Something Old, Something New

Have been quite busy recently at work...   Meanwhile my garden has been enjoying the afternoon showers, and putting lots of colors to welcome fall season.  Although Fall in Florida is almost same as the summer, only with cooler mornings and evenings, and shorter days.

Let me show you something that caught my eyes recently... Something old, and something new...

I had purchased two ground orchids after our hard freeze days in January, the pink one has been blooming profoundly for a couple of months now. 

The dark pink one just started their show recently, but with stronger flower spikes and slightly bigger flowers.

 

This yellow one was a recent purchase. The color was so bright that it almost jumped out and shouted to me in the gardening center "Hello, bring me home!". How could I resist it?

I have heard from other Florida gardeners that ground orchids are not cold-hardy, so I will dig them out and bring them indoors if it ever reaches the freezing  point again this coming winter (oh no, please). 

This desert rose (Adenium obesum ) has been a great performer since early spring.   In my experience, this is such a carefree plant in the container.  Drought tolerant, and heat/humidity lover.  As long as you don't over water it, and bring it under the covered patio or indoor during the freezing days, this plant will reward you lots of flowers through the four seasons in Florida climate.

 My friend gave me some desert rose seeds, see what I got out of them!  Looks like more desert roses will reside in my garden!

My first Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) flower!  I planted the seeds in the spring, after a long waiting, finally it opened its first flower this past weekend.  I am counting on them for my winter garden color.

Another one of the garden firsts is on the way...   This frangipani (Plumeria) was started from a cutting early this year, now finally it shows its first bud.  Yay! At least I can see the flowers before it drops all the leaves in the winter.

This Bridal Bouquet (Plumeria pudica) is also a new resident in my garden.  I have seen this blooming beautifully with bountiful snow white flowers in the neighbourhood, and think it would look great in my garden too.  It has three of them in the container, and I planted them in the ground in a tri-angle setting, hoping they can form a nice cluster next year.  For now, I will just enjoy the flowers from this young plant.

Firespike (Odontonema strictum) also bloomed first time in the garden (wow, there seems lots of  "firsts" in the garden recently).  The scarlet flowers rise above the dark green foliage look so stunning.  No wonder it has another common name as "Scarlet Flame".   I am thinking to use this replacing some of boring hedges in my garden.  Butterflies and hummingbirds would love it too!

  

 Vinca (Periwinkle) is always one of my favorites, and blooms almost year around.  I put two of the self seedlings into this swan planter, and one chooses growing around the neck of the swan, and the other trails down.  I thought this looks very pretty especially I did not arrange them in that way on purpose.

Just bought this Rose of Sharon (Althea, Hibiscus syriacus) last week.  This flower seems have distorted, but the skipper doesn't mind it at all.

When the flowers are fully opened...

There are so many to do and enjoy in the garden. With the approaching cooler weather, I wish I can have more time to be in my garden.

Am I Ready To Go On My Vacation?

I am leaving for China tuesday morning for a three week vacation with my husband and two boys.  This would be the first time I leave my garden for this long time since I had this garden.

While I am excited to see my parents, sister and other family members again in China, I have also been very busy preparing the garden for my absence.

Although this is the raining season in South Florida, rain has been rather unpredictable these days.  I just can not take that risk to depend my plants' well being  on the natural rainfall, so we have been examining the sprinkle system.  Husband switched and adjusted some spray heads to make sure the water is spraying to the flower bed, not the pool!   My friends also will help me to hand water some plants that sprinkle system can not reach. 

For the plants that are still in the pots, I either planted them in the ground, or repotted them in bigger containers and mulched them so that they don't dry out quickly.  They are also repositioned to a spot that sprinkle system can reach.

Some plants were fed, trimmed...  Flower beds were weeded... 

Am I ready to go on my vacation? hmmm, I think so.... 

Before I leave, let me walk around the garden one more time to see what I can show you ...

Oh, first I must show you this zinnia flowers!  This was brought home by my eight year old son from the school, as the Parents' Day gift.  (Here, the school often combines Mother's day and Father's day together at the end of the school year to have a party that invite parents to join.)  After I planted it in the garden, my son keeps asking me when I can show the flowers on my blog, "Mom, Please tell them, I gave this  to you." , this was his words, very proud of his gift! 

I was kind of waiting for the plants growing a little bigger and having more blooms.  But now I want to show you first, I always can show you again when it is bigger, right? :)  The flowers are yellow/peach color, fit quite well in my Agave/Bulbine flower bed.

I bought this Variegated Canna Lily 'Pretoria' about two months ago.  When I bought it, I thought it would bloom very soon since it was quite big already (2 feet tall).  I had no idea if it is a dwarf type or the standard one since this is my first time to grow canna and did not have any knowledge about the cannas.   Only I found it kept growing taller and taller after I put it in the ground.  I almost thought I did something wrong  to promote growing the leaves only, not the blooming.  It is now almost 5 feet tall, and finally several days ago it had two flower spikes emerging, just on time for me to see before I leave!

Canna americanallis var. variegata
Common names: Praetoria, Bengal Tiger, Austriostriata

Isn't it gorgeous?  I love it!  Worth the long waiting...  Well, even it does not bloom, I will keep it for its variegated green/cream leaves. 

You might still remember how I whined about my milkweed munched by Monarch caterpillars to the bare sticks.  Now the leaves grow back, and bloom again! Yay!

Gardenia is setting the new round of flowers again.  I just can not get enough of this heavenly scent!

Can I show you one more time  my Blue Fox Tail Orchid?  Hope it is here to stay when I return!

Different purslanes in my garden are loving South Florida's heat, even this gardener prefers cool weather :)

Loving the soft pink color of this Vinca (Periwinkle)!

Cats' Wiskers (Orthosiphon stamenis) seems adapting my garden quite well.  After the initial blooms faded since I brought it home early this month, now it is setting the new blooms all over again. 

Cats' Wiskers (Orthosiphon stamenis)

The rosa ixora bushes in the front garden are finally blooming again after experiencing the unusual freeze weather in South Florida this past winter.

This skipper is enjoying the sweet nectar of 'Dipladenia pink'...

Although the Desert rose has passed its peak time, it still has lots of flowers.

This dwarf Allamanda was killed to the ground in the winter freeze, and it took half year to grow back to its original size, and now finally showing the flower buds all over again.  I am sure when I return, this bush will be full of bright yellow trumpet shape flowers!

Ok, I better go to finish my packing now...  (Am I really ready to leave my garden?)

You all have a wonderful summer, or a beautiful winter for my friends in south hemisphere!

Happy gardening!

**  Since I might not be able to post anything in China (blogspot is blocked over there for some reason), I have prepared three posts that will be auto published on scheduled time, so this site won't be completely "cold" during my absence :)  I will be able to read the comments, but not able to reply.  I will reply to you if the comments are some questions that need a answer from me either by visiting your blog, or on my post. I am sure I will have some pictures I take in China to share with you all once I return.  **

It Is Not Always Pretty

By no mistake, my gardening passion all started with pure admiration for the beauty. The endless beauty of the plant world gives me the great temptation that I can not resist.

With one short year of gardening experience, I also quickly learned that it is not always pretty around the garden, and that perspective is still the hard part for me to deal with. 

Like what I found on my new Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia) leaves...  I caught two of these in the act!  I used two sticks to grab these two big guys off before they could nibble away all the leaves. 

What is this?? Except eating the leaves, do they do any other harms to the plants?

Ugh!  The below one really grossed me off!!!   These are two leaves I took off from my Lantana.  There are more of these ugly leaves on the same plant.  

My fellow gardeners, please help me to identify this pest, and what should I do with it to save my lantana?

I experienced the same thing last year with the lantana planted in the same spot. I sprayed with fungicide, and seems did not do much good. The plant stopped blooming all the sudden. When this plant regrow its leaves after this past winter's freeze, I was glad that new leaves looked healthy, and it even quickly bloomed. I thought the freeze might have killed whatever that has bothered it. I guess I laughed too early, now the same nightmare came back again!

Ok, enough of the ugliness.  I need some beauty to help me calm down...  Here are some of flowers currently blooming in my garden.

Rose corner is still going strong although some leaves have started some black spots.  It seems not impacting  the blooms though...

Peace

Peace (with color variation)

Double Delight

Desert rose (Adenium Obesum) is blooming its heart out!  Some cluster contains more than 20 flowers, which made the branch so heavy that it bended down.

Desert Rose (Adenium Obesum )

These marigolds are the ones I started from seeds this year.

Marigold

These pink vincas are self seeded from last year's plants.  They grow like a weed without much care.

Vinca (Periwinkle)

New addition to the garden... Love the purple leaves and white flower combination.

Charmed Wine Oxalis

Ok, now I need to go back to think about how to get rid of those ugliness shown in the beginning...

Desert Rose -- Adenium Obesum

Desert Rose (Adenium Obesum)

I bought this desert rose in August last year, not long after we moved to the current house.  It kept blooming for months until the winter time. 

Here is how it looked like back in August last year.

August 2009

Some people grow the desert rose as house plant, but mine is in a full sun area outdoor.  It is said that it likes to be a little root bound, so I kept mine in its original 10 inch pot.  It seems quite happy in it even it has grown quite a bit now.  I then put the container in another decorative urn to hide the ugly plastic pot.

Here is how it looks like now.  I has grown about twice bigger since last August.  When it grows taller, the lower part of the leaves fall off.  The flowers then show in cluster at the new growth of the leaves, at the tips of the branches.

May 2010

The desert rose is an evergreen succulent native to the tropical regions of Africa and Arabia. It likes the hot humid weather of South Florida. 

I water it every other day in the summer, but maybe only once a week in the winter.  It should be brought indoor if the temperature drops to below 40.  This past winter, I brought it indoor only for those nights that close to the freeze point.  For other cold nights, I just kept it on the covered patio, close to the house wall.  It did just fine, and even started flowering as early as in February.

Now the weather has reached the optimum condition that this plant loves.  The recent heat and humidity has brought prolific blooming time of this plant!  Everyday I check it, it seems opening more flowers and have more buds on the way.

This is an easy plant to grow in Florida in my opinion. Except the water, I also put some slow released fertilizer in the container, that is about it. It seems have no pest problem so far. The only thing needs to be careful is not to over water it since it could cause root rot. I once tried to root a cutting. The cutting was able to grow one set of leaves, but it eventually died due to the root rot maybe because I watered a little bit too much than it needs, especially when the root system is not fulled developed.

I love the different shade of the pink on its flower petals, dark pink on the edge, and pastel pink in the inner side, and a touch of yellow in the center.  Sometimes it reminds of Chinese water color painting. 

Do you also grow desert rose in your garden?

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".