A species of Cordyline. The thing growing out of it is the flower stem; you can keep it. You will probably find that the stem will branch after the flowering is finished. Old plants become much-branched, as in the pic below Resin Here is a link that might be useful:

Small world! I use NOAA/NWS for weather, and when I pull it up, my “local conditions” come from Erie! I’m on the north end of Thornton, near 120th and Colorado Blvd! I haven’t seen you posting on RMG before, so just a heads up! Pre-covid we used to have two plant swaps—spring and fall—in the Metro area each year, and hopefully in a year or so we’ll be able to get back to doing that again! All the info is posted on RMG, so if you hang out around here you’ll see the threads when they come up! It’s a great place to make some local gardening friends, and pick up a bunch of free plants along the way! A lot of us are chomping at the bit to be able to do it again—but not till it’s safe to do it again! What a HUGE area you have for planting! I love it! And, yes, hummingbird moths are VERY cool! Since you’ve gotten interested in penstemon, one thing to keep in mind is that many of them don’t bloom for a very long time, so, with the big area you have, mix up the species/varieties so you have more continuous bloom. Another thing to keep in mind as you decide where to plant the things you get is to keep them separated as much as you can by water requirements. That way you can have plants with higher water requirements—without killing the xeric ones, and, with your large area, if you make part of it xeric, after the plants are established they’ll very seldom need “watering,” even with our dearth of moisture out here! I live in a very ordinary subdivision, with a “typically small” residential lot, so I don’t have room to do all the wonderful things you’ll be able to do, and don’t have enough room to separate xeric from non-xeric, unfortunately! Since you’ve gotten interested in penstemons—and since we’re not able to have our swaps right now!—I have LOTS of P. strictus, Rocky Mountain Penstemon, seed, and if you get over this way and would like to pick up some (porch pickup), I could stick some out for you, whenever. Or I could stick some in the mail too since seeds are cheap to mail! Have a LOT of lavender (English, Lavandula angustifolia – xeric) seeds too—and am always happy to be giving them away! Private Message me if you’re interested. It would be a way to help “fill up your big space” without spending more money—tho it would obviously take longer for them to “grow up!” (Both of those could easily be winter sown right now—either in pots, or directly in the ground.) Have fun Garden Dreaming over winter, Skybird F 11.13.20 @ 1135 MST

Are there cockroaches in your area? We don't really have many in my area so I've never seen one or lived with them, but when I was looking for pics of mouse droppings just now, there are pics of cockroach droppings (I guess I never realized they left droppings) that look exactly like that. Not sure if they would hang out by a furnace vent or not. Oh, but I see maybe dog food is nearby?

Greetings, I live in southern/central California, USA. USDA zone 9b, Sunset 14. Should be a little frosty here for avocados, but we live in an area where the frostiest air drifts down into a valley, so our region is known locally as "the banana belt." I got two avocado trees about 10 or 12 yrs ago that were labelled as "Haas" and "Fuerte." Both trees are healthy and thriving (and huge!), but fruit production is crummy. Had a good year with the Hass last year, but it is unfortunately giving this year a miss. The trees are near each other, and we have beehives nearby, so pollination shouldn't be a problem. But I am virtually certain the "Fuerte" was mislabeled. Check out photos. Ripe, I think, in Nov/Dec; 4" length; smooth black/plum skin; medium (or relatively large) size pit; hard to scrape out without digging into skin (thus my wife hates processing these). Any idea what variety this avocado actually is, despite being labelled as Fuerte? Thx! Otherchuck