Blue flag iris. I beat the bulldozer by one day. Now, several years later, the roadwork is long done, and I need to return that plant to the wetland from where it came. But I'll keep some for myself.

104 apple, peach and cherry trees. Still in the process of transplanting. Most are 2 or 3 years old. Owner selling his small orchard property and is going to have over 500 of his trees bulldozed, we were able to purchase the 104. They were small enough we could transplant (small being 10 feet or less). I am guessing he will bulldoze the rest. This will be our third week-end in a row digging trees up. This first week-end we dug up 27 (they were 2 to 4 ft. tall).
Last week end we only dug up 7, all but one was about 10 ft tall. All of them are already transplanted and the are doing well.

Two past the end of season begonia tubers. I brought them home and planted them in a bonsai dish in very free-draining mix. Up they came and kept their leaves until past midwinter. The tubers really bulked up. Then they went into dormancy.

About a month ago I put them out in the garden and now there are small shoots appearing.

I also kept one of the shoots that was falling as the plant worked out it was winter. I put it into water on the window sill and it both formed a teeny tuber and roots. It's now in a pot and growing on. Flowers will be a bonus.

Also my Erodium reichardtii which was down to a rotted off sprig. I rested on fine sharp grit, kept it on the dry side, protected from rain, and it's away again. (Phew!)

In Chicago, my brother found some native daylilies in a field. I used them in a couple areas in the yard where nothing would grow.

In Florida, my brother found some African iris left by landscapers. He left it in an unwatered field behind my mother's house during a dry season. About a month later, I found it, planted it and it did fantastic.

A small variegated philodendron that my wonderful, elderly, non-gardening next door neighbor INSISTED on 'wintering' every year in her dark basement. The poor thing would barely make it through its six-month exile (Oct-April), and then Elsie would bring it out and put it on her porch. Right about the time the plant would begin to look healthy, back into the basement it went! (She did the same thing with three hanging baskets of ferns)........When she passed away a year ago, her housekeeper gave the philodendron to me. It now has a year-round bright spot and is thriving. Just looking at it always brings a laugh and a memory of dear Elsie and her brown thumb!.........I'm now trying to rescue a small, hadn't-bloomed-in-years rosebush from her yard that was chucked out when the new owner took over. I don't have a clue what kind it is, but I'm trying to nurse back to health so I can plant it somewhere in Elsie's memory......

In 'The Fisher King', Robin Williams' character tells the girl he's crazy about "You find some pretty wonderful things in the trash" as he pulls a beautiful little wire doll chair out of a trash bin. It's true, it's amazing what you can find in the trash! About 3 years ago DH came home one night with a 3 gallon pot of foliage and announced that a doctor's office had thrown out their daylilies. A good look at the plants told me that they weren't daylilies, they were orchids, and the tag that was mostly buried under the soil told the same story, with the actual name of the plant.

For 3 years I've pretty much ignored them, I'm not all that taken with orchids yet though my close friend and Roger himself are trying to tempt me(I don't need any more plant addictions, lol), but this past summer I broke down and fed it a few times. I had gotten used to just moving it around and having a big pot of leaves, was even threatening it that if it didn't do something soon I would chop it up and put the bits on eBay, lol. I guess it took me seriously! At the beginning of December I noticed something "funny" down near the base when I walked over to warn it one last time, last night the first bud started opening! Here, for those who really believe in magic, is

Cymbidium Castle of Mey: Cooksbridge 'Pinkie'

One day when I'd convinced a neighbor
to go with me on yet another gleaning mission ,
(many goodies are left on the curb in east Portland...)
I spotted a garbage can on a curb -
with skanky dried foliage hanging out
under the lid. Score. I said, PULL OVER!
and had a look. He said that's nothing, let's go -
but I disagreed and transferred a big smelly,
dying armload into a bucket.

I now have a marvelous patch of Elephant Garlic
from that mass of stuff someone yanked and discarded. It included some bonus small hard, dry seedlets too, so I'll have years of harvest without returning too many juicy cloves to the ground.

My first mercy mission was simply to pull a roommates dead and shriveled windowsill cactus from the trash after she moved. With just a little watering, it fully revived - and lived for years, until I gave it away. The first one's always free. Then you're hooked. You learn about Swaps, volunteer with your shovel, and even help others neaten their sidewalk edges by pinching and seed-snitching. Winter-Sowing proves true, and the most of your plants (and food)are free, forever.

pdxJules, AKA: the Phantom Pruner.

(this week, without knowing my long-departed buddy Richard had called me the above, another friend called me The Ninja Pruner. Sometimes yer pals REALLY know ya!)