Velvet Elvis

My newest plant lust: Velvet Elvis.
Latin name: Plectranthus

This one dropped into my cart last spring because of the plant label. It showed lots of little tubular flowers on stalks - somewhat like salvia.

I always buy a few filler plants for my patio pots in the Spring. This one grew and grew and grew some more. No flowers. But it was super happy to make my patio it's home so I watched it and watered it as it grew some more.

After a long hot, dry summer, in which it did nothing but grow, it burst forth with these delicious orchid-type flowers in October.

Oh my.

The leaves have a  nice purplish/blue undertone and I am now on a quest to see if I can get it to winter over.

Dahlia from my Mom & Dad's place. 

I am super lazy with dahlias. I do not dig them up to winter over. 
Four out of five years, they will survive our Oregon winters and come back better than ever. That 5th winter, they tend to freeze too long and turn to mush. Which most of mine did last winter - except for this one which is protected by an evergreen yew situated nearby.

These landscape roses are out front and they bloom wildly from late April to late November. I have a love/hate relationship with these. I love all the constant blooming but they have lethal thorns. Not just the usual rose thorns but double'O'7 thorns.

'Tis the season. Apple pie time.

My avocados.

Like most people, I've always heard you can grow your own grapefruit from seed, avocado from seed, etc. The reality is frustrating. There is the missing secret of getting them to work. I think I watched every youtube video to find out what I was doing wrong. The toothpicks, the careful scraping off the bottom of the pit, -- I must have spent 14,000 hours googling to find out how to do it.

Here's how; You pick a nice slightly ripe avocado and sit it on the counter for a few days to get it to that optimal 'ripeness'. You peel it, put it on your salad greens, wash the pit and carry the pit outside where you cram it down into the soil of one of your patio pots.
Forget about them.
Tada! they all grow.

I have four in this pot. This is their second year. Debating whether to re-pot before bringing it inside for the winter or leaving it rootbound......