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.