Spring has come in full speed

Spring has come in full speed, and I found myself hardly catching up.  The garden really looks wonderful in any angle, well, at least in my eyes :)

Nun's orchid (Phaius tankervilliae) bloomed in March.

Three Irises also started blooming in March.

Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina'

Dietas bicolor

Neomarica Gracilis

Five Amaryllis bulbs I bought last year, now two "Apple Blossom"s are blooming.  The other three are still taking their time, and have not even shown the sign of buds.

'Apple Blossom'

Caladiums started popping up everywhere around the garden.

This is the second year of this Peruvian Lily  (Eucrosia Bicolor) called my garden home.  After it finished blooming last year, it gradually lost all the leaves, and completely disappeared from the ground.  I almost thought maybe they are rotten in the ground, and I lost them for good.  A couple of weeks ago, several flower spikes popping up from the ground without any leaves around.  That was real sweet surprise for me.  Beautiful, huh?  The leaves appeared after the flowers were opened.

Last year I started some Marigolds from store bought seeds.  After they finished blooming, I collected those seed heads, and casually spread them in several containers, and then almost forgot them.  Surprisingly, the seedlings grow so fast and strong, better than those that I put much care for.  Since I had so many seedlings, I started putting them everywhere in my garden, and distributed them to the friends.

The new flowerbed I opened two months ago is also gradually filling in.  I added some annuals for the season color.  Vinca is becoming my favorite annuals.  They just thrive in the Florida sun without much care, and they reseed themselves easily.  They are almost like perennials in this South Florida Garden since they could bloom all year long.  I have several different colors, pink, white, lavender, and crimson.

Flax Lily, Daisy Bush, Marigolds, and double Portulaca (Portulaca 'Fairytale Cinderella')

Love how the leave of Aechmea blanchetiana 'Orangeade' reflected the morning sunshine in following two  pictures.

Other areas of the garden...

Spiderwort has grown from one small division into a big clump. (Thank you, Meems!)

Spiderwort (Tradescantia)

Dipladenia pink got a heavy trim the end of last year, now it is coming back stronger and more beautiful.

Happy Spring!

Amaryllis Confusion

This is my first year to grow Amaryllis.  I picked up five bulbs from the big box store early November last year.  They were labled as: 'Apple blossom',  'Oskar', 'Christmas Story', 'Star of Holland' and 'Susan'.  

'Apple Blossom' and 'Oskar" were the first two that bloomed.  Their posts are here and here.

'Christmas Story' is supposed to have all-white flowers, but when it bloomed at the end of November, I found it was the same as 'Apple Blossom'.  I think they must have mixed up the label during the packing.

While I don't mind having another 'Apple Blossom', I did buy five different bulbs for the varieties.  Especially I would love to have an all-white amaryllis around Christmas time. 

The following is the one labled as 'Star of Holland',  bloomed on Christmas Day. 

And, this week, the last of five bulbs, the one labled as 'Susan' also bloomed.

To my untrained eyes, I hardly can tell the difference between 'Star of Holland' and 'Susan', can you?  And make it even more confusing, I think it is almost identical to 'Oskar' too!

Here are two old pictures of 'Oskar' (as labled).   Let me know if you do see the difference!

Can anybody tell me if any of my Amaryllis is correctly labled, or not?!  So much for the varieties, and it is sad that it is not something I can conrtol.

For now, I guess I will only see those Amaryllis varieties from my blog friends posts. 

My Favorites -- November 2010

Once again, I am joining Susan to post my favorites of the month.

This Heliconia is certainly the star of the month.  When the slim flower bud initially formed on the plant, I did not expect it could look so spectacular when it fully opens. 

This Hawaii Ti has been showing the bright pink color this month.   A plant with pretty foliage is always welcome in my garden!

I planted three Red Salvias in front of a white Angelonia angustifolia in the full sun area.  The color combination made me think this would be a good Christmas color scheme.   What do you think?

This might be the last flower of this Plumeria.  The leaves have started turning to yellow and falling.  Soon, they will go to the dormant stage, and wait for the next year to show its beauty again.

May I show you one more time of my ground orchids (Spathoglottis)?  The flowers have been standing since August, and I have the feeling that they may also soon fade away.

I bought six snapdragons in the terrible condition for 25 cents each from a big box store's clearance rack.  The leaves were all drooping and I could not tell what colors they are.  Now two of them are rewarding me with their velvet purple/red flowers.  I always feel excited when I am able to nurture some plants from near-death to the life.

Even these double impatiens are small, but with lots of them blooming, they are surely brighten my shady corner of the garden.

Datura metel (Devil's trumpet) was attacked by tomato hornworms back in August and lost all its leaves.  Now they not only survived, they have been blooming prolifically for quite some time.  Wanted to include it into this month's favorite in case any cold weather kills it for good.

This is the month that my pink Angel's Trumpet's(Brugmansia) first opened its flowers.  They look gorgeous in any angle.

I think these Indian Blanket flowers (Gaillardia pulchella) will remain as my favorite for months coming, especially in the winter, when not much are blooming...

Without any doubt, these two early arrivals of Amaryllis are my favorites of the month!

Amaryllis 'Oskar'

Amaryllis 'Apple Blossom'

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day, and a great weekend ahead! 

Here I Present The "Oskar"

My amaryllis "Oskar" is blooming!  This is the second amaryllis in blooming out of my five newly purchased bulbs.  It already had flower stalk the time I purchased.  The first one 'Apple Blossom' bloomed about 10 days ago, and it now has faded away.

Although I wish this one also can have three or more flowers like 'Apple Blossom", I do love its rich red color.  It looks so showy in my fall garden.

This is my first time to grow amaryllis, and currently they are all in their individual containers.   I don't know if they will bloom again in the spring.  Maybe there won't be enough time for the bulbs to restore the energy for reblooming.  We shall see.  Should I plant them in the ground after they finish the flowers?

Looking forward to gain some experience of my own to grow the amaryllis...

The weather has been so nice in South Florida recently.  I enjoy the cool breeze when working in the garden at night.  Yes, I usually work in the garden at night.  With a day time job, dinner and kids homework after work, night time is my time to be in the garden, relaxing and happy.   Although I also realized that I probably should have planted more white flowers so that I can enjoy more of my garden under the moonlight.  Especially after the daylight saving time ended a couple of weeks ago, I often found myself come home in the dark.

That made the morning walks in the garden even more precious.  I managed to take some pictures of my new bloomers during some of my "quick" morning garden walks.

Well, this doesn't have the flower, but this variegated Devil's Backbone is showing its pinkish seasonal color.  I guess gardeners know more about season changes in Florida.

This double layered hibiscus is the one I started from a cutting.  This is its first bloom.    I don't know its name, and I am not the fan of the peach color.  But my camera found it quite eye catching today...

Double layered impatiens...  They love the cool weather as much as I do, and started blooming prolifically recently.  When taking the close-ups, they resemble the red rose so much.

Kalanchoes also are the cool weather bloomers.  I have three different colors of Kalanchoes, and this golden yellow double layered one is my favorite.   Ok, I guess now you know I seem love double layered flowers of any kind, although I think I also love their single versioned counterparts as well.

First helliconia flower!  With a tiny garden, I am a little afraid to grow helliconia since they tend to take up lots of space.  This one is still in the container. Anybody knows if this one could spread wider and bigger as well?

This Seemannia sylvatica (formerly Gloxinia sylvatica, 红岩桐) is a new addition to the garden.  Love its showy red-orange tubular flowers.  It is also called as Bolivian Sunset Gloxinia.

I don't have a vegetable garden, but finally I tried to grow  hyacinth beans in three containers about two months ago.  They are supposed to be the summer vegetables, but in Florida, we are lucky to have long period to grow different vegetables.  Look, it is already producing the beans!  This bean is what I loved back in China.  Stir-frying them with pork stripes taste delicious.  This experiment also adds a little more interests into my parents' daily life here.  Checking the beans every day in the garden becomes a fun part of their garden walk.

To my friends in United States, Happy Thanksgiving! 

To others, Have a good week ahead!