Flowers in the Rain

The past week we have been experiencing almost daily afternoon showers.  I just love the flowers with rain drops on, so fresh and lovely.

Chinese Rain Bell, or Strobilanthes flaccidifolius, really becomes "Rain Bell" after the rain!  Did you see the reflection in the rain drops?  Oh, that tiny spider also caught in the picture!

Strobilanthes flaccidifolius
Chinese Rain Bell

This is the first time louisiana iris bloomed in my garden.  Meems at Hoe and Shovel was so generous to send me two rhizomes last year.  Thank you, Meems!

Rain lily really lives up to its name.  I saw there are more flower scapes coming up this afternoon.

Rain Lily
Zephyranthes

Belinda's dream is doing great in my garden, recent rain seems have promoted lots of flower buds on her as well.

Belinda's Dream

Hibiscus 'Anderson Crepe'

I am loving the flowers in the rain! Aren't you?

Here I Present The "Oskar"

My amaryllis "Oskar" is blooming!  This is the second amaryllis in blooming out of my five newly purchased bulbs.  It already had flower stalk the time I purchased.  The first one 'Apple Blossom' bloomed about 10 days ago, and it now has faded away.

Although I wish this one also can have three or more flowers like 'Apple Blossom", I do love its rich red color.  It looks so showy in my fall garden.

This is my first time to grow amaryllis, and currently they are all in their individual containers.   I don't know if they will bloom again in the spring.  Maybe there won't be enough time for the bulbs to restore the energy for reblooming.  We shall see.  Should I plant them in the ground after they finish the flowers?

Looking forward to gain some experience of my own to grow the amaryllis...

The weather has been so nice in South Florida recently.  I enjoy the cool breeze when working in the garden at night.  Yes, I usually work in the garden at night.  With a day time job, dinner and kids homework after work, night time is my time to be in the garden, relaxing and happy.   Although I also realized that I probably should have planted more white flowers so that I can enjoy more of my garden under the moonlight.  Especially after the daylight saving time ended a couple of weeks ago, I often found myself come home in the dark.

That made the morning walks in the garden even more precious.  I managed to take some pictures of my new bloomers during some of my "quick" morning garden walks.

Well, this doesn't have the flower, but this variegated Devil's Backbone is showing its pinkish seasonal color.  I guess gardeners know more about season changes in Florida.

This double layered hibiscus is the one I started from a cutting.  This is its first bloom.    I don't know its name, and I am not the fan of the peach color.  But my camera found it quite eye catching today...

Double layered impatiens...  They love the cool weather as much as I do, and started blooming prolifically recently.  When taking the close-ups, they resemble the red rose so much.

Kalanchoes also are the cool weather bloomers.  I have three different colors of Kalanchoes, and this golden yellow double layered one is my favorite.   Ok, I guess now you know I seem love double layered flowers of any kind, although I think I also love their single versioned counterparts as well.

First helliconia flower!  With a tiny garden, I am a little afraid to grow helliconia since they tend to take up lots of space.  This one is still in the container. Anybody knows if this one could spread wider and bigger as well?

This Seemannia sylvatica (formerly Gloxinia sylvatica, 红岩桐) is a new addition to the garden.  Love its showy red-orange tubular flowers.  It is also called as Bolivian Sunset Gloxinia.

I don't have a vegetable garden, but finally I tried to grow  hyacinth beans in three containers about two months ago.  They are supposed to be the summer vegetables, but in Florida, we are lucky to have long period to grow different vegetables.  Look, it is already producing the beans!  This bean is what I loved back in China.  Stir-frying them with pork stripes taste delicious.  This experiment also adds a little more interests into my parents' daily life here.  Checking the beans every day in the garden becomes a fun part of their garden walk.

To my friends in United States, Happy Thanksgiving! 

To others, Have a good week ahead!

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!

A New Gardener's Confession

For those who visit my blog regularly, you might have noticed that I have not posted anything for about one week now.  Although I can not say this won't happen again, at least it is not very common since I started my blog about four months ago.   The only thing I can say is that I am feeling a little down about the garden recently...

While almost all other gardeners are celebrating the leaping growth that the warm weather brought to their gardens, my garden seems not happy with the South Florida hot humid weather.   When I do my daily walk through my garden, there are hardly something that can catch my eyes in an exciting way.  On the opposite side, I often find something disturbing...

Now when I muse it over, I think most of these disappointments come with my new gardener label... Lack of experience, planning, knowledge, and patience are four things this new gardener is not shy to admit.

Before I started my love affair with the planting one year ago, I hardly had any experience. The little experience I had was growing some vegetables and a handful of flowers in the containers when I lived in my previous house.  Among those flowers, I managed to kill several orchids by over watering and putting them under the direct sun. During my younger years in China, my family lived in small apartment in the city with no land at all.  The only time I had more close touch with the land was when visiting my grandparents in the countryside during the summer vacation.  But even then, I never personally grew anything.

I thought I am not too bad of a planner.  However, when coming to the gardening, I found the planning needs to be made and acted on one or even two seasons before.  Like for spring flowers, I should have sowed seeds in the fall.  For some perennial plants, I should have trimmed them earlier so that they can flush now.  For winter annual plants, I should have replaced them with the summer annuals before the intense heat hits. 
As a result, I ended having some bare spots in the garden after the winter annuals melted down to the ground, and some tired-looking perennials like the pink pentas in the front yard.

Or geraniums that might not be able to stand the summer heat even it is still blooming (barely).... The flower dries up even before fully opening.

I know all of these can be quickly fixed by a few trips to the nursery, and shrinking the wallet a little bit more.  But I do wish I had planned better...

Lack of knowledge is another thing that constantly hits me recently.  I realized that a gardener not only needs to know the plants themselves, but also the environment around them, which includes bugs (good and bad), soils, and etc. 

When I bought the milkweed, I only knew this is a plant that butterflies love, and I LOVE butterflies!  The thing I didn't know was  that the Monarch caterpillars love its leaves too!  So imagine how horrified I was when I found seven of these fat Monarch caterpillars nibbling my only young milkweed leaves!  Only this time, I learned  from the lesson of hornworm on my angel's trumpet, so I did not remove them.  After searching over the Internet, I quickly found out these are the Monarch caterpillars.  I decided to leave them alone, and only one day later, my milkweed had nothing but bare sticks!  Now those hungry caterpillars started chewing the stems!  I do hope my sacrifice can yield some beautiful Monarch butterflies visiting my garden.  The only thing I am not sure is if my plant will ever grow back, or even blooming again? 

Last but certainly not the least, lack of patience...(did I say that?) .  They say the patience is a virtue.  I know lots of my anxieties came from the lack of patience.  I expect if I did what the book told me to do, the plants should flower or grow perfectly just like what they show in the garden magazine.  Now I knew there might be so many failures before you can get to that stage.

Do you still remember not long ago, I was proudly showing off the new Princess Flower (Tibouchina lepidota)  I got as part of Mother's Day gift?  Well, I have to tell you sadly that it just died on me early this week after three week life in my garden.  It just happened so quickly.  One day I came home after the work, I saw it lost all leaves, and the branches turned to brown.  I tried to water more often, but there was no use. 

Oh, how I miss those delicate purple flowers!

I know the gardening is all about trial and error, especially for the beginners.  So, I won't let all these disappointments hold me down.  Like what they said: "There is always a next year!"  So this weekend, after I spit out this confession,  I will spend some time to do some clean up, and then move on with a new spirit!!! 

Here are something in the garden that brought the smile to my face ...

Hibiscus

I got this Variegated Devils Backbone (Euphorbia tithymaloides 'Variegatus') after our January freeze with good discount since it had some leave damages.  Now it recovers pretty well.  I planted it in front of the hibiscus.  The orange and the variegated leaves contrast quite nicely.  Don't you think?

Variegated Devils Backbone (Euphorbia tithymaloides 'Variegatus') with Hibiscus

I can not help snapping pictures every time I pass by this Double Delight Rose bush!

This Dipladenia pink is my all time favorite in the garden, never failed to add the color into the garden.

Dipladenia pink

Caladium bulbs start popping up out the ground!  Should have planted more!

Caladiums

These two double layer Kalanchoes are my delightful surprise.  I thought they are cold weather bloomers.  So, after they finished blooming, I just stuck them into a shady corner.  See what I found this week!

Kalanchoe

These purple/blue verbena flowers really bright up the front yard flower bed.

Verbena

My first African Lily (Agapanthus africanus) bud of the year!

First African Lily (Agapanthus africanus) 

More Needle Flowers are showing up from this little plant.

Needle Flower (Augusta rivalis)
Family: Rubiaceae

Garden creatures are definitely enjoying this weather...

Brown Anole flashing its dewlap

Dragonfly on rose bud

White Peacock Butterfly

 Have a great weekend!