Here Comes the Rain!

I think the raining season finally comes to South Florida!  The past week, almost everyday we got some rain, enough kept my garden watered.  Everything looks more lush and green, including grass.

Rain lilies (Zephyranthes) opened after a good rain.  I only had one rain lily last year, and this year I bought one small pot from my favorite nursery, and came home found there were more than two dozen of bulbs packed in!  I planted them on the border of my flower bed.  They were still quite young.  Expecting next year they can really make the show when they multiply more and open flowers all together.

Meems at Hoe and Shovel got me hooked on caladiums with her beautiful caladium pictures in her garden.   I do not have much shade or partial area in my garden, but I still managed to squeeze about 75 bulbs into different flower beds and containers. 

I think this is ‘Florida Cardinal’.  

Meems also sent me some of her favorite ‘Miss Muffet’ caladium.  They blend in the Bromeliad corner so nicely .  Just love the texture and the color! Thanks, Meems! 

I need to buy more of these.  This year it was sold out on the online store when I was ready to put the order.

The same bromeliad corner from another angle.  The white caladium in the distant is ‘White Christmas’.

Don’t know what is the name of this caladium.

This is what happened when you bought those “mixed” packages, and had no idea what would come up when you planted.  Maybe I should sort them out before they disappear to the ground this fall, so that I can have more planned color arrangement next year.

Although I don’t mind this combination in the container…

Firespike (Odontonema strictum) is setting lots of flower scapes.  Hope I can see hummers visiting this one soon.

Self seeded white Zinnias and pink Vincas are becoming a nice combination in this flower bed.

I tucked different types of house plants into this container and now it mixes with all different textures and colors together quite nicely.    Sometimes simply throwing something together might not be a bad thing.

Yay!  Finally I got several shots of a Monarch butterfly on my Zinnias!  Not very clear shots, but I was so happy that I finally found some butterfly other than ‘White Peacock’ visiting my garden, and I was able to capture it in my picture.

More Siam tulip flowers…

Now we have more rain, Ground orchids are picking up the speed to shoot more flower scapes.

It is nice to see this Griffinia liboniana is reblooming! 

My family is going away for a two week vacation starting this weekend.  We are going to visit YellowStone, Grand Canyon and other national parks in the West.  Kids are excited, and me too!

This raining season came just in time, so that I don’t need to worry too much about my garden.

If I don’t post again before I go, Happy 4th of July, and Happy Gardening, my friends!

Autumn Colors -- My Favorites October 2010

One thing I have missed living in Florida is seeing the autumn colors on the trees and in the gardens.   My hometown in China has distinct season changes, and when I was kid, I loved to see autumn breeze blew those orange, brown, red and yellow leaves off  the trees, and then I would chase those leaves along the road. 

Yes, I do love living in Florida, especially I can garden here all year long.  But every year this time, I still find myself missing those autumn colors, and always try to find something around me that can remind me those time I spent in China when I was a kid.

Here are the autumn colors I found in my garden. 

Crotons' colorful leaves look like this all year long, but I found they seem more noticeable in Fall.

This bush has green leaves with yellow spots.  It seems quite popular in South Florida landscape. Both my previous and current houses had this in the garden before we moved in.  They seem to be just there all year long, and I even have not bothered to find its name until today!  My camera did find it is quite a good Autumn color for my collection, don't you think?   I know I will have the answer soon from my garden friends out there...

The leaves of Acalypha Wlkesiana (Copperleaf or Beafsteak) are the ones that closest to the autumn colors in my mind.  They do change the color from green to red/orange between the new leaves and more matured ones.

Bromeliads are showing their colorful foliages even mother plants are fading away.

Orange color is the most cheerful Autumn color in the garden. 

Bulbine Frutescens

Hibiscus

Aechmea blanchetiana 'Orangeade'

Indian Blanket Flowers (Gaillardia pulchella)

The following two plants are newly additions to the garden.  I found they also have nice Autumn colors.  I bought the first one without any label on it.  Is it Hawaiian Ti?

This one was simply marked as "Cordyline".  Anybody knows its variety name?

Firespike (Odontonema strictum) just pasted its peak time.   This is the first time I have ever planted Firespike.  Is this its seed pod?  It does look like Autumn "Fruit" to me...

This begonia has silver/purple color when the leaves mature, another beautiful Autumn color.

Various coleus in the garden has been making my garden so colorful for months, but today I found they actually make a good fall collection too!

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After publishing the post initially, I realized that it is that time of the month again!  Every 25th day of each month, Susan at Simply Susan! invites us to join her to publish our favorites of the month.  I think this post is perfect for that, Autumn colors are definitely my favorites of my October Garden!

You may also have noticed that it has been about one month since my last post, which was for September Favorites.   I have been quite busy for months now both at work and home.  Recently my parents also came to visit us from China. They will stay with us for six months, and kids can have more time to know their grandparents.  Parents are both in their 70s.  They have visited us three times since I came to US almost sixteen years ago, and this time I really feel how age can impact a person.  I treasure this opportunity that I can stay with them for a period of time, and finally can take care of them like they have nurtured me when I was young.  Even I still go back to China to visit them, I know the time I am having with them now is so precious.  So, I guess between trying to be a good wife, mother, and daughter, and holding a full time job, I won't have much time to blog.  I know I will still enjoy visiting my favorite blogs, and might comment when I can.  Hopefully,  I also can occasionally show some new flowers from my garden in my blog.

Happy Gardening, My Friends!

My Favorites -- September 2010

I know I am very late for joining Susan and others to show my favorites of the month, but better late than never!  September is a month that I really don't want to miss to post my favorites. There are so many wonderful things are happening in the garden even this gardener has been hardly having time to take care of it recently.

When I just bought this cat whiskers (Orthosiphon stamenis), I did not expect this is such an easy grower by the look of the delicate flowers.  It grew so fast in our hot humid summer that I had to trim it to keep it in a good form.  The cuttings are so easy to root that I just stick those trimmed branches into the regular soil, and they just grow.  My friends will soon get this pass along from me.

Can you believe this plant was just a single plant in a one-gallon container three months ago?  This actually has been trimmed twice.

I have shown these ground orchids (Spathoglottis) for many times, and I think now they have reached their peak.  What a great performer!

I started this Plumeria rubra from the cutting early this year.  It has been growing leaves nicely, and finally it bloomed last week!  Are these flowers looking delicious?  This flower's Chinese common name is "鸡蛋花" (Egg Flower).  Hmmm, The white flower with the yellow center does look like the egg white and yolk!  Yummy! It also has the nice scent.

This Rose of Sharon (Althea, Hibiscus syriacus) was new in my garden.  Actually the pot contains two individual plants, one pink and one white.  When I bought it from one local nursery, the owner told me that I can twist both branches together, so when they grow bigger, I will have a nice bush with two colors of flowers.  The white one is much smaller, so I made its branches wrapped around the pink one.  Right now, only the pink one shows lots of flowers, the white only occasionally blooms.  Hopefully, next year, they can grow into a beautiful bush, or even better, a small tree. 

Love the effect that blue porterweed against the pink flowers too...

Orchids are always my favorites!  This Blue Fox Tail Orchid is blooming the second time of the year! 

This Dendrobium Orchid is a house warming gift from my friend last year.  I hung it on a palm tree.  It only gets the morning sun.  I only water it when no rain for a week, otherwise it just gets the regular rainfall.  I even stopped fertilizing it for months.  To my surprise, it now has six flower spikes on it!

Since I learned "Leave me alone" tip of growing orchids, I have gained more confidence.  I can see more orchids will find the home in my garden.  Here are two new orchid residents:

This Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha) was growing so big and it fell on the ground when I came back from China in July.  I trimmed it to one third of the length.  Now it came back better than ever.  The fresh flower is velvet and looks so dainty pretty!  I also found it is very easy to root the cuttings.  I think after it finishes the flowers for this round, I may take the whole plant out, and replace it with the young plants from the cuttings.  The flowers on the young plants just look so much better.

The tropical Lilac (Cornutia grandifolia) is also reblooming this year.  Since I put it in the ground, it has taken off so fast.  Not only the flower is pretty, but also I am loving the scent of the leaves.  Every time I pass by this plant, I can not help myself to rub the leaves between my fingers and smell it!  Seems not many people have seen this plant before.  I was hoping it producing lots of seeds, so that someday I can share it with my friends in the real life and the blogger world.  But for some reason, I hardly see the seeds out of it.  The few seeds produced often drop off prematurely.  Several attempts to root the cuttings also failed.   I really need to find a good way to propagate it.  Wish me luck, and wish someday I can share it with you guys!

 Firespike (Odontonema strictum) was also started from the cuttings this year.  I may start more cuttings later.  If it can survive this winter, I may use it to replace some of privacy hedges in my garden.  The flowers are so bright, and I wish someday it can attract the hummingbirds to visit them.

The last but certainly not the least,  my favorite zinnia in the garden!  This actually came from one volunteer from last year.  Now this single plant has grown so big that I have to stake it to support the heavy flower heads! 

Please also stop by Susan's place to see her and others' favorites of this month. 

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I have been cutting my blog time recently due to my busy schedule.  I apologize that I have not visited your blogs and left comments as often as I wish.  I do hope I can find a little more time in the future. 

Something Old, Something New

Have been quite busy recently at work...   Meanwhile my garden has been enjoying the afternoon showers, and putting lots of colors to welcome fall season.  Although Fall in Florida is almost same as the summer, only with cooler mornings and evenings, and shorter days.

Let me show you something that caught my eyes recently... Something old, and something new...

I had purchased two ground orchids after our hard freeze days in January, the pink one has been blooming profoundly for a couple of months now. 

The dark pink one just started their show recently, but with stronger flower spikes and slightly bigger flowers.

 

This yellow one was a recent purchase. The color was so bright that it almost jumped out and shouted to me in the gardening center "Hello, bring me home!". How could I resist it?

I have heard from other Florida gardeners that ground orchids are not cold-hardy, so I will dig them out and bring them indoors if it ever reaches the freezing  point again this coming winter (oh no, please). 

This desert rose (Adenium obesum ) has been a great performer since early spring.   In my experience, this is such a carefree plant in the container.  Drought tolerant, and heat/humidity lover.  As long as you don't over water it, and bring it under the covered patio or indoor during the freezing days, this plant will reward you lots of flowers through the four seasons in Florida climate.

 My friend gave me some desert rose seeds, see what I got out of them!  Looks like more desert roses will reside in my garden!

My first Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) flower!  I planted the seeds in the spring, after a long waiting, finally it opened its first flower this past weekend.  I am counting on them for my winter garden color.

Another one of the garden firsts is on the way...   This frangipani (Plumeria) was started from a cutting early this year, now finally it shows its first bud.  Yay! At least I can see the flowers before it drops all the leaves in the winter.

This Bridal Bouquet (Plumeria pudica) is also a new resident in my garden.  I have seen this blooming beautifully with bountiful snow white flowers in the neighbourhood, and think it would look great in my garden too.  It has three of them in the container, and I planted them in the ground in a tri-angle setting, hoping they can form a nice cluster next year.  For now, I will just enjoy the flowers from this young plant.

Firespike (Odontonema strictum) also bloomed first time in the garden (wow, there seems lots of  "firsts" in the garden recently).  The scarlet flowers rise above the dark green foliage look so stunning.  No wonder it has another common name as "Scarlet Flame".   I am thinking to use this replacing some of boring hedges in my garden.  Butterflies and hummingbirds would love it too!

  

 Vinca (Periwinkle) is always one of my favorites, and blooms almost year around.  I put two of the self seedlings into this swan planter, and one chooses growing around the neck of the swan, and the other trails down.  I thought this looks very pretty especially I did not arrange them in that way on purpose.

Just bought this Rose of Sharon (Althea, Hibiscus syriacus) last week.  This flower seems have distorted, but the skipper doesn't mind it at all.

When the flowers are fully opened...

There are so many to do and enjoy in the garden. With the approaching cooler weather, I wish I can have more time to be in my garden.