Spring has come in full speed

Spring has come in full speed, and I found myself hardly catching up.  The garden really looks wonderful in any angle, well, at least in my eyes :)

Nun's orchid (Phaius tankervilliae) bloomed in March.

Three Irises also started blooming in March.

Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina'

Dietas bicolor

Neomarica Gracilis

Five Amaryllis bulbs I bought last year, now two "Apple Blossom"s are blooming.  The other three are still taking their time, and have not even shown the sign of buds.

'Apple Blossom'

Caladiums started popping up everywhere around the garden.

This is the second year of this Peruvian Lily  (Eucrosia Bicolor) called my garden home.  After it finished blooming last year, it gradually lost all the leaves, and completely disappeared from the ground.  I almost thought maybe they are rotten in the ground, and I lost them for good.  A couple of weeks ago, several flower spikes popping up from the ground without any leaves around.  That was real sweet surprise for me.  Beautiful, huh?  The leaves appeared after the flowers were opened.

Last year I started some Marigolds from store bought seeds.  After they finished blooming, I collected those seed heads, and casually spread them in several containers, and then almost forgot them.  Surprisingly, the seedlings grow so fast and strong, better than those that I put much care for.  Since I had so many seedlings, I started putting them everywhere in my garden, and distributed them to the friends.

The new flowerbed I opened two months ago is also gradually filling in.  I added some annuals for the season color.  Vinca is becoming my favorite annuals.  They just thrive in the Florida sun without much care, and they reseed themselves easily.  They are almost like perennials in this South Florida Garden since they could bloom all year long.  I have several different colors, pink, white, lavender, and crimson.

Flax Lily, Daisy Bush, Marigolds, and double Portulaca (Portulaca 'Fairytale Cinderella')

Love how the leave of Aechmea blanchetiana 'Orangeade' reflected the morning sunshine in following two  pictures.

Other areas of the garden...

Spiderwort has grown from one small division into a big clump. (Thank you, Meems!)

Spiderwort (Tradescantia)

Dipladenia pink got a heavy trim the end of last year, now it is coming back stronger and more beautiful.

Happy Spring!

Here Comes the Rain!

I think the raining season finally comes to South Florida!  The past week, almost everyday we got some rain, enough kept my garden watered.  Everything looks more lush and green, including grass.

Rain lilies (Zephyranthes) opened after a good rain.  I only had one rain lily last year, and this year I bought one small pot from my favorite nursery, and came home found there were more than two dozen of bulbs packed in!  I planted them on the border of my flower bed.  They were still quite young.  Expecting next year they can really make the show when they multiply more and open flowers all together.

Meems at Hoe and Shovel got me hooked on caladiums with her beautiful caladium pictures in her garden.   I do not have much shade or partial area in my garden, but I still managed to squeeze about 75 bulbs into different flower beds and containers. 

I think this is ‘Florida Cardinal’.  

Meems also sent me some of her favorite ‘Miss Muffet’ caladium.  They blend in the Bromeliad corner so nicely .  Just love the texture and the color! Thanks, Meems! 

I need to buy more of these.  This year it was sold out on the online store when I was ready to put the order.

The same bromeliad corner from another angle.  The white caladium in the distant is ‘White Christmas’.

Don’t know what is the name of this caladium.

This is what happened when you bought those “mixed” packages, and had no idea what would come up when you planted.  Maybe I should sort them out before they disappear to the ground this fall, so that I can have more planned color arrangement next year.

Although I don’t mind this combination in the container…

Firespike (Odontonema strictum) is setting lots of flower scapes.  Hope I can see hummers visiting this one soon.

Self seeded white Zinnias and pink Vincas are becoming a nice combination in this flower bed.

I tucked different types of house plants into this container and now it mixes with all different textures and colors together quite nicely.    Sometimes simply throwing something together might not be a bad thing.

Yay!  Finally I got several shots of a Monarch butterfly on my Zinnias!  Not very clear shots, but I was so happy that I finally found some butterfly other than ‘White Peacock’ visiting my garden, and I was able to capture it in my picture.

More Siam tulip flowers…

Now we have more rain, Ground orchids are picking up the speed to shoot more flower scapes.

It is nice to see this Griffinia liboniana is reblooming! 

My family is going away for a two week vacation starting this weekend.  We are going to visit YellowStone, Grand Canyon and other national parks in the West.  Kids are excited, and me too!

This raining season came just in time, so that I don’t need to worry too much about my garden.

If I don’t post again before I go, Happy 4th of July, and Happy Gardening, my friends!

Blogger Challenge and Hooray for the Rain

I have been having issues with commenting certain blogger sites for a couple of weeks now.  I could not leave any comments on those blogs that use "Embedded below post" as Comments setting.  I read over the Internet that lots of people are having the same issue, and seems it is an issue of Blogger.  I still can leave comment if you have the comments setting as "Full page" or "Pop-up window".

Today, I finally had time to try using Google Chrome to visit those sites with "embedded below post" setting, and was able to leave comments!  Unfortunately, not every computer I use outside of the home has Google Chrome installed.  I really have missed leaving comments on my favorite blogs.  

South Florida has been in drought condition for quite a while now.  I had to hand water my garden almost everyday to keep it happy.  With a busy schedule and hot hot summer temperature, dragging the hose all over the garden really becomes chore for me.  I almost do not have much time left to actually enjoy the garden.

For the last a couple of days, finally we got some rain, not enough, but better than nothing.  Hooray for the rain!!!

Before I end this quick post, I thought I can share some of flowers in my summer garden that I have not got time to share. I did not take much pictures recently, and hope with more rain coming, my garden could look more beautiful, and I will have the desire to take lots of pictures again.

portulaca double with Red star, Caladium in containers

caladiums and ornamental sweet potato vines

Lemon Lime Warneckii

Datura metel
(Devil's trumpet)

Arabian Jasmine

Miss Muffet caladium

Sun flower

allamanda

Mealycup sage and purple fountain grass

I wish more rain will come my way!