Not only humans can find creative ways to stay warm!

These two furry critters reside at a favorite local nursery and they managed to discover that the hot house there uses a double layer of plastic. It looks tight, but these two possums didn't seem to mind it or the activity taking place twenty or thirty feet below. Not only did they benefit from the radiant heat generated from the green house covering, but they also enhanced the warmness with some cute and cuddly snuggling.

PHOTO: Two possums staying warm during chilly Alabama weather (they could be racoons, it was hard to tell from that distance)

Extreme landscaping in Homewood, Alabama

Extreme, in the sense that the job was to tame the slope and gain access to a flat area at the top of the slope. In short, the area was de-weeded, hand graded, and a combination of softscape and hardscape incorporated into the design.

Act like an adult !!!

About 15 or 20 years ago, I knew some local Alabama growers who had taken cuttings from the adult foliage of English ivy vine and grew them into small shrubs. I remember thinking that those little 10 inch tall one gallon plants were quite nice, but I really didn't know what form they would take or how quickly they would grow. There was also a concern that some of the foliage would revert back to the juvenille form and take on the characteristics of a typical English ivy vine.

It's really cool, for me, when I run into one of my earlier plant installations. Such was the case when I was doing a job across the street from my one and only planting of Adult Ivy Shrub.
I was amazed that the plants had survived in this non-irrigated yard for all of those years. And not only survived, but thrived!

The leaves of adult ivy don't have the distinct lobes that typical Ivy has. If you ever see an English ivy fine climbing a tall tree, take time to look up high. It is there that you will see the adult leaves. On close inspection you'll find each leaf to have a ruffled edge and a distinct and attractive pattern of venation. It is also from adult ivy leaves where flowering and fruiting occur. The flowers are of no ornamental significance, but the fruit are quite nice. From what I could tell, these three plants (they had grown into plants about 4'-4.5'tall by 4.5'-5' wide) had not been pruned.


Is there a more appropriate name for these shrubs than Adult Foliage English Ivy Plant? There may be, but my initial research did not turn up any mention of using Adult English Ivy (Hedera helix) foliage in shrub form.