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!

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! 

Summer Garden Update

I realized that I have not showed  the summer blooming in my garden for quite some time now while busy working on my new playground.

For places up north, August may mark the end of the summer, but here in South Florida, we still have several months more of hot and humid summer weather agead.

Agapanthus africanus, or Lily of the Nile is almost coming to the end of the season.  Bees love buzzing around its beautiful blue flower cluster.

Just like this skipper can not have enough of the blue Porterweed...

My rose corner has been looking sad under the south Florida's summer heat.  Occasionally they also bloom, but the buds are smaller than what they are in cooler weather, and quickly wilted even before fulling opening.    I am very happy to see some of flowers actually open to a good size, and stay there for a couple of days recently.  Thanks for the recent rainy days that brought the heat down a little bit.

Three different colors of Siam Tulip or Summer Tulip (Curcuma alismatifolia) were purchased right after I came back from China.  How delighted I was when I saw they were sold at the big box store since I have been looking for this for a while!  I currently put them in an almost full sun area.  I just read on the Internet that if they are planted in a partial shaded area, the flower could hold up to three months!  Sounds like I should move them soon!

This Datura metel (Devil's trumpet) has been flowering one after another in my newly opened side flower bed.

This Variegated Canna Lily 'Pretoria' has grown taller than me, and the new flower spike keeps shooting from the center of green/cream stripped leaves.

This milkweed still blooms beautifully even its leaves are the constant Monarch caterpillars' favorite food.

More flowers are thriving under Florida Sun... This dwarf Allamanda is almost growing like weed that I have to keep trimming all those branches that go over the boundary.

Vincas (or periwinkle) is another plant that don't mind Florida Heat. 

So are these zinnias... Zinnia is such an easy summer plant. Even it is considered as annual plant, but it self sows easily and the seedlings come back every year.  Except the first one that was given by my younger son this year, all others are coming from last year's volunteers.

Oh, take a look at this!  Looks like we will have some papayas ready to harvest soon!  This tree's leaves all became crispy brown after our January freeze, now it not only bounces back, and also bears the fruit.  How wonderful the nature is!

Summer is a wonderful season for the plants. even this gardener may prefer the cool weather.  I still enjoy what summer has to offer to bring the different colors to my garden.

Left For A While, Garden Gone Wild

Having come back from my three week vacation in China for three days, while still adjusting the 12 hour time difference, I have started working, both on my daytime job and garden...

When I arrived home from the airport around mid-night, the first thing I did was examining my garden!  :)  Of course, I really could not see things clearly in the dark, but overall I knew the garden looked fine in my absence.  After a good night sleep, I headed back to the garden again the next morning.  All I can say is my garden just gone wild!

All ornamental sweet potato vines grew so much that extended to the ground beyond the container or the bed border, even I trimmed them to almost the base before I left! 

I have love and hate relationship with these sweet potato vines since they do add very nice color and textures into the garden, and very good to fill the blank space too, but meanwhile they sometimes could get out of control. However, they are very easy to trim, so I think I still love them more than hate :)

The dwarf Allamanda just had several buds before I left, now they are in full blooming.  Obviously I planted the lantana bush next to the allamanda too close (no surprise to this gardener) that lantana is not growing very well.

This devil's trumpet (Datura) was just two feet tall before I left, now it doubled the height, and already had about five blooms. Too bad those blooms are already fading, but I see several more buds there, so I guess I will not miss the beauty when they are in their glory peak.  I started the devil's trumpet early this spring from the seed, and once it sprouts, it just took off so fast like weeds!  (Speak of weeds, do I need to mention how many weeds I found in my flowerbeds?)

Here is the zinnia that my younger son gave to me, which I showed to you before I left.  Now it is really thriving.  I love the color, and especially because it is coming from my boy!

This is another type of zinnia that came from self-sown seedling of the last year plant.  This type has larger size of the flower but not as prolific as the small type.

The marigolds also spreaded so wide that almost took over my Agaves/Bulbines flower bed.   The below picture is just one marigold, which will give you an idea how big this plant could grow, and I planted five of them in that small flower bed!  I need to do lots of trimming to recover the agaves and bulbines hidden under them.

Rudbeckia 'Tiger Eye Gold' is still growing nicely, although some dead-heading is needed...

Several more flower clusters showed up on my Agapanthus africanus...

I do have several casualties though...

Two pineapple plants that I started from store-bought pineapples last year died from crown rotting.  I think the water coming from my daily sprinkle system in addition to the rain was just too much for them.  Well, it is okay for me since I always can buy more pineapples and plant the heads again.  For some reason, pineapple is always so easy to rot, these are the forth and fifth pineapples died on rotting even long after they were established.

My only daylily also died (sobbing...).  Actually it was not looking good even before I left.  The leaves turned brown, but now the leaves are completely gone.  I am not sure if it is normal summer dormancy, or it is real dead?  Anybody can tell me?

I have been doing lots of trimming and weeding in my garden these three days, and now the garden looks back into the order, with some empty space left.   I also have been to the garden center twice, and bought six new plants already! ( I will show you later.)  Since I could not buy any plants in China (it is illegal to bring plants oversea), I just could not wait any longer to visit the garden center! Then of course, I won't come home empty-handed :)

I am glad that now I am back to my garden.  It just felt so good when walking around my own garden even I have visited so many beautiful places in China.  Nothing can be compared to my own garden.    I know that you all understand this statement, don't you?

Big "Thank you" to my friends who hand-watered my plants that sprinkle system can not reach or the sprinkle turns out not sufficient!

Thanks for all the comments that you made to my three auto-scheduled posts during my vacation!

I have taken lots of pictures in China, and will make several posts when I get my life back to the normal.


Have a great weekend!