A second chance at Bomarea success...

When I started blogging (2009) one of the first local gardeners I connected with was Kate Bryant. Back then she was writing a regular column for Portland Monthly Magazine, as well as running her own garden maintenance and design company, and just generally being an inspiring plants-woman about town. She gifted me a plant I'd never heard of, a Bomarea, and shared the basics regarding it's cultural needs. I killed it. I've killed many plants over the years but that one has always stuck in my head. It was a rarity (relatively speaking) and I really wanted to see it bloom.

Fast forward to last autumn and another inspiring local plants-person (and blogger) Lance Wright posted, on a Facebook group page, a list of plants he needed to re-home. There was a Bomarea — I pounced.

Come spring I planted it in the exact spot it successfully grows in his garden — alongside a Trachycarpus on the south side of a building. Those are its long, pointed, leaves below (the three lobed leaves belong to a passion flower, written about a bit here)...

Three stems worked their way up the trunk of the tree and eventually buds appeared.

The one at the very top was the first to open.

And it's way way way up there!

Must be near 7-ft tall.

The other buds are opening too...

The shortest one decided to detach from the palm trunk and weave itself completely around a Rhododendron sinogrande leaf

While I am thrilled with this taste of success I want more!

Here's to a lot more of those cheery orange flowers in the future, and the lucky opportunity to have a do-over...

All material © 2009-2016 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.