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! 

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. 

Blooming Friday -- Rain Washed Garden

It was pouring this friday afternoon... 

I happened work at home today.  Between the meetings, I decided to take a break.  The rain just stopped, and I could not help myself to walk into the garden with a camera in my hand.  I was so immersed in the fresh air after the rain, and a rain washed garden..., something about that just touchs the soft spot in my heart.

Allow me to show you some flowers/foliages in my rain-washed garden in this early spring. 

I will also use this as my first (belated) Blooming Friday entry.

Newly purchased yellow and pink double layer Kalanchoe.

These two rose buds are waiting to open.

Bromeliads after the rain are even more beautiful.

The only desert rose blooming today in my garden

Dragon Wing Begonia's is heavily blooming in this season.

Livingstone Daisy "Mezoo Trailing Red" and Jasmine

New resident in my garden: Inca Lily (Alstroemeria)

Two different colors of Ground Orchids (Spathoglottis)

Jatropha tree

Sedum hybrid Florida Friendly Gold

This one is a gift from my friend.  The tag does not say the name, only know it is some type of succulent.  Anybody recoginizes it?

Hope you enjoyed it!  Have a nice weekend you all!

Update: Just found out from one garden center today that the succulent from the last picture is: Portulacaria afra.  It is also called "Elephant Bush", "Elepant Plant", or "Small leaf jade".

A Busy Weekend in the Garden

I have been busy in the garden this weekend! 

For the past a couple of weeks,  the weather in south florida has been on the cold side (Majority of days' temperature was in 50s, and nights in 40s, or even high 30s),  some very cold tender plants in my garden again show some sign of cold damages.   So, with this weekend's warm weather (day temperature in 70s, and night went to 60s), I just can't help staying outside in the garden as much as I can and get my hands in the soil again! Hmm, felt so good!

Friday night I potted up some cuttings I previousely put in the water, including three Angel's Trumpets cuttings from my friend at work, and some double layered hibiscus cuttings. We will see if I can be successful on these cuttings.

On Saturday, when we went shooping at Costco, I was hoping to find some new plants there, and I was not disapointed!  This is what I came home with:  Two boxes of two-root dormant rose bushes!

The type in the left box is called "New Day".  Here is the description on the box: "Bright , clear yellow roses of good form and spicy fragrance that bloom continuously through the season.  medium-sized bush. Everblooming Hybrid Tea Rose".  Yellow is missing in my rose collection, and the spicy fragrance is an extra bonus.  So, I have to have it :)

The type in the right box is called "Peace". Here is the description on the box: "Magnificent blooms of soft, clear yellow edged with pink, on strong stems, large, dark, leathery foliage. Vigorous. Everblooming Hybrid Tea Rose".  The bicolor again is something that led me to buy it.  I hope it lives up to its promise.

I know, I know, they are not on the rootstocks (Fortuniana and Dr. Hughey) that are perfect for Florida climate, but with the color this lovely, and the price so tempting ($11.99 for one two-roots combo), I just can not resist buying two combos!  If not because my limited garden space, I might have bought more colors.

On the way home from Costco, hubby needed to go to a store to buy something for the swimming pool, and the Home Depot JUST happens to be nearby.  So, I asked him to drop me off there first to JUST take a look :)  They had lots of plants stocked for the spring, and I really could not JUST take a look.  As a result, these two pots of Ground Orchids (Spathoglottis) followed me home...

They are in two different colors.  The first one is kind of purple, pink combination (not as purple as 'Grapette').  I guess it is "Sorbet".  Any thought? 

The second one is more on pink side. Who knows what is the name of this color in Ground Orchid family?

When we finally came home, it was almost the dinner time.  After I fixed a quick dinner for the whole family,  I headed out to the garden to start dividing the orchids.

The original plan was dividing each pot into two sections.  However, I quickly discovered each pot has very big clumps of plants.  I ended to divide the purple one into three sections, and the pink one into four sections, total seven divisions out of two containers (total cost of $29.98)! Not a bad deal, huh? 

Although it was said that Spathoglottis plicata needs full sun to bloom, but in Florida, it prefers to getting some afternoon shade.  With this in mind, I planted three of them in the west side of the front yard, same flower bed as the African Iris.  They are under a small oak tree, which I hope will provide some shade to the

orchids.

After planting three orchids, it was already around 10:00 at night.  So I decided to call it a day.  When I went on bed, I was locating a right spot in my garden in my mind for the rest of four plants...

Sunday, my kids had academic competitions and a field day at Sunday Chinese school.  The only time I can find for gardening is again after the dinner :)

I eventually decided I will plant the rest of orchids in the backyard.  The only spot I can find that has partial shade in the afternoon is west flower bed, at the corner that close to the house.  After moving out two Devil's backbone plants (Pedilanthus tithymaloides) to a near by location, and two pineapple plants to a more sunny place, I finally got the space for two of ground orchids.  I think they look quite good behind the stock (Matthiola) plants in bright pink color.  You also can see the devil's backbone at the left bottom corner.

There are still two divisions of ground orchids not planted in the ground yet.  I potted them up for now until I can find some other places in my garden.  I think I might need another flower bed on the sides of the house, so that I can have more plants that love partial shade.  That will be on my to-do list for this year.

As for those four newly purchased dormant rose bushes, I will leave them in the box until next weekend.  So stay tunned :)

How was your weekend?  Hope you all had a very relaxing, or fullfilled weekend!