October Garden and Bromeliads Collections

While I am feeling for the people in Northeast region who are suffering from the mess and the power outage brought by hurricane Sandy, I feel fortunate that we are here having the most enjoyable weather in South Florida.

Around the garden, I added some cool weather annuals to fill in those vacant spots left by summer annuals.  New Guinea Impatiens are becoming my new favorites since they can be put in the wide range of light condition, including the full sun.  Although I think the partial sun is the optimum since they would require more water if put in the full sun. 

Roses are loving this cool weather.

Josephine's Land

Josephine's Land

Queen Elizabeth

The following two are the double knock outs that I started from the cutting s five months ago. Really love the color and the form, and no black spots!

Belinda's Dream had lots of flowers since the weather cooled down.

This Kalanchoe thrysiflora was a small pup from my friend's plant, and look how tall it has grown, and it has lots of pups its own now.

Look down from the top of Kalanchoe thrysiflora.  Don't you think it looks like a green rose?

The small corner in the front yard near the front door entry.  The Rex begonia in the down left corner of the picture was moved from a total shade place.  It lost most of leaves after the move since this spot gets some morning sun. Now it has been fully recovered and showing its fantastic foliage.

It even bloomed!  Although the flowers are almost lost in the colorful leaves.

This Birds' nest fern started from a 4 inch houseplant, and it grows so big and lush after putting it into the ground.  

Bromeliads collection are getting bigger and bigger, and they are all expanding!  For those who just started gardening in Florida, I have to tell you, get some Bromeliads for your garden, you will love them!  You don't need many for each kind since they produce pups quickly. You also can exchange pups with your friends to get more varieties. Here are some pictures of the Bromeliads all around my garden.  

In South Florida climate, Bromeliads are among the easiest plants to grow, and they provide the year around colors to your garden too!  I am glad that I came to know this plant and became addicted to it when I just started my garden three years ago.

Happy Gardening! Be safe for the folks under the  Hurricane Sandy's impact!

Here I Present The "Oskar"

My amaryllis "Oskar" is blooming!  This is the second amaryllis in blooming out of my five newly purchased bulbs.  It already had flower stalk the time I purchased.  The first one 'Apple Blossom' bloomed about 10 days ago, and it now has faded away.

Although I wish this one also can have three or more flowers like 'Apple Blossom", I do love its rich red color.  It looks so showy in my fall garden.

This is my first time to grow amaryllis, and currently they are all in their individual containers.   I don't know if they will bloom again in the spring.  Maybe there won't be enough time for the bulbs to restore the energy for reblooming.  We shall see.  Should I plant them in the ground after they finish the flowers?

Looking forward to gain some experience of my own to grow the amaryllis...

The weather has been so nice in South Florida recently.  I enjoy the cool breeze when working in the garden at night.  Yes, I usually work in the garden at night.  With a day time job, dinner and kids homework after work, night time is my time to be in the garden, relaxing and happy.   Although I also realized that I probably should have planted more white flowers so that I can enjoy more of my garden under the moonlight.  Especially after the daylight saving time ended a couple of weeks ago, I often found myself come home in the dark.

That made the morning walks in the garden even more precious.  I managed to take some pictures of my new bloomers during some of my "quick" morning garden walks.

Well, this doesn't have the flower, but this variegated Devil's Backbone is showing its pinkish seasonal color.  I guess gardeners know more about season changes in Florida.

This double layered hibiscus is the one I started from a cutting.  This is its first bloom.    I don't know its name, and I am not the fan of the peach color.  But my camera found it quite eye catching today...

Double layered impatiens...  They love the cool weather as much as I do, and started blooming prolifically recently.  When taking the close-ups, they resemble the red rose so much.

Kalanchoes also are the cool weather bloomers.  I have three different colors of Kalanchoes, and this golden yellow double layered one is my favorite.   Ok, I guess now you know I seem love double layered flowers of any kind, although I think I also love their single versioned counterparts as well.

First helliconia flower!  With a tiny garden, I am a little afraid to grow helliconia since they tend to take up lots of space.  This one is still in the container. Anybody knows if this one could spread wider and bigger as well?

This Seemannia sylvatica (formerly Gloxinia sylvatica, 红岩桐) is a new addition to the garden.  Love its showy red-orange tubular flowers.  It is also called as Bolivian Sunset Gloxinia.

I don't have a vegetable garden, but finally I tried to grow  hyacinth beans in three containers about two months ago.  They are supposed to be the summer vegetables, but in Florida, we are lucky to have long period to grow different vegetables.  Look, it is already producing the beans!  This bean is what I loved back in China.  Stir-frying them with pork stripes taste delicious.  This experiment also adds a little more interests into my parents' daily life here.  Checking the beans every day in the garden becomes a fun part of their garden walk.

To my friends in United States, Happy Thanksgiving! 

To others, Have a good week ahead!

A New Gardener's Confession

For those who visit my blog regularly, you might have noticed that I have not posted anything for about one week now.  Although I can not say this won't happen again, at least it is not very common since I started my blog about four months ago.   The only thing I can say is that I am feeling a little down about the garden recently...

While almost all other gardeners are celebrating the leaping growth that the warm weather brought to their gardens, my garden seems not happy with the South Florida hot humid weather.   When I do my daily walk through my garden, there are hardly something that can catch my eyes in an exciting way.  On the opposite side, I often find something disturbing...

Now when I muse it over, I think most of these disappointments come with my new gardener label... Lack of experience, planning, knowledge, and patience are four things this new gardener is not shy to admit.

Before I started my love affair with the planting one year ago, I hardly had any experience. The little experience I had was growing some vegetables and a handful of flowers in the containers when I lived in my previous house.  Among those flowers, I managed to kill several orchids by over watering and putting them under the direct sun. During my younger years in China, my family lived in small apartment in the city with no land at all.  The only time I had more close touch with the land was when visiting my grandparents in the countryside during the summer vacation.  But even then, I never personally grew anything.

I thought I am not too bad of a planner.  However, when coming to the gardening, I found the planning needs to be made and acted on one or even two seasons before.  Like for spring flowers, I should have sowed seeds in the fall.  For some perennial plants, I should have trimmed them earlier so that they can flush now.  For winter annual plants, I should have replaced them with the summer annuals before the intense heat hits. 
As a result, I ended having some bare spots in the garden after the winter annuals melted down to the ground, and some tired-looking perennials like the pink pentas in the front yard.

Or geraniums that might not be able to stand the summer heat even it is still blooming (barely).... The flower dries up even before fully opening.

I know all of these can be quickly fixed by a few trips to the nursery, and shrinking the wallet a little bit more.  But I do wish I had planned better...

Lack of knowledge is another thing that constantly hits me recently.  I realized that a gardener not only needs to know the plants themselves, but also the environment around them, which includes bugs (good and bad), soils, and etc. 

When I bought the milkweed, I only knew this is a plant that butterflies love, and I LOVE butterflies!  The thing I didn't know was  that the Monarch caterpillars love its leaves too!  So imagine how horrified I was when I found seven of these fat Monarch caterpillars nibbling my only young milkweed leaves!  Only this time, I learned  from the lesson of hornworm on my angel's trumpet, so I did not remove them.  After searching over the Internet, I quickly found out these are the Monarch caterpillars.  I decided to leave them alone, and only one day later, my milkweed had nothing but bare sticks!  Now those hungry caterpillars started chewing the stems!  I do hope my sacrifice can yield some beautiful Monarch butterflies visiting my garden.  The only thing I am not sure is if my plant will ever grow back, or even blooming again? 

Last but certainly not the least, lack of patience...(did I say that?) .  They say the patience is a virtue.  I know lots of my anxieties came from the lack of patience.  I expect if I did what the book told me to do, the plants should flower or grow perfectly just like what they show in the garden magazine.  Now I knew there might be so many failures before you can get to that stage.

Do you still remember not long ago, I was proudly showing off the new Princess Flower (Tibouchina lepidota)  I got as part of Mother's Day gift?  Well, I have to tell you sadly that it just died on me early this week after three week life in my garden.  It just happened so quickly.  One day I came home after the work, I saw it lost all leaves, and the branches turned to brown.  I tried to water more often, but there was no use. 

Oh, how I miss those delicate purple flowers!

I know the gardening is all about trial and error, especially for the beginners.  So, I won't let all these disappointments hold me down.  Like what they said: "There is always a next year!"  So this weekend, after I spit out this confession,  I will spend some time to do some clean up, and then move on with a new spirit!!! 

Here are something in the garden that brought the smile to my face ...

Hibiscus

I got this Variegated Devils Backbone (Euphorbia tithymaloides 'Variegatus') after our January freeze with good discount since it had some leave damages.  Now it recovers pretty well.  I planted it in front of the hibiscus.  The orange and the variegated leaves contrast quite nicely.  Don't you think?

Variegated Devils Backbone (Euphorbia tithymaloides 'Variegatus') with Hibiscus

I can not help snapping pictures every time I pass by this Double Delight Rose bush!

This Dipladenia pink is my all time favorite in the garden, never failed to add the color into the garden.

Dipladenia pink

Caladium bulbs start popping up out the ground!  Should have planted more!

Caladiums

These two double layer Kalanchoes are my delightful surprise.  I thought they are cold weather bloomers.  So, after they finished blooming, I just stuck them into a shady corner.  See what I found this week!

Kalanchoe

These purple/blue verbena flowers really bright up the front yard flower bed.

Verbena

My first African Lily (Agapanthus africanus) bud of the year!

First African Lily (Agapanthus africanus) 

More Needle Flowers are showing up from this little plant.

Needle Flower (Augusta rivalis)
Family: Rubiaceae

Garden creatures are definitely enjoying this weather...

Brown Anole flashing its dewlap

Dragonfly on rose bud

White Peacock Butterfly

 Have a great weekend!