I'm fairly certain I offered a giveaway from my garden earlier this year but, if that's so, I can't find documentation of it. I've been thinking of putting out plants for neighbors to take since I accumulated a large number of Agave 'Stained Glass' bulbils in August thanks to Denise of A Growing Obsession. However, I thought I'd hold off until the tiny plantlets developed roots and I had a wider range of material to offer. This week I decided I couldn't put off harvesting the persimmons any longer so that triggered my decision to move ahead at last. As it was, the critters (probably raccoons) have been breaking the persimmon trees' branches on a regular basis.
![]() |
I'd already passed along a bag of 'Fuyu' persimmons (Diospyros kaki) to a friend but the 'Hachiya' variety was increasingly under siege by critters as well so I picked a bucket of both. Fruit that had been chomped went directly into the green bin. There's still 'Fuyu' fruit that looked too green to cut but the only 'Hachiya' fruit I left behind was that too high in the tree for me to reach.
|
With the persimmons ready to go, I assembled the other items I had to offer and printed information sheets to help neighbors decide what they might want to take home. Yesterday morning I got everything laid out along the street.
![]() |
I usually put all giveaway items next to the driveway entrance but, as the hedge running along the street is currently in full flower and buzzing with bees, I moved everything down the street to an area that allows passers-by to keep some distance between themselves and the bees
|
![]() |
I've never seen this Xylosma congestum hedge as covered in flowers as it is now. The chartreuse yellow flowers are a magnet for bees.
|
![]() |
This is my little display
|
![]() |
It includes 16 rooted variegated octopus agave bulbils (Agave vilmoriniana 'Stained Glass') in 4-inch pots. I'm saving 2-3 for myself and plan to pass along others to friends.
|
![]() |
Somehow, cuttings of Euphorbia 'Sticks on Fire' end up in most of my giveaways. We removed one plant in our back garden because it was in my husband's way when he was working on our irrigation system problems. (Those seem to be resolved at last.)
|
![]() |
A friend told me that the 'Fuyu' persimmons in her local market are going for $4 apiece so I wasn't surprised to find people taking those but the 'Hachiya' fruit is moving at approximately the same rate. I left small paper bags so people could carry them home more easily.
|
![]() |
I finally finished planting out two areas with Aeonium arboreum cuttings I took earlier so in the late afternoon I added 2 buckets filled with extra cuttings next to everything else
|
There have been far fewer people walking the neighborhood of late but apparently people do brake for plants when driving through the area. What I put out in the morning was half-gone by 6pm. I'm not sure how much interest there will be in the Aeoniums but I thought I'd check rather than tossing all those cuttings directly into the green recycle bin.
All material © 2012-2022by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
