Tall Showy Plants

The rabbit has eaten my hollyhocks. He comes in under the gate, hangs out under our deck, and makes forays into my gardens when I am not looking. He eats the hollyhocks. I have no big tall flower stalks because of his unconscionable actions.

So I have to go around the corner over one street, and there, at the corner under the street sign and beneath the street lamp are the most glorious tall hollyhocks in the neighborhood.

It's my motivation to get out and go for walk -- I want to see the hollyhocks around the block.

The big tall things I do have in my yard are not hollyhocks (sob), but mullein. Verbascum, if you will. Big structural things that I did not plant and never tended. Never watered. They are coarse and ugly. . .  in a beautiful kind of way.

They are blooming now and the yellow blossoms that line the skinny spires are delicate and pretty, though they soon turn brown, staying on the stalk and losing their charm, such as it is.

They guard the entrance to the side alley where our utility meters are like proud sentries. 

Mullein is a weed, and a tough one. These things popped up unbidden and I see more spreading among the rocks below. 

I like them, and console myself that even though my big showy hollyhocks have been eaten, these big showy verbascums have not. The rabbit doesn't care for the fuzzy big leaves.

The rabbit has also left the orange blanketflowers alone. They aren't tall giants like hollyhocks or mullein, but they are upright and showy enough around the birdbath. 

They stand at attention for the most part, and welcome birds to the watering spot for drinks and a bath.

The blanketflowers have been blooming for weeks, another consolation for the missing hollyhocks. So I do have some tall showy plants in my garden and a short walk around the block to see the neighbor's hollyhocks, and the rabbit and I are at an uneasy truce. For now. 

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Happy summer!