Warm day for winter sowing

It was a wonderful warm day here in D-town, and I found myself with a spare thirty minutes, can you believe it?  What to do with this glorious excess of freedom?  Get dirty!  I went out  and tried my hand at winter sowing, again.  I have had no luck yet with anything.  This year, I tried Flax and Hungarian Blue California Poppies, in the tropical bed near the elephant ears, Bluebonnets by the rose arbor and Foxgloves in my cottage bed by the butterfly bush.  We'll see if anything turns up...

Duke gardens

We took a trip to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens today, and about halfway through, I realized I could take some pictures and phone in an easy blog post.  Haha, not really, but I took these pictures for myself, to remember some evergreen plants I could use.

This picture is a little hard to read, but its Eucomis "Tugela Jade" according to the tag, but that does NOT look like the picture at Plant Delights.  I'm thinking it must be something else, or mislabeled.

This one is definitely not mislabeled, because they left the actual plant tag on it!  In my mind, they must have just picked it up at Lowes, haha.  Its Pinus thunbergii 'Thunderhead' and I just love how it looks!  Might have to pick this one up...

Darn it if we don't have another misidentified plant.  Maybe they pulled the Mullein, put these new plants in? There were quite a few of them in their beds leading down to the terraced garden.  Mysterious plant, what is your name?! I like your big showy leaves, and you are still alive after our recent frosts.

Update! Erica Glasener happened to post a picture  of this plant in her garden, its a Farfugium japonicum 'Giganteum.'

Well, I don't have to worry about mis-identification here: that's a red bridge. You're welcome, America!

Such a beautiful afternoon for a trip to these gardens, we are so lucky to have them in our town.