked where we got that since we didn't have jobs and we hadn't asked Mom or Dad for money. Now I know that parents would ask because it's just logical but we didn't think about that when we were kids.
So we get home with whatever it was and we would play with it or put it on the shelf. We were shocked when Mom comes in and says "Where did you get that?"
We found it in the middle of the road!
The above is the response that my mother got the first time that happened. I watched as her head kind of cocked to the side and she asked us, "Really?" And every child would defend our made up story with our lives. After all we couldn't tell her exactly what happened now. Could we?
Okay. So, I found it in the middle of the road, with a black bag over the root section, and a white bag over the leafy section of this plant. Amazing how things can survive like that in the middle of the road, isn't it?
What really happened, because I can tell you all, is that there's a Japanese garden right next to a huge Park here in the city. The garden is all fenced in and these plants get out of hand and they start popping up in the middle of the park.
They tend to sprout up even 5 ft or up to 10 ft from the fence, well outside the garden. These plants can pop up anywhere that the roots have reached. They propagate through extensive root systems that go sideways rather than downward.
The last time I was at the park, I saw the lawn mowing equipment just mowing down these little trees. Today when I went there, I found several, including this one that I'm planting right now. I guess that blows my cover, and I won't be able to convince you that I found it in the middle of the road.
Let's moisten the dirt around the roots now...
So if you have not guessed by now what kind of plant it is, here are the dimensions of its stem. My finger tips in one of the photos tells you the thickness of the main stalk.
That was your last chance! Now comes the reveal. This is the plant I have wanted for quite some time. You might even say that the finding of this plant today may have been slightly premeditated.
Here are its bushy leaves.
Here is the whole plant from the top side to the bottom. And if you have not guessed by this time I will tell you. This is a bamboo tree!
In the park, the tree was standing straight up due to its connection with a very thick root heading underground over toward the Japanese garden. I don't live in Japan, the Japanese garden is a tourist attraction. A plot of land turned into a Japanese garden here in South America.
About the potting project, lastly, I inserted a wooden rod to the very bottom of the pot and I tied it to the plant stem. The reason I did that is because the dirt was just thrown into the pot and nothing is really attached to the root system yet. In the past trees have fallen over because they weren't anchored. This time I decided to tether the top of the rod to an existing tree on my patio so that this one cannot fall!
I will keep you updated on the progress of our new bamboo tree, I have heard that they grow incredibly fast. Based on how big this one got between lawn mower intervals, I imagine that to be true, but time will tell.
Thanks for reading and for all your support on my garden.
They're very pretty but I would never put one in my garden: they will take over.
I have never had one before. But they are beautiful.
I like them, they look beautiful and the gentle noise they make swaying is very soothing. They are great screening. But I would keep them in a pot, and put the pot on concrete! You saw from where you found that it quickly outgrows where it was planted. Good luck!
I guessed correctly before you revealed what it was. I hope its roots allow it to take hold soon, that it grows big and strong, and above all, I hope to see photographs of that bamboo when it is in your garden.
very strong and useful tree