Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to talk about pink asparagus. You may remember me from such posts as “Opera Day”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
I forget what I was looking at.
That red on the right is from old leaves of Berberis, or Mahonia, repens.
So it’s hot again. Way too hot for May. A lot of the bulbs didn’t flower last month because it was way too hot for April.
There really isn’t much of any humidity so it would probably feel a lot less hot to people who experience humidity when it gets hot.
It’s still too hot, though.
Before I get to the main topic of today’s post, I should mention that there was another incident here several days ago.
The guy I live with stabbed himself with a kitchen knife. I mean really stabbed himself.
It was scary; there was a lot of bleeding.
Fortunately, after the last incident, the emergency room doctor told him to buy some clotting gauze, since I can’t help with these things, and that quickly took care of the problem. After he read the intructions, of course.
Anyway, the main thing. For years, there’s been talk around here about how to get Hesperaloe parviflora to flower. I mean if the plant isn’t irrigated, which is the usual thing, often by drip irrigation. Then they can flower like crazy.
But without that, there can be years with no flowers at all.
The guy I live with noticed that in years when we had rain or snow at a certain time, there would be flowers, and he now maintains that that certain time is the first two weeks in April. We got about a tenth of an inch of rain on the first of April and apparently that was sufficient for this to happen.
They look like pink asparagus, don’t they?
Hesperaloes are in the family Asparagaceae so that makes sense.
This particular plant was flattened by a backhoe when we had the sewer drain replaced. I think you can tell how tough it is.
There are two new plants behind it, by the yellow flag that indicates the location of the old gas line.
(That empty area on the right is a sign that the guy I live with is planning something.)
And that’s all I have for today. The guy I live with said that “they” are talking about storms next week. If so, I hope they’re not too scary.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
They probably taste like asparagus also. In college, we ate the floral buds of Hesperoyucca whipplei. (It was Yucca whipplei back then.) The exterior is inedibly tough, but the interior is much like asparagus.
I imagine they do taste like asparagus. The guy I live with said he’s not going to try them, because the hummingbirds like the flowers.
They would not be very meaty anyway. They are quite thin, with very tough exteriors. There would not be much to their interiors.
Probably true. Anyway, there are eight grocery stores very close to us, and they all sell asparagus.
Well, regarding the self-inflicted stabbing, that would sure be scary.
I have one Hesperaloe parviflora that is sending up a flower. The plant is on a berm and is always leaning over, as if it is carrying the weight of the world. The other one never flowered in five years.
It was pretty scary, but the clotting gauze did the trick.
The guy I live with says he isn’t sure how long it takes the hesperaloe to flower; this is a pretty old plant.
There are a couple of younger plants elsewhere in the garden, too, besides the new ones he planted.
Hesperaloe parviflora iss a mouthfull to meow Mani an Guy!!! Wee call it Pink ‘Sparaguss….it REELLY DOESS look like Asparaguss to us two!!! Wee are sorry yore weatehr contnuess to bee frustratin an unpredicatbell. Ourss iss still up an down an all around…. **sighss** Wee hope any stormss youss get a re just nice rainss!
**nose bopss** BellaDharma an ((hugss)) BellaSita Mum
It’s mostly been hot here since last summer. Sometimes really hot. With lots of wind.
They’re talking snow again for early next week, but the guy I live with is dubious.
Iss not gonna snow Mani…wee hope….butt youss’ need moisiture. What a conundrum fore sure!
It probably is going to snow, but that’s okay.
SNOW! EEKK!!! Wee have had Funderstormss 2 nitess inn a row Mani! An another one comin today….soon… Mee not like Funder at all.
It didn’t snow, and it didn’t freeze, either. It just rained.
How cool that your plant bloomed despite the pitiful amount of moisture we’ve received. Sorry to hear the man you live with stabbed himself. I take it no stitches were required? You need to tell him to be more careful. We’re keeping our paws crossed the forecast is correct. We sure could use some moisture in Jefferson County. I’ll also be grateful for a few days that aren’t so hot. Have a good weekend, Mani.
No stitches required. Same with the last time this happened, but now he can’t use the fingerprint thing on his laptop (I mean if he wanted to do that) because his fingerprint hasn’t healed. He thinks that’s kind of funny.
There are quite a few native shrubs in full bloom here despite the way lower than normal precipitation, but a lot of bulbs failed to flower last month.
And the buffalo grass in my Private Lawn is looking very good.
Argh…that fingerprint feature can be a total pain (even when you don’t cut yourself). Hope it heals quickly.
It’s been over a year. The guy I live with bought some cut-proof gloves, but the knife was hidden, and quite a surprise.
Sorry about that. Hope it heals quickly.
Well, the guy I live with says it’s no big deal, since he doesn’t expect to be fingerprinted any time soon.
Though the picture on his driver’s license does look like a guy who’s been fingerprinted many times.
” emergency room doctor told him to buy some clotting gauze”
My daughter was the regulatory affairs specialist for the company (Teleflex) that currently owns the original US brand of the Quikclot bandages that were invented in Israel. She talked me into keeping them on hand as well as the combat bleeding control kit for severe bleeding. We also keep a kit in the car.
The guy I live with says that people who live alone and like cooking using very sharp knives should have some of this stuff on hand.
Not to mention gardening. When they guy I live with comes in from a few minutes’ worth of gardening his forearms look like he’s been wrestling a tiger.
” his forearms look like he’s been wrestling a tiger”
Having just done some pruning on the citrus in the greenhouse this morning, we can relate. Folks of a certain age tend to get thinner and more fragile skin. Should probably take some hyaluronic acid supplements or put on a long sleeve workshirt. The dog likes to lick the fresh wounds; best pest.
Thin skin is right. When the guy I live with was doing the hormone therapy for cancer, he wanted to get tattoos, though his friend strongly objected to that, which was good, because with his literally thin skin, who knows what would have happened, and when all that therapy wore off he would have regretted it.
I ordered a Hesperaloe so your post is timely. It was suggested to put it in the hottest possible spot for the summer to get it to bloom. It will have to live in the garage over the winter so maybe a touch of supplemental water as we move into Spring will ensure blooming. Springs are so unpredictable. We just had a weekend of snow, negative temperatures and hard frost. The week prior it was warm and sunny. Hard to gauge planting times.
The guy I live with says he thinks you can plant the hesperaloe any time in spring or summer.
They do get more rain in their native than you would think by just reading catalogs. He says to take a look at the Wikipedia entry for Del Rio, Texas, which is where they grow (as well as Mexico). It’s very hot there, too.
Wee reeleeved it only rained Mani an Guy!
They didn’t forecast a whole bunch of snow, anyway.