cockscomb

Only when I stooped to read the label for one velvety red blossom — it was a cockscomb, Celosia “Dracula” — did I notice the knee-high, cast-foam black vulture that was sitting watchfully beside it.

Workers had set up tables outside the market so Garcia, his wife and others could wrap marigold and cockscomb bouquets in plastic.

The golf ball-shaped cold-water fish is now on display, for a limited time, in the eelgrass area of the aquarium’s Puget Sound Fish alongside the sailfin sculpin and high cockscomb.

The seats, some separated by a stack of wood, are still spaced out, and the tables display hand sanitizer along with a glass-enclosed candle and a cockscomb plant.

He loves to use cockscomb in the fall for its “stunning velvet, brain-like texture,” orange marigolds, and the Protea family of flowers, which he describes as “out of this world.”