Happy Chinese New Year

Today, February 3rd,  is the Chinese New Year Day according to the lunar calendar.  It is the Year of the Rabbit.  If you were born in 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987 and 1999, you could be a "Rabbit". 

The new year day of the last year, the Year of the Tiger was coincident with the Valentine's Day, I did a post about the auspicious plants used in China for new year celebration here. 

This year, my parents are here with me and my family.  Last time we spent the Chinese New Year together was eight years ago when they were also visiting us in the States.  I treasure the time we have with them, and I know it is very precious since kids still have the school around Chinese New Year, and we usually can not go back to China to visit them this time of the year.

I thought it would be nice to share the joy with my friends using the flowers from my garden. What else could be more appropriate for a gardener to express her happiness?

This Vanda is the Christmas Gift I received from my family.  It was the last to bloom, and it is so worth the waiting!  Although it is not as sky-blue as described by the seller, I love it!



Vanda Sawita 'blue'

My Bromeliad corner I started last June has been filled in quite nicely.  In my eyes, they are as beautiful as flowers.

I transplanted this begonia from the container to the ground after they were done flowering, and now they are taking off again, with more prolific blooming!  The nice scent it sends out in the morning is another bonus.

Begonia Odorata Var. Alba

Burbine's small flowers may not be that significant, but I just love their carefree characters, and the frost/cold front did nothing to them. 

Bulbine

While I am still searching up and down for those great rose performers in Florida, such as 'Louis Philippe' and 'Belinda's Dream', I am enjoying the flowers from my hybrid tea roses.  They love this weather much better than our hot and humid summer.

Perfume Delight

Perfume Delight

Double Delight

My Pink Angel's trumpet (Brugmansia) has been putting on her best show ever since I stuck a cutting into the ground last summer.  Their nice scent fills the night air so delightfully.

This blue Butterfly (Clerodendrum ugandense) plant in the container has been opening more flowers recently.  I really need to find a spot in the ground for her.  They do look like butterflies!

Oh, I think every Florida Garden should plant this Indian Blanket Flower (Gaillardia pulchella).  I started them from seeds, and once they were established, they just could not stop flowering.  Drought/heat/cold tolerant, beautiful flowers, what else you can ask for a plant?

This cape honeysuckle was a newly acquired plant.  I just can not resist its brilliant red/orange flowers when I first spotted it in a local nursery.  Now I have done some research, it seems this could grow quite big if left unprunned.  Or I am hoping its cultivar is 'Apricot', a smaller and more compact one than the one with yellow flowers ('Aurea' ).  Anybody has experience to grow this honeysuckle?



Tecomaria capensis
Common Name: cape honeysuckle
Family: Bignoniaceae



Happy Chinese New Year to anybody who celebrates it!  For the rest of you, hope you enjoyed the flowers from my winter Florida Garden!

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! 

Garden Odds

One walk in the garden  revealed some garden odds.

I started these Indian Blanket flowers (Gaillardia pulchella) from a seed packet this spring, and most of them came out just like what I expected.  Here is the odd I found on one of the plants:  The flower looks like two or three flowers connected together.   You can tell this from the flower head on the left,  that is not fully opened yet.

Here is one plant coming from the same seed packet, and is what I considered as "normal".

The other odd I found is on this yellow ground orchid (Spathoglottis).  Can you see a green seed pod hanging from the left bottom flower spike?  I did not see any other seed pods from my other ground orchids spreaded in the garden.  I was quite excited when I first saw the seed pod since that could mean I can propagate more orchids.  However, after I read further more, it seems not an easy task since the orchid seeds require some special fungus to germinate which might only be possible in a lab environment.  My best bet could be sowing the seeds directly on the base of the mother plant since the mother plant might have those needed fungus for the seedling.   I will try this way once the seeds mature.  If I ever succeed, I will give an update later.

Speaking of the ground orchids, the ones located in the partial shade area are still blooming strong, new spikes are still rising up.   The ones in the more sunny area are not performing as well, maybe those areas are also not receiving enough water.  I think the ground orchids love partial shad and moistured location.  I so love these ground orchids.  Once established, they are care free. Their long soft foliage add the texture and green lush into the flower bed, and the flowers last for months.  I have three colors for now, yellow, light pink, and deep pink.  I just saw another lovely color of the ground orchid in a local nursery recently.   Hmm, should I bring one more home?  Just feel a little guilty since recently I have been plant shopping a lot, and I still have more on my list waiting...

Here is another plant I am in love with... "Angelonia angustifolia ".  The original small plant in the five inch pot has been thriving into a nice mound in the side partial shade flower bed.  This white one together with the Cats' Whiskers on the background, and the yellow ground orchid create a lovely scene under the moon light.



This is the purple version of Angelonia angustifolia .  I am thinking to plant more in another more sunny location.  Not sure if they will do as well as they do in this partial shade area.    Even it usually is marked as "full sun" plant, but I found out in South Florida, even the sun loving plants do better in an area that at least get some protection from the intensive afternoon sun. 

Here is the side garden these two Angelonia angustifolia are located.  If you still remember my post about opening this new flower bed back in August, you can tell how fast the plants could grow in Florida!

The small tree located in the middle of this side bed is another Angel's Trumpet's(Brugmansia)  from my friend at work. It only had two branches when I planted it in the ground, now it grows so big, and is already producing the 12 inch long pink trumpet flowers!

To end this post, let me include another combination that I am admiring these days.  This plant stand is in the front patio area.  The philodendron 'moonlight', the blooming Dendrobiums orchid, and the rod iron wall decor are looking nicely together, and made me smile every time I open the front door.

Parents have been amazed with my fairly new gardening passion since they came.  They did not know how their daughter suddenly became a gardener!  I am happy they too are enjoying my garden as much as I do, and the cool weather we are having made their daily morning walk around the garden even more enjoyable. 

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.