May Flowers

Just realized that I have not posted for quite a while, although my May garden has been growing by leaps and bounds. 

I have been working on a new raised bed in my garden, which will also be served partially as a vegetable bed.  Will show you some photos when it is more presentable.

For now, let me just show you some new flowers in the garden.

Tropical Liac (Cornutia grandifolia) lost majority of leaves during the cold weather in last December.  It grows so fast after the weather warmed up.  Now they are shooting their  lavendar colored flower spikes into the air again.

Just love the scent of this plant when walking by and brush against the leaves, or when hand-watering the leaves.

Since this plant is not seen in the nurseries, I have tried several times to start more of this plant from seeds, or cuttings to share with friends,but with no luck. I heard it should not be too difficult based on what I read from the Internet. So, I will keep trying.  Maybe I just did not do it in the right way.

I picked up this Salvia 'Black and Blue' at the clearance rack in last December after the cold front visited Florida.  The plant had bad frost bites.  Now it looks so happy in a full sun location of my garden.  I love any blue flowers in the garden, and the almost black sepals contrast the blue flowers so nicely.  Oh, wait a minute.  Is that a spiderweb?  Often when I intend to capture a spiderweb in the picture, it hardly comes out good.  It is either out of focus, or invisible in the photo.  Seems this spiderweb that I caught by accident in the photo  is my most successful shot!

Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'

 Another blue flower: Blue butterfly. It has such beautiful flower, does look like a blue butterfly.

Clerodendrum ugandenseCommon name: Blue Butterfly

This Penta plant was started from several cuttings from my friend's garden.  It now becomes my favorite Penta plant.

Yay, Medinilla started showing lots of flowers again after a dormant period!  Remember how I got it?  See the story behind this plant, read here.

Medinilla cumingii

Crape Jasmine in full blooming...

Love the combination of Crape Jasmine and the pink Ixora.

My friend gave me this bush daisy.  I love its airy leaves, and risen cheery yellow flowers.  The flowers come in waves, one flush after another with a short resting period in between.

Bush Daisy (Gamolepis chrysanthemoides)

Remember I mentioned that I only have one green branch left in my Hybrid Tea Rose 'Peace' in my Rose Update post?  That single green branch recently had one bud developed, and it is blooming now!

'Peace'

Look what I found in the garden!  A Calla Lily bloom!  Yes, you can tell I am excited.  My friend gave me a bunch of seedlings from her Calla lilies, which were originally bought from a big box store.  She said every year the leaves emerge in early spring, but never re-bloomed for her.  Last year, the leaves grow so nicely, but no flowers, and then leaves disappeared in the winter.  This spring the leaves grow again, and I did not expect much from them although the leaves alone are beautiful.   My friend called me a couple of weeks ago and told me that she saw one flower from her Calla lily, and sure enough, one week later, I saw one from mine!  Yes, it only has one flower, but better than nothing, and it is a good start!

Here is another surprise from garden. When I just started my garden almost two years ago, one of my coworkers gave me one bromeliad with dark purple leaves, and no name.  He only told me that the leave will burn if put in a sunny location.  So I kept it in a container located in a partial shade area.  For two years, it did nothing except shooting out of the pups.   It started looking messy, and working around it becomes a dangerous job since the edge of the leaves has saw blade like spikes.

I am that close to toss it away.  It seems knows what I am thinking, almost like all of sudden, two flower spikes shot out from the middle of leaves, and The flowers are orange-red color, and have wax like texture.  Anybody recognize this bromeliad?  I think for the time being, it will be a keeper.

What have been flowering in your May Garden?

A Busy Month and The Weather My Garden Loves

April started as a busy month for me. 

First, we were preparing for parents going back to China after a six month stay with us.  It was a long and exhausting trip coming here all the way from China for their ages, so once they were here, we wanted them to stay longer.  Some of my western friends think that is very unusual for parents to stay with their grow-up children for this long time, but it is not that uncommon for Chinese families in the past.  Although now more and more Chinese families are taking the same life style as here in States, i.e., keeping the family small.   I am a mother myself now, and I know how much we are willing to sacrifice for our kids  and how hard we have worked for our kids when they are little, and my parents did the exact same for me and my sister when we were little.  Now they are in the ages that need cares from their children, and I wish I can give them more than what I can give now.  Confucius said: "While your parents are alive, do not journey afar  (父母在，不远游)".   While this becomes more and more difficult in these modern days, I understand its meaning more than ever now with parents getting older and weaker.  Not only I have journeied afar, it is across-pacific-ocean far from them!  I am happy at least I got this half year to stay with them and took care of them like they did when I was a kid...

Second, my husband is also on a trip back to China to visit his parents.  I am here alone with two boys, and this week is the FCAT  (Florida's Comprehensive Assessment Test) week!  For those Floridian parents who have kids taking the test, you know how schools make a big deal out of this.  I will be glad when this is over :)

To add on all of this, the Internet service that our community uses had some issues, so we are having on and off connections this week.  Kids need Internet to do their homework, so I had to drive them to the places that have Wi-Fi connections.  I wish we could have our choice for the Internet service provider, not stuck with the one that community has chosen for us.

With all of these going on, blogging and gardening have to take the back seats, although I have been squeezing some time to do some necessary gardening chores here and there.

The April weather in South Florida is gorgeous, the temperature has kept in middle to upper 80s for the high.  To be honest, it is a little bit too hot for me to work in the garden in the middle of the day already, but this is the weather my garden loves!

Here are some pictures I shoot recently.  Everyday there are new things occurring in the garden, and I really can not keep up with them. 

Pentas love the hot weather...

So are these Indian blanket flowers...

One early morning, I took out the long lens that I hardly use, and caught this view from my patio.  It is a merged view of the bromeliad corner and my container area at the patio.  There actually is a little gravel path between the corner and patio.  Do you see my effort of "Vertical" gardening with that bromliad wreath attached on the fence on the back?  The pink Angel's trumpet (Brugmansia) on the back was the result of my stucking a branch trimmed off my other Angel's trumpet into the ground last year.  Now it has become a small tree!

Here is the view of the west backyard flower bed looking towards the bromeliad corner, you can see both white and pink Angel's trumpets blooming in this picture.  Loving the colors shown in this picture, so Spring!

Oh, want to show you a picture of this same area that I took one month ago.  Do you see that big rosemary in front of the Orange Marmalade Crossandra?  That was a small plant in six inch container that I started from seed about one year ago.  As you know me, I can not stand any bare spot in the garden, and love to squeeze plants here and there, so I decided to stuck that young plant in that location.  Now one year later, it becomes huge, and blocked the view of the three Orange Marmalade Crossandras that are major focal point of this flower bed.  I moved the rosemary somewhere else in the garden, now it looked better :)

Mealycup sage started blooming again once the weather warmed up.  It has my favorite color of blue/purle,   I expect it will become even more prolific in the next several months.


Salvia farinacea 'Victoria Blue'
Common name: Mealycup Sage

I got this purple shooting stars from Lowes' clearance rack.  The label says full sun for it, but I found it wilted easily in the sunny location.  After I planted it in a partial shade area ( a couple of hour of sun), it has been growing quite well.  Not only I love its ability to bloom constantly,  I also love its deep green shinny leaves.

Pseuderanthemum laxiflorum
common name: Shooting Stars

I forgot to trim this Crape Jasmine bush until I saw all the fresh buds shooting out early March.  Since I prefer a more compact version of bush, I trimmed it anyway.  The result is that I had to wait for another one and half month for new buds developed, and now it finally openning the first set of flowers.  The bush is located in the center of the front garden.



Crape Jasmine

April is also the month that Desert Rose blooms its head off!

Even this hibiscus is still in a container, it blooms quite often for me.  I think it deserves a spot in my garden ground.

Hibiscus 'Jane Cowell'

This is my new Rose called "Josephine Land".  It was recommended by the nursery for its fragrance, and it is one of the varieties sold as Nelson's Florida Roses.  So I am hoping it will do well in South Florida weather as well.  So far, it looks very healthy, and has developed lots of buds recently.  Florida's hot hummid summer will be a real test for it. 

Needle flower has been growing quite big, and full of flower buds as well.  Very soon, I will be able to enjoy its 2 inch long delicate white flowers.  Hmmm, looks like I was not the only one who was enjoying its flower buds.

Augusta rivalis

Common name: Needle Flower

It gets hot outside, but this is the weather that my garden loves, so I am not complaining...

I am submitting this post to the GBBD at http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/ and Fertilizer Friday at http://tootsietime.blogspot.com/.

Snow Whites Under the Florida Sun

Starting last week, the temperatures in South Florida has been climbing up to 90s degree. I can feel that hot and extremely humid summer is quickly approaching (or maybe already here?!)...

However, the plants in my garden seem really be enjoying this Florida sun.  I am especially drawn into all those white flowers dotted in the garden.  I love the white flowers for their pureness, simplicity, and the elegance.

This Gardenia is the spring bloomer.  Although it also blooms occasionally throughout the year, spring is its peak time.  I found this variety seems hardly fully opens before it fades away, although this doesn't impact it releases the heavenly scent. Currently the bush has about 8 flowers open, and has more than a couple of dozen buds on the way.  I found myself is making the frequent trips around it so that I can smell its lovely scent as much as I can.

Gardenia Miami Supreme (Gardenia Augusta)

Compare to Gardenia, this Jasmine's scent is not as strong.  Its fragrance is rather subtle, but it can be appreciated more when one actually brings his nose close to the flowers. 

Arabian Jasmine
(Jasminum Sambac 'Maid of Orleans')

This Odorata Begonia is a new addition. I love its white flowers with the yellow stamen in cluster trailing down from the dark green heart-shaped leaves.  The flower even has a little fragrance, another added bonus.

Begonia Odorata Var. Alba

African Iris is still popping up those pretty flowers one after another.  This is its first year of blooming.  I hope  it will bloom even more profusely next year.

African Iris (Fortnight lily, Dietes iridioides)

Diamond frost (Euphorbia) really lives up to its promise.  It only experienced slight leaf damages in this past unusual cold weather of the Florida winter.  It not only bounced back quickly, and also kept the full bloom like this for the majority of the year.   I also had success to use the cuttings to propagate. I would say this is a tough plant with the delicate appearance.  It is a perfect "filler" in the container combination in my opinion.

Diamon Frost (Euphorbia)

This Crape Jasmine is really thriving in the heat.  In one short week, this bush is full covered by the blooms.

Crape Jasmine (Tabernaemontana divaricata)

My first caladium leaf!  This is my first time to plant the caladium bulbs.  Bought one package with 24 mixed caladium bulbs.  I have no idea what types I actually got.  I am glad this first one emerged is a pretty one, White Christmas in Florida Summer.  How cool is that!

Caladium (White Christmas)

This orchid has opened all the buds on one spike.  I also can see another two spikes are on the way.  Yay, that means I can enjoy this beauty for quite a long time!

Phalaenopsis Orchid

All these snow whites are really bringing me some coolness under the Florida sun. 

What white bloomings do you have now in your garden?

Spring Garden Progress

There were lots of rain this past weekend, but I did manage to get a little work done in the garden.

• Divided some bulbine plants, and some Agave desmettiana 'Variegata' pups to pass along to my friend.
• Potted some cuttings of dragon-wing begonia for the same friend.  This begonia should be fairly easy to root from cuttings.  This container of dragon wing begonia is at my front porch.  Really enjoying it every time I pass by.

• Planted some caladium bulbs in one of my containers.  After seeing so many amazing pictures of caladiums (especially at Hoe and Shovel), I decided that I will give it a try for the first time.  I bought a package of 24 mixed caladium bulbs this year.  Since I will be out of the country for a long period of time (3 weeks) this summer, I want to save most of them for the fall garden.  I only planted five in a container this time.  Can not wait for them to pop out of the soil...
• Sowed some seeds of Nasturtium (Jewel, Mixed colors, from Ferry-Morse).  Love the leaf shapes and the flowers.  It would be interesting to see how they will grow.

Here is some spring progress in the garden:

The frangipani cutting is finally shooting out the new leaves.  Still not decided where to put this in my garden...

Angel's Trumpet is growing very fast after I planted the cutting in the ground.  This cutting came from my friend at work, the same friend who brought me the initial bulbine plants and the frangipani cutting.   I have been removing some new growth on the lower part of main trunk to force it to form a small tree instead of a bush like.  We will see how it turns out to be.

Newly purchased bromeliad is about to set the bloom.  Isn't it just gorgeous?!  Love the deep pink color in the center. 

Sedum is now all showing its yellow flowerings.  It really made the garden looking more "Spring".

Sedum Hybrid Florida Friendly Gold

I have been mistaking this Crape Jasmine as "Star Jasmine" until recently FlowerLady at FloweLady's Musings made a post about it to ask for the identification.  Thanks, Flowerlady!

Crape Jasmine

Various Pentas are really in full bloom.  Wondering why I still don't see butterflies visiting them, or maybe I am just not around when they pay the visits??  Envy all those wonderful butterflies shots my fellow gardeners proudly show in their posts!

Pentas

This Purple Verbena is a new addition to my garden.

Purple Verbena

Self seeded mounding buttercup (Turnera ulmifolia) is showing its first flower.  I have been transplanting the seedlings around the garden.

mounding buttercup (Turnera ulmifolia)

Dipladenia pink is really putting on a show, although it never really stopped blooming the whole winter.  This plant is basically care free.  I don't see any pest problem.  Just some water, it gives me non-stopping blooming all year long.  Got to love that!

Dipladenia pink

White Voilas is still hanging on...

Voila

Stock (Matthiola) is about to come to the end.  It is producing lots of seeds to continue the life in another form.  I will try sow these seeds for the fall garden.

Stock (Matthiola)

Now here is something fun for you all.  Can anybody guess what flower it is?