Favorite green, Live-forever

Since the late 70s (Sedum telephium) Live-forever leaves have gone into more of my spring and summer salads then any other green. In those days the only place I found Live-forever was where ostrich fern fiddleheads also grew near my local river.

On the land surrounding the Tantramar marsh Live-forever is much more common in damp old fields, thickets, forest and even tall grass as we kind of see today if we look closely. (click on for better view)

Live-forever in some soils produce bitter leaves, though in the Tantramar area I haven’t found any as bitter as the commonly used romaine lettuce, plus Live-forever can be stir-fried as well.

That’s enough green only,  here are some Aronia shrubs in blossom with a little more green and why not some blue too. ciao

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Live forever, Orpine in a puppy cup

I placed a few bare Orpine stems in a cup with some water back in May just to investigate what would happen and tonight I was encouraged by other house members to plant the results from the cup outside, which worked out fine with rain expected.

Some european superstitions from a few hundred years ago I find fun and will share with you tonight concerning Orpine (Sedum telephium) are (1) Leaving a plant in your home to keep folks healthy. (2) Place Orpine plant on your thatch roof to prevent a lightning strike. (3) Placing Orpine stems on your roofs to see if they will wilt and twine together to predict relationship compatibility. I’m sure there were plenty more superstitions surrounding a plant of this nature, though for me I admire Orpine’s ability to live green and its great tasting leaves and tubers.

In  dark shady forest even this late in the summer, Orpine  will often look like the photo above though there will be more distance between the sets of leaves and these forest Orpines will not reach the flowering stage often for many decades unless the surrounding trees are cut. ciao