It's easy to imagine how fairy tales were fueled, especially with this mystery plant that happened into my garden. It sounds as if it could be the start of a Jack in the Beanstalk moment, and with the heights this plant can reach perhaps it will be.
I was surprised to read about the kenaf plant and am perplexed how it did come to establish itself in our backyard. One plant emerged the first year, disappeared the second--a biennial maybe--and this year has returned and reproduced in great numbers throughout the garden. Based on what I've read, it shouldn't have survived our snowy winters and frosty springs.
Its height is only about 4' right now, but I'm going to keep watching. With a little luck, I might be able to trade some seeds for a cow.
Note: I researched this a little more and realized this isn't the kenaf plant. In fact it's a Hibiscus trionum: considered, in some circles, to be a noxious weed : ) . Jack was probably a dreamer though, so I'll keep imagining.
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I weeded these things from the flower-bed of the old lady-friend when I stopped by after church for the week's newspapers she always put out for me. A week later, I found a little fence around the area, made of dowel-rods and strips of plastic. The friend was being dropped-off at that time, and I said, "what's this?"
She said that someoone had pulled up all her 'flower-for-an-hours' and she put that up to dissuade their 'help'. I told her I'd done it, and that they were weeds. "No!" she said, "they're "Flower-for-an-hour's!"
"Ok," I said, "what are they for the other 23 hours?"
Hesitating a few seconds, she gave me a funny look and answered, "weeds."
Hahahaha! Better to be thought a flower for at least one hour than a weed for 24.
So true...
and because the friend will be seeing this, I must clarify: 'old' is in the sense of 'long-standing'.
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