Vacations are often filled with surprises. And so was a trip I recently took with my wife to Mexico. We drove our own Prius and drove 5,000 miles in and around Baja and the mainland. Our only mishap was a bird flying into the car windshield and obliterating it. Mexico is a wonderful place to visit as the crafts and natural sights were as amazing as I remember from visits in the past decades. The biggest surprise, however, happened when I returned.

Several months before going I had gotten a small plant from a Master Gardener acquaintance who mentioned that it was a slow grower but would be surprising when it flowered. I put it in the ground and forgot about it. In these days of drought, I gave it little water and attention, but it did get a lot of sun. I placed it next to a stump of a tree I had taken out, making it even more unnoticeable since I missed the tree very much and I didn't want to be reminded of it. I did notice that it was growing slowly and I was about to go to Mexico and I didn't think twice about what its fate would be. When I returned, I was floored; the plant had very distinctly begun to spike. And to my surprise, the spike grew like Jack's beanstalk.

Within days I had a 6 foot flower the likes of which I had never seen before. I identified the plant as an Echium wildpretii, common name "Tower of Jewels". Well named. I think it is still growing after two months. I think that it is going to put out many seeds, so I look forward to raising its offspring. If it actually does produce, I plan on making them available to all comers.

It really pays to come home from a vacation.