Descendants

The sunchoke bed is thriving.  To be honest, I haven't harvested chokes in several years.  Considering that pretty much no one in our household (besides hubby and I) likes them, their harvest is fairly low on the fall task totem pole.  Plus they are fairly challenging to harvest (because I foolishly planted them in my yard, in clay soils, rather than in a nice friable raised bed).

Sunchokes.  No yellow flowers this year.

Never matter, the chokes are happy to keep growing year after year.  I instruct my husband to mow around the patch, and each spring the patch gets a little bigger.  These plants are the great great great (plus a few more greats) grandchildren of the roots I got from friends Rick and Chuck back in 2011 and 2012.  I love that I still have these descendant plants, long after the original gift of tubers was made.

Comfrey

I have a few other descendant plants, from other gifts - rhubarb from Susan in Ortonville, comfrey from Audrey in Watson and JoAnn in Maine.  I have day lilies I dug from the residence at Fort Ridgely State Park and yellow irises from the residence at Big Stone Lake State Park.  I have pink peonies from the very first house hubby and I bought, the little yellow house on 4th Street in Ortonville.  I have purple irises from the house on State Street in New Ulm.  I have aloe plants in my sun room from my sister-in-law Jenny.  

English ivy

My newest descendants are the two ivy plants in my kitchen, grown from cuttings given to me by my sister Karen, who smuggled the original cuttings on a trip years ago to the UK.  Hopefully no one from the USDA or US Customs reads this blog.  I think I'm safe, since my posts are averaging about four views apiece.  :)