"Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity. " ~Lindley Karstens
Showing posts with label Pentas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pentas. Show all posts

Saturday, May 21, 2011

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?

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Blue Fox Tail Orchid and Other Summer Blooms

Just want to share some blooms that caught my eyes in my garden these days.

This Blue Fox Tail Dendrobium Orchid was a house-warming gift we received last year.  It is blooming again now. I love its deep purple color, not sure why the name is "blue" fox tail. Seems to me that blue and purple are often interchangeable in the plants world... Well, whatever name it is called, I just love it!
Blue Fox Tail Dendrobium Orchid
I found out that the best way to grow orchids is "leave them alone".  When I "over" cared about them before, they died.    Now I just put them outdoor in a bright shaded area, and water them maybe once a week based on if they got the rainfall or not, and fertilize them occasionally.  They seem love that way, there have been three orchids rebloomed for me this year since I learned this "tip" :)

While the ground orchids planted in the front garden are not doing very well, the ones located in backyard a more shaded area are shooting more flower spikes now.  I think I need to move those in the front to a more shaded area as well.
Ground Orchids (Spathoglottis)
These marigolds are the ones I started from seeds this year.  They just thrive in the Florida Sun!  I really love the golden/yellow/orange/red tones in it.  The color just looked so rich!


Marigolds
This concrete piglet statue was left in the mud by the previous owner when we moved in.  I dug it out and cleaned it.  I am not sure if it was originally made as a planter since the opening is very shallow and no drainage hole. I planted some purslane in it, and it now looks cute with a blooming body, doesn't it? 

Purslane
This buttercup plant was self seeded from last year's plants.  It had so many seedlings that I have to pull lots out.  They open the flowers in the morning and close in the evening.  Then the cycle repeats one more time next day before it dies, then other flowers start opening again.
Mounding Buttercup
A couple of weeks ago, Floridagirl at Peace In The Valley posted a picture of this Rudbeckia 'Tiger Eye Gold' on her blog. I immediately fell love into it, and thought it would brighten my west flower bed border very nicely. The next thing I knew, three of them found the home in my garden :)
Rudbeckia 'Tiger Eye Gold' 
I found the flowers of the Pentas in the micro picture look so delicately beautiful with all those details in each small flower, which we usually don't notice with human eyes.
Pentas
This rain lily was my recent purchase.  Only one was found.  I really love the water colored pink on this flower.  Wish it can multiply itself fast, so I can have more of this beauty!
Rain Lily (Zephyranthes candida)
Happy Summer Gardening!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

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?

Thursday, March 18, 2010

My Awaken Garden

With weather's warming up, my semi-dormant garden is finally awaken!  There are quite some plants in blooming right now.  I will only show you a few of them today so that I don't bore you with a long post :)

Various Pentas Lanceolata (繁星花) are very attractive to butterflies.  They got severe frost bites during the unsual freeze weather we experienced in January. Now they all recovered quite well.  Wish the butterflies can get the messages and come to visit them very soon.
 

Weeping (trailing) lantana lavender is nicely trailing down from the container.  I also have the yellow color of this type in my garden, but it has not started blooming yet.
 Lantana camara (马缨丹) is also recovering from the frost bites and starting their blooming season.  This is another butterfiles' favorite.   I love the fact that its flower head shows different colors of red, yellow, organge and purple.

Geraniums (Pelargonium x hortorum, 洋葵/天竺葵) are proven to be cold-hardy in my south florida garden.  They went through the freeze weather just fine.  Only the leaves got some dark purple marks, but it never stopped blooming.  I love the spetacular display of the large flower clusters (across 4 to 5 inches) that rise above the leaves one after another.  They really added lots of brightness to my garden.  I think they are perfect border flowers.

 


This week there are two kinds of roses blooming: Rosa 'Perfume Delight' and Queen Elizabeth Grandiflora.  
Rosa 'Perfume Delight'


Queen Elizabeth Grandiflora (3/16/2010)
Queen Elizabeth Grandiflora (same flower two days later on 3/18/2010)

They are not located in my "Rose Corner". Since these were the very first two rose bushes I planted in my garden, I did what everybook told me to do: planted in a full sun area. I soon realized that south florida "full sun" in the summer is just too much, even for "sun-loving" roses! In the summer, the flower would soon wilt right after opening the bud, and the edge of the flower would be scorched. 

They are definitely more beautiful and hold much longer in this cool early spring (around 60 to 70 Fahrenheit) of Florida.  Check the change of the same Queen Elizabeth Grandiflora flower in two days range above.

 I hope my newly planted six rose bushes will find the "Rose Corner" a happier place to live in the summer since they do get several hours of afternoon shade.

That is all for today.   Have a relaxing weekend!

I will use this as my second entry to the Blooming Friday. For other bloomings all over the world, please check out Katrarina's site at http://rosorochris.blogspot.com/.
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