plants: Bottoms Up

Yep, we had a cold-ass winter here in Austin, Texas. The coldest and now one of the wettest that we've had in decades. Some of the things I planted are at the northern limits of their range, and the freeze really kicked them down a notch. Father Winter showed 'em who was boss. I thought that some of them were goners for sure, so it's a nice surprise to see them growing - from the bottom up.

Like this Barbados cherry or acerola. Dead branches:

New growth:

Freeze-dried chile pequin:

New growth:

And it's normal for the flame acanthus to start from scratch each year:

As well as the lantana:

This is a really cool photo combo I found while gettin' all down and dirty photographing the bases of these plants. A discarded cicada exoskeleton and a batch of insect eggs attached to an old leaf.