Kaffir lily, schizostylis ?

No, not that...it has leaves vs blades and I know I wouldn't have planted that there (or tried to grow it most likely from past experience)

I could be way off, but the photo reminds me of a violet rhizome.

Good thought, but I'm pretty sure not...I have violets all over the place. Don't believe I would plant them (and certainly wouldn't worry about drainage).

Well those furled leaves look a heck of a lot like violets to me .....

Well at the rate of expansion, I will probably be able to definitely confirm or deny that by end of February (weather allowing) or March otherwise.

But I still don't believe I planted violets intentionally...and the area that was the pot has many many rhizomes all over the place. I would have seen violets and ripped them out of the pot (I'm like 99% sure), those are obvious.

Planting a small plant high will do nothing to help with any soil drainage problem that might be occurring immediately beneath the crown.

I've seen many recommendations to build essentially a tiny berm and plant some sensitve things that way. I can see that with a deeper rooted plant it wouldn't help....

In any case, I planted it that way and conveyed that info as a possible help in id'ing.

It looks like violet to me too... and don't I also see dried seedpods on the ground?

A thought (or a memory) was recalled today and it *may* be viiolets, like I said I have them all over the place by osmosis or spontaneous generation or something (*lol*).

Ok, here's a sequence I sorta dimly see in my mind.

There's a flat sheet of plastic that I decided to get out of the corner last autumn. It was a light fixture diffuser, ie simple sheet of semi-translucent plastic. It had lain there for 2-3 years under where the water dripped off the roofline. Soil had washed over one side of it. I moved the sheet and the plane of soil slid off..to where this slightly raised 8 or 10 inches of soil is now.

I bet there were violets growing on it, and it was not intentionally planted.

My god, I'm only 52, what am I going to be like at 65?
I really did used to be able to remember everything...but it's going away fairly fast these days. I might have to start using *shudder* labels and markers.

the really weedy violets in my garden are growing right now, with foliage

I used to have lots of Viola sororia ina a shady border which looked very much like your rhizomes.

those seed around happily but are not really a nuissance

Yep, though I never bothered to figure it out...soraria is very very likely being a common native here. Plus I have the white and purple forms of the flower..so yeah, soraria.

There's prescription and OTC drugs that help with memory, dietary and other changes you can make if there seems to be a problem. You should see a doctor because if nothing else dementia is pretty prevalent, with better outcomes possible if treatment starts early.

Oh gee, thank you Embothrium, I was mostly making fun of myself. I don't think I've totally lost it yet :0

Am I in denial or are you joshing me ?

barron, not to worry. I do that all the time. Don't go buy a prescription over THAT. I also forget where I planted certain things and have spent time walking around looking for it like an idiot. I've never worked in my yard once that I didn't end up spending at least 10 minutes looking for a tool, often getting very agitated---"I just had it!" then I have backtrack and even then I still can't find it.

The real problem is too many kinds of plants. We all do it and I know a certain dbarron who does go on spending binges as any gardener worth his salt does. There is plant out in my yard that I have been wracking my brain over for three weeks. I know what it is, oh so familiar, but for the life of me I'm still trying to figure it out. And....its got leaves. What fun is a garden without its mysteries?

I like to think you have a point Tex!

The deciding factor is if you think there is a problem. Or if longtime personal acquaintances start piping up. And the medical system has ways of testing for deterioration.

And if it seems like something is going on you don't want to wait until it is bad before starting medication.

Embothrium

Given the tone, I took this thread as Barron poking fun at himself + a bit of aggravation and a lot of curiosity.

Thats a bit heavy going. My mother had Alzheimer's and its much different than what is being described in jest here. We all make fun of ourselves as we get older because we all have these memory deals, like when I walk into the pantry and then can't remember right off what I was going to get (what did I come in here for?) or when I forget a name when I'm talking to someone. I always drag out the 'senility card' to "fix it" because the truth is, I don't pay attention when I'm introduced to people. I did the same thing when I was younger.

Barron, year before last I had two plants with long slender leaves. I kept looking at those leaves thinking, I know those leaves, what is it---WHAT THE HECK IS IT? Drove me crazy as I went over and over all the plants I'd planted over the years. After about three months I was working out there one day when suddenly it dawned me. They were Desert Willow seedlings. By the time the light-bulb finally came on they were pretty far along. I had removed a tree two years earlier and pretty much forgotten about the tree. The thing was, I kept thinking in terms of some kind of perennial which was why the obvious didn't dawn on me until so much time had passed. I left one of them but don't know if I'm going to keep it or not. I keep going back and forth---leave the volunteer tree or leave the volunteer Flame Acanthus. Decisions, decisions.

Hey, if you decide to get rid of it...pot it instead (the desert willow).

Its way too big to pot now, taller than me and it put out a few blooms last year.

Don't you have any pictures of that part of your garden? That's why I like to keep up with pictures. That memory stuff, another gift of old age, does get worse. Mine certainly has. Also some meds accelerate it. I know for me if I take calcium channel blockers for blood pressure I get so bad I barely remember my name. Unfortunately they just put me back on one. I won't stay long though and it has reversed in the past.

Aww darn TR. RavenCajun, not to that detail. When I take shots, it's usually of one particular plant or even one flower on a plant.

Sounds like you don't remember planting violets because you didn't plant the violets. If it makes you feel any better...

Absolutely...the violets planted themselves. :)