Artichokes and other Garden Things

My mother-in-law knows about my new-found love for plants and as such decided to shower me with many very funky kinds of plants the other day. I now have a plant that smells like pineapple, (seriously) and one that smells like lemon verbena and among other things, I now have an artichoke. My artichoke is a little thistle-like looking right now with a bloom on it that looks very similar to the plant on Little Shop of Horrors. Since its cold outside still I have been babying him by keeping him inside and taking him out to sun himself during the day. Every time I walk past him I swear I can hear him saying "feed me Seymour". Its a bit unnerving.

Today I decided to learn a little bit about my new friend and to my shock I learned that he can grow to 6 feet in diameter and 4-5 feet in height. Hm.....then he will really start insisting that I feed him. I am thinking about perhaps I need to make the flower bed in the backyard a bit bigger to accommodate him.

Here's a pic of a full-grown version: 

Photo by ziaAirmac

On a side note, I planted a while ago approx. 100 seeds hoping that they'll actually germinate and I can plant them. I am thinking that I have gone overboard a little bit. There is absolutely no way I will be able to fit all of the plants that I am growing. Although, I am pretty sure that many of them won't last, poor little things, they seem too small to be able to make it. All of these seeds and the annuals that are waiting to get planted this weekend are starting to make the area in my kitchen around the table smell like a greenhouse. I'm sure the air quality is much better over there. If you're interested I may have a few extras of the following plants if you would like some:

1.)  Watermelons
2.)  Canteloupes
3.)  Pumpkins    (Of the above 3 items, I really only think I can fit one of each type of plant while I "seeded" about 8-9 of each type.)
4.)  Hollyhocks - warning, these grow to over 6 feet tall, this is something I didn't realize when I bought them
5.)  California Poppies
6.) Sunflowers - these bad boys are the evening kind, so they will be darker.
7.) Cucumbers
8.) Bachelor's Buttons
9.) Dill - I didn't realize I bought the monster variety.

The availability of the above mentioned plants really depends on whether these little guys actually survive. I am keeping my fingers crossed!