Mystery Solved!

I have been spending a lot of evenings out front watering my plants and in turn, I've been chatting with a lot of my neighbors.  Everyone is particularly amazed with the progress of the mystery plant in my front yard.  This is what it looked like a couple months after I moved in.

It's the plant on the bottom left

All last summer it would completely collapse each day with the heat.  I would water it in the evenings and by morning it would be perky again.  I had no idea what it was; I just knew it was pretty determined to live.  Eight months later, after a mild winter and lots more watering it grew at least twice its original size.

Then one morning out of nowhere, this appeared.

And after a couple of weeks it began to bloom.  I even have a second one popping up now.

Apparently half the neighborhood has been watching this thing progress, no one having a clue as to what it was.  I learned that the yard was professionally landscaped a few years back but had quickly become neglected and eventually the house was left vacant.  No one has ever seen this plant bloom until I bought the house and started watering.  This morning there was a note on my windshield left by one of my neighbors.  She had located the plant in one of her books.

From Wikipedia

I present to you Acanthus Mollis, better known as Bear's Breeches!  It is a perennial architectural plant used in gardening.  It is native to the Mediterranean region and can be found in ancient Greco-Roman architecture, specifically in the Corinthian column capitals.  Looking back at my Italy and Turkey photos I found several examples such as the column capitals of both the Fountain of Trevi and the Pantheon as well as in a Medusa engraving in Ephesus.  Pretty cool!  I will now use this plant to remind me of my travels around the Mediterranean. 

Greece 2008

I've also picked up a lot of tips from my neighbors about plants that work well in our shaded area.  Looks like someone will be heading back to the nursery soon!