COW TONGUES AND DONKEY EARS

Remember all those cuttings from my succulents that I wintered-over inside?  Most of them went back into my flower beds this spring, but a few of the tiny leftovers got stuck into these two urns.

It was sort of an experiment, since nothing else I had planted in them ever did very well. When they had managed to hang in there for a while, and they deer didn't seem too interested in them, I decided to splurge on two larger-sized specimens of this one that some call "cow's tongue."

A few weeks later I stumbled across this one called "Donkey Ears", and what with my mad love for my two new neighbors, well, how was I to pass it up?

Now that the urns are starting to fill in, they are just about my favorite things in the whole garden. They have a bit of that Hill-Country-Funk about them, what with the contrast between the classic urns and the other-worldly plants, and while everything else in the yard is taking on a seriously summer-sun-scorched look, these guys just look better and better all the time.

Of course, we've gone a month without rain now, and those deer are getting mighty thirsty. So, though I would be very, very sad, I wouldn't be all that surprised, to come out one day and find everything chewed down to the nubs. Keep your fingers crossed that I don't, for if the cow tongues do make it through the summer, you will be simply amazed at their size and color, once the weather cools back down!