Early blooming of Daylilies and Other Things in the Garden

Since this is my first post of the year, let me first say "Happy New Year" to you all !!! Wish you have all the fun of the gardening in this new year!

Every year, from early Spring through the summer, I admire those beautiful pictures of Daylilies from other people's blog, wondering when I can own some of these beauties in my garden.

For some reasons, Daylilies are hard to find in South Florida.  Occasionally, the big box stores have some for sale.  I brought two home in two different times, and both died after the initial blooming.  I did some researches, and found out that among thousands of Daylilies, there are three foliage types: Dormant, Semi-evergreen, and Evergreen.  For people live deep South like me, Evergreen is the one that will survive our long-lasting hot weather.  No wonder I failed twice since those two were all Domant types! Then why they even sold them in the store since Daylilies are not supposed to be a one-time thing in the garden?!

Anyway, since I did not find any local nurseries to buy Evergreen Daylilies, I looked over the Internet.  I ordered 5 bareroot Evergreen double-fans from http://smokeysdaylilygardens.com/, and they arrived at the end of last October.

This week, two of them are already blooming! I am not sure if it is only because they are the early bloomers ( 'Lavender Silence' is labled as "Extra-early", and "Whooperee' is labled as "Early-mid" ), or also because of the mild winter we are having in South Florida.  Nevertheless, I am excited to see these beauties are finally finding a home in my garden!  If they all perform well after this summer, I think I will order more this fall.  With a small garden, Daylilies are the ones I can find some space to squeeze in.

Whooperee
Evergreen, early-mid, rebloomer, 6.5" flower, 24" scape height,  fragrant, recurved

Lavender Silence
Evergreen, extra-early, 6.5" flower, 22" scape height,  ruffled, fragrant, recurved

Other things going on in the garden...

This Rex Begonia is in a shady area, and recently started shooting up the flower scapes.  I bought it last year.  After one year, it has been growing nicely.  I have separated it into four plants.  I think after a couple of years, I can expand them to the whole border that surrounds the air conditioner area.  Even when it is not blooming, I love the texture of this plant.

Begonia

Love this combo in this part of flower bed.  White Vincas,  Orange Indian Blanket flowers, pink Pentas. That purple leaf plant with white dotted flowers is Alternanthera dentata 'Purple Knight'.  Some says 'Purple Knight' is kind of invasive, but I have not found it is a big problem for me.  It does have some seedlings, but only a handful I found so far.  I can easily pulled them out, or give them to the friends.  In the winter, they are full of those tiny white flowers, brighten the winter garden, and give us Floridians some snowy touch :)

Another combo I like:  White Angelonia angustifolia, colorful coleus, and blue Lobelia erinus Techno Heat.  This Lobelia is supposed to withstand the hottest summer temperatures while blooming nonstop.  I will see if it holds true to Florida heat as well.

My front entry is quite colorful this winter.  I removed some copperleaf bushes in the front, and put two cast iron cranes statues there together with some bromeliads.

This philodendron 'moonlight' behind the cranes statues started as a 3-in house plant from the big box store.  Oh boy, how much it has grown!  Wonder how much bigger it will get if I put it in the ground.

philodendron 'moonlight'

and I did not know it blooms as well!!!

philodendron 'moonlight'  bloom

Snapdragon flower is one of my favorite winter annuals...

Pertunia is perfect for containers.  Red is used to combo the white.

Purple petunia is in this container I have just redone, together with Flax lily and purple Verbenas.

Red and  white petunias are in this pot with 'Red Star'.

My most favorite red-white stripe petunia is in this container.

Orchids that are currently blooming...

The first is a Cattleya orchid gifted from my friend this Christmas.  Love this soft yellow.

This Moth orchid is reblooming the second time for me since I bought it one year ago.  I have special thing for any orchid flowers with dots. 

I recently purchased this Mini Oncidium Equitant from a big box store.  It has five flower spikes.  

It looks so pretty and fits well in the pot that my husband brought for me from China last year.

I am really enjoying my winter garden.  I have to say I am spoiled by this year's Florida winter.

A Touch of China for My Indoor Garden

Before my husband went back to China to visit his parents recently, he asked me what I wanted him to bring from China.  Well, can you guess what I asked for?  No, not plants, not seeds, since it is illegal to bring those back to United States from foreign countries.  What else could be close to what a gardener wants?  Yes, some containers!

No, I was not asking him to carry those big heavy pots all the way across Pacific. I wanted something beautiful, reasonable sized, and of course in Chinese Style.

He brought me back five beautiful pots for indoor plants.  They are all hand made by pottery craftsmen.  Each one has those traditional Chinese pottery design elements, such as poems, or poetic Chinese phrases inscription, mountain/water drawing, bamboo, orchid, lotus flower, or Plum flower drawings.  To show you the detail of those elements, I made one collage for each pot. You also can click each picture to enlarge it.

My original intent was explaining to you what are those Chinese words mean by translation, but only found they just lost its poetic rhythm after translation.  So I only can point you out that those words have something to do with "Breeze", "Moon", "Fragrance", "Charm", and etc.  Now, use your imagination to make up some poetic words in your mind when you look the pictures :)

The plant in the first pot is Fern "Green Fantasy" (Nephrolepis exaltata), a gift from my friend.  I have been looking for this fern for quite a while because it is a very popular indoor plant in China.  Now it just looks perfect in this Chinese style pot, bringing me so many nostalgic feelings...

Update:  FlowerLady found the picture of Fern "Green Fantasy" does not match the plant.  I looked it up over the Internet, and I think the correct name for this fern is: Asparagus setaceus. The original tag that came with the plant was obviously mislabeled.   Thanks, FlowerLady!

The plant in the second pot is my newest purchase, Paphiopedilum orchid, or Lady's Slipper Orchid (yes, my orchid collection is growing!).

The following two pots had Phalaenopsis orchids.

This one not only has drainage holes at the bottom, but also on the sides.   Would be perfect for orchids growing.

This one has most unique shape, curved triangle.  I have not found a suitable plant to put in yet.  It looks beautiful enough even just by its own.

All pots except the third one (the lighter color) are all made of famous ZiSha (purple) clay, although the color is not really purple.   You probably also see the Chinese Tea pots made of the same material.

I am so thankful that DH brought all these beautiful pots for me.  You can imagine how hard to carry on and protect these fragile pots on a total 24 hour long journey.

Now finally I am having a touch of China for my indoor garden.