What was that plant?

Barry, a.k.a. Teza, made a comment about the Tricyrtis in my last post asking if I knew what they were.  So, I went out to the garden, crawled through the stems and leaves, pulled the plants this way and that in search of the illusive plant tag.  I found one, but the rest of them appear to have been either a) eaten by fairies, b) raked out in either spring/fall clean-up or c) are still there, hiding from me. 

No fears thought I - providing I'm looking at an over-enthusiastic rake - Option B - this was the moment I was waiting for - a reason to open and catalogue my Bag of Tags!!!!  This past spring, when I'd cleaned out the garage, I found the errant tags everywhere and decided in a fit of brilliance that I would consolidate them into a special repository.  Just look how tidy this all is!  However, even now I can see that look in Bart's face that sort of says, "Are you nuts?  Just leave the Bag of Tags in the garage, and go back to your old life...."

O.K.  So, he's just a dog, but he had a point.  Not only did I not find any of the Tricyrtis tags, I'm finding tags of the dead, I'm mourning the loss of plants such as Monarda 'Oudolf's Charm ('08),  Eremurus stenophyllus, and Dryopters affinis 'Crispa Gracilis'.  This is so stupid because I don't even remember why that Monarda was so charming.  And, if that wasn't bad enough, I now have a GO FIND IT column in my preliminary database for plants I'm sure I have, but I'm not entirely sure where they might be, or if they're still sending green leaves above ground on an annual basis.

 You would not believe how many of these Tags from the Bag are hosta tags......mercy save me.    And, notice how many of the little top bits separate themselves from the metal bottom bits (look over toward the adding machine - that silly piece of machinery I'm supposed to be working on).  I'm thinking very seriously about arranging these tags by shape, putting elastic bands around them and sending them back to the Bag of Tags and filing it once more in the garage where it belongs.

So Barry as I mentioned mid-rant, I did find one tag - the yellow Tricyrtis is 'Moonlight Treasure'.  The leaves are interesting with their spots.  The yellow flowers are unusual - overall I'd give it a 4 on 10.  Not enough flowers, not vibrant enough colour, and leaves turn to brown slime in the fall when the plant should be looking fabulous.

Alas, just one garden photo for the day - Blogger will not let me load any more....perhaps it knew just how many I had planned to share.  It is a Solanum laciniatum or Kangaroo Apple and it's poisonous.  I was able to put its name in this blog, because on my left side beside my computer is a box of seed packages and I found the original package.  (You really don't want to see that box.)  Although listed as a Zone 9 plant, it lived through a winter in my unheated garage.  It had nice purple flowers over the summer and now these yellow and orange fruit.  And now that I have its name top of mind, I'm thinking I'm going to try to erase one of these tags on my desk and see that it goes back into the garage with an X Tag from the Bag to keep it company.