Plants are Resilient
When I moved into this home five growing seasons ago, I was gifted a beautiful firebush ( Hamelia patens ) by a close friend. It was a very thoughtful house-warming present as I planned to add one to my new landscape regardless. A firebush is one of the best wildlife plants in my area - both for the flowers that attract a wide variety of pollinators and its fruit which often is a favorite among songbirds such as mockingbirds, cardinals and brown thrashers. For the first year, it grew well but after the first winter it started to decline and by summer it was dead. At that point, I planned to dig it out and remove it, but the dead stems were being used by several of the vines on the nearby fence and they seemed to enjoy the support this dead shrub gave them I decided to leave it alone and provide this function. In death, it was still useful to my landscape. A few days ago, I pulled some of those excess vines away from the other plants I have added to this area and I saw this - a