So, traveling back in time to the first year I lived here and my first trip up to Whidbey since living here and the truckload of booty Mom sent me home with, she gave me a clerodendron. She actually first got this vine that acts like a tree from Morning Side, the farm camp place she and Dad lived as caretakers for over 2 years on Vashon Island (this could be a VERY long story, but let’s not go there today.) Anyway, she sent me home with some starts and I planted them in the back retaining wall bed next to my awesome iron gate. Things get really tall in front of there, so I hadn’t checked on them since this spring.(want a peak at what it was doing then, look back at March posts.) I assumed all was well.

On this trip to Whidbey, part of the goal was to help Mom out with whatever she needed (payback for all her help this spring and also a chance to snag whatever she needed to get rid of through division, pulling, etc. — I’m not very subtle in my mooching). She wanted to clean out the bed around her pergola, which had a bunch of lavender, peonies, and, yes, the clerodendron (among other things).

Mom’s Pergola. Super pretty. She is working on a new option to get rid of the mesh fence.

This is a clerodendron. I really love it and am wishing mine was this awesome!

I officially fell in lust with the clerodendron and wanted to bring home a few more cutting since I felt that the ones she had already given me weren’t enough to satisfy, well, my lust. But the more we talked about this plant, the more I started to have the feeling that we weren’t talking about the same thing. Mine had lantern-like white pods in the spring and wasn’t being aggressive like what Mom was describing.
Last thing I did before leaving to head home was dig up a few clerodendron runners. I got home and unloaded the truck and discovered watering them would have been a better idea. They looked pretty sad. Fingers crossed they will make it.

But now that they were on the brain, I wrestled my way back to where I thought my clerodendron was planted. Hmmm … leaves are different, seed pods where those white lantern flowers were. I snapped a photo and sent it to Mom.

This is not clerodendron

Nope, not clerodendron. In fact, “Oh, that is really nasty, highly invasive stuff. You should get rid of it right away,” she says. “And it has really deep roots.” Thanks Mom. Thanks for the nasty invasive weed! On the other hand, she did send me home with a truckload full of other awesome things, so I forgive her. Still chuckling over the fact I have been nurturing a weed for 2 years  — Not the first time and probably not the last!