Early blooming of Daylilies and Other Things in the Garden

Since this is my first post of the year, let me first say "Happy New Year" to you all !!! Wish you have all the fun of the gardening in this new year!

Every year, from early Spring through the summer, I admire those beautiful pictures of Daylilies from other people's blog, wondering when I can own some of these beauties in my garden.

For some reasons, Daylilies are hard to find in South Florida.  Occasionally, the big box stores have some for sale.  I brought two home in two different times, and both died after the initial blooming.  I did some researches, and found out that among thousands of Daylilies, there are three foliage types: Dormant, Semi-evergreen, and Evergreen.  For people live deep South like me, Evergreen is the one that will survive our long-lasting hot weather.  No wonder I failed twice since those two were all Domant types! Then why they even sold them in the store since Daylilies are not supposed to be a one-time thing in the garden?!

Anyway, since I did not find any local nurseries to buy Evergreen Daylilies, I looked over the Internet.  I ordered 5 bareroot Evergreen double-fans from http://smokeysdaylilygardens.com/, and they arrived at the end of last October.

This week, two of them are already blooming! I am not sure if it is only because they are the early bloomers ( 'Lavender Silence' is labled as "Extra-early", and "Whooperee' is labled as "Early-mid" ), or also because of the mild winter we are having in South Florida.  Nevertheless, I am excited to see these beauties are finally finding a home in my garden!  If they all perform well after this summer, I think I will order more this fall.  With a small garden, Daylilies are the ones I can find some space to squeeze in.

Whooperee
Evergreen, early-mid, rebloomer, 6.5" flower, 24" scape height,  fragrant, recurved

Lavender Silence
Evergreen, extra-early, 6.5" flower, 22" scape height,  ruffled, fragrant, recurved

Other things going on in the garden...

This Rex Begonia is in a shady area, and recently started shooting up the flower scapes.  I bought it last year.  After one year, it has been growing nicely.  I have separated it into four plants.  I think after a couple of years, I can expand them to the whole border that surrounds the air conditioner area.  Even when it is not blooming, I love the texture of this plant.

Begonia

Love this combo in this part of flower bed.  White Vincas,  Orange Indian Blanket flowers, pink Pentas. That purple leaf plant with white dotted flowers is Alternanthera dentata 'Purple Knight'.  Some says 'Purple Knight' is kind of invasive, but I have not found it is a big problem for me.  It does have some seedlings, but only a handful I found so far.  I can easily pulled them out, or give them to the friends.  In the winter, they are full of those tiny white flowers, brighten the winter garden, and give us Floridians some snowy touch :)

Another combo I like:  White Angelonia angustifolia, colorful coleus, and blue Lobelia erinus Techno Heat.  This Lobelia is supposed to withstand the hottest summer temperatures while blooming nonstop.  I will see if it holds true to Florida heat as well.

My front entry is quite colorful this winter.  I removed some copperleaf bushes in the front, and put two cast iron cranes statues there together with some bromeliads.

This philodendron 'moonlight' behind the cranes statues started as a 3-in house plant from the big box store.  Oh boy, how much it has grown!  Wonder how much bigger it will get if I put it in the ground.

philodendron 'moonlight'

and I did not know it blooms as well!!!

philodendron 'moonlight'  bloom

Snapdragon flower is one of my favorite winter annuals...

Pertunia is perfect for containers.  Red is used to combo the white.

Purple petunia is in this container I have just redone, together with Flax lily and purple Verbenas.

Red and  white petunias are in this pot with 'Red Star'.

My most favorite red-white stripe petunia is in this container.

Orchids that are currently blooming...

The first is a Cattleya orchid gifted from my friend this Christmas.  Love this soft yellow.

This Moth orchid is reblooming the second time for me since I bought it one year ago.  I have special thing for any orchid flowers with dots. 

I recently purchased this Mini Oncidium Equitant from a big box store.  It has five flower spikes.  

It looks so pretty and fits well in the pot that my husband brought for me from China last year.

I am really enjoying my winter garden.  I have to say I am spoiled by this year's Florida winter.

Garden Bloggers Blooming Day - December 2010

Talking about the cold weather and its impacts to the garden seems a trend on Florida blogs these days, thanks to our unusual December freeze or near freeze days these two weeks.

Last week, I was on a business trip in Phoenix when the first cold front hit the Florida.  Since I lived in south Florida, and the forecast showed the lowest would only go around 37 Fahrenheit, I did not worry too much.  I did bring all my orchids indoors though, and dug one clump for each color of my ground orchids from ground, and potted them up so that they can stay in the the garage.  The rest of the ground orchids were left in the ground.  I just could not take any chance on those beautiful ground orchids since they are supposed to be frost tender.   Parents also watered the plants during those coldest days for me to keep the overall health of the plants.

When I came home last Friday, I was happy that my garden looked fine, except for some cold tender plants, such as coleus, sweet potato leaves, and pentas had leave damage.  That was fine with me, coleus was about finished anyway, and sweet potato leaves will bounce back in no time once the weather warms up.  I also found that my Tropical Lilac's (Cornutia grandifolia) leaves were fried to crispy and fell off even with only two near freeze days.  I guess it was called "Tropical" for reasons.

Early this week, the temperature went down around 32 degree Fahrenheit, I covered the Agaves, tender bromeliads, ground orchids that are still in the ground, and the Tropical Lilac with old sheets.  I am happy that they seem have pulled through just fine, and the weather will warm up the rest of the week.

As a token of small celebration, I decided to join Garden Bloggers Blooming Day, hosted by May Dreams Gardens, for the very first time.

This coleus is planted under an Angel's Trumpet tree and next to the house wall.  Seems the protection of the tree and the warmth reflected from the wall did help this one survive.  The leave has more red than it had in the warm weather.

This Cigar Plant (Cuphea melvillea) also shows more red color in the cold weather.

My all time favorite in the garden, dragon wing begonias.  It is tougher than it looks, and the cold weather did not do any damages to it.

Another Dragon Wing Begonia...  Even when it is not flowering, I love its foliage.

This hawaii Ti is supposed to be cold-tender plant, but since it is planted against the house wall, and behind the Plumeria pudica bush, the leaves were untouched, and is still showing beautiful bright pink foliage.

The red salvia is perfect Christmas color, don't you think?

I noticed this pentas showing different shade of pink on the flower pentals, not sure if it is because of the cold weather, or the age of the flowers. 

This is my newest ground orchid, purchased two weeks before the last week's cold front.  I left it in its container, so that it can be brought indoor easily for protection.  Now I have four colors of ground orchids.  I can foresee this collection will grow more in the future.

Indian Blanket flowers don't seem mind the cold weather at all.  They brighten my Agave garden corner so beautifully.

Kalanchoe is the cold weather bloomer.  I had three colors last year, deep pink, light pink double, and golden yellow double.  This year, I couldn't find the pink double anywhere.  I wonder if the pink double turned to yellow double somehow.

The geranium is another cold weather bloomer returned from last year.

This is my first year to grow Dianthus, and they are quite happy to grow in the ground.  I did not do any covering for them in the cold weather, and they proved themselves as such little tough plants.

The red-orange flowers from Bolivian Sunset Gloxinia (Gloxinia sylvatica) are giving the welcome warmth to the winter garden and this gardener too.

My roses are obviously enjoying this cold weather.  They hardly bloomed during the summer, and now they came back to life, with bigger flowers.

Snapdragon loves the cold weather too!

Impatiens looked quite comfortable tucked in the container.   I love to have some bright color in the container, especially in the winter.

Hope you enjoyed my first GBBD post.  For me, it is nice to have a record for the plants survived our first two rounds of cold weather.  Although I hope the rest of the winter (or should I say the up-coming winter?) will be mild, I know I have to be prepared, and enjoy what I have now.

Autumn Colors -- My Favorites October 2010

One thing I have missed living in Florida is seeing the autumn colors on the trees and in the gardens.   My hometown in China has distinct season changes, and when I was kid, I loved to see autumn breeze blew those orange, brown, red and yellow leaves off  the trees, and then I would chase those leaves along the road. 

Yes, I do love living in Florida, especially I can garden here all year long.  But every year this time, I still find myself missing those autumn colors, and always try to find something around me that can remind me those time I spent in China when I was a kid.

Here are the autumn colors I found in my garden. 

Crotons' colorful leaves look like this all year long, but I found they seem more noticeable in Fall.

This bush has green leaves with yellow spots.  It seems quite popular in South Florida landscape. Both my previous and current houses had this in the garden before we moved in.  They seem to be just there all year long, and I even have not bothered to find its name until today!  My camera did find it is quite a good Autumn color for my collection, don't you think?   I know I will have the answer soon from my garden friends out there...

The leaves of Acalypha Wlkesiana (Copperleaf or Beafsteak) are the ones that closest to the autumn colors in my mind.  They do change the color from green to red/orange between the new leaves and more matured ones.

Bromeliads are showing their colorful foliages even mother plants are fading away.

Orange color is the most cheerful Autumn color in the garden. 

Bulbine Frutescens

Hibiscus

Aechmea blanchetiana 'Orangeade'

Indian Blanket Flowers (Gaillardia pulchella)

The following two plants are newly additions to the garden.  I found they also have nice Autumn colors.  I bought the first one without any label on it.  Is it Hawaiian Ti?

This one was simply marked as "Cordyline".  Anybody knows its variety name?

Firespike (Odontonema strictum) just pasted its peak time.   This is the first time I have ever planted Firespike.  Is this its seed pod?  It does look like Autumn "Fruit" to me...

This begonia has silver/purple color when the leaves mature, another beautiful Autumn color.

Various coleus in the garden has been making my garden so colorful for months, but today I found they actually make a good fall collection too!

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After publishing the post initially, I realized that it is that time of the month again!  Every 25th day of each month, Susan at Simply Susan! invites us to join her to publish our favorites of the month.  I think this post is perfect for that, Autumn colors are definitely my favorites of my October Garden!

You may also have noticed that it has been about one month since my last post, which was for September Favorites.   I have been quite busy for months now both at work and home.  Recently my parents also came to visit us from China. They will stay with us for six months, and kids can have more time to know their grandparents.  Parents are both in their 70s.  They have visited us three times since I came to US almost sixteen years ago, and this time I really feel how age can impact a person.  I treasure this opportunity that I can stay with them for a period of time, and finally can take care of them like they have nurtured me when I was young.  Even I still go back to China to visit them, I know the time I am having with them now is so precious.  So, I guess between trying to be a good wife, mother, and daughter, and holding a full time job, I won't have much time to blog.  I know I will still enjoy visiting my favorite blogs, and might comment when I can.  Hopefully,  I also can occasionally show some new flowers from my garden in my blog.

Happy Gardening, My Friends!