Most unusual or eye-catching garden plants you've personally seen? (spring, summer, growth)

[Bulldogdad]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

What on earth is a PJM? Not everyone is a botanist.

They are a type of Rhododendron.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by Bulldogdad

They are a type of Rhododendron.

Thanks; now I feel like I'm a member of the club.

Is there a secret handshake?

[Uconn97]

My favorites in my garden are the My Monet Weigela and Jacobs Ladder. I like that both have varigated leaves. The my monet stays small and has done really well in spots along the front of my borders. Not only do they flower, but if you have a bit of sun on them the leaves maintain a pinkish color throughout the season....

[CptnRn]

Bear's Breeches (Acanthus Spinosas)



Closeup photo of a similar species: http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/200...ima/f46419.jpg
Acanthus hungaricus

[Lucky★]

Corpse flower - very striking-

Last Day - Dissecting the Titan Arum (http://www.usbg.gov/your-visit/Last-Day-Dissecting-the-Titan-Arum.cfm - broken link)

[kinkytoes]

The bear's breeches is so pretty! Personally, my most striking flower is the begonia grandis. I saw some in a woodland garden a couple of years ago blooming in Autumn, delectably sprinkled with raindrops. I fell in love w/ them.

[stepka]

I grew a cardoon once and never did get around to eating it. (They're food in Italy.) It's related to artichokes and thistles. Anyway, being a biennial, it came back up the next year and shot up to about 8 feet tall and got this amazing alien flower on it. Think the flower that grows on a thistle, only this one was the size of a big plate and dark purple and looked a little scary. It was also quite heavy--I cut it and brought it into the house and cut the stem to about 4 inches and put it in a big bowl of water. The was also the year that I grew zucchetta rampicante, which is a type of squash and that thing ran all over my very large backyard that summer and it actually got away and we couldn't find all the squash as it went down into the woods. Great memories of the country.

[foxywench]

i LOVE passiflora species, any of them realy, there just so wild with their cool colors and alien like squigglies inside and grow like crazy, i think there from another planet lol.

[carolyninfl]

Originally Posted by foxywench

i LOVE passiflora species, any of them realy, there just so wild with their cool colors and alien like squigglies inside and grow like crazy, i think there from another planet lol.

ya and they smell good too, I never could get the fruit to grow and more than the size of a quater they just died off.

[foxywench]

only a couple of the passiflora species (usually the ones only hardy to zone 9) will produce real fruit. the others give you little orange egg shaped things that dont do much...im told they are edible too, but never tried them