October Garden and Bromeliads Collections

While I am feeling for the people in Northeast region who are suffering from the mess and the power outage brought by hurricane Sandy, I feel fortunate that we are here having the most enjoyable weather in South Florida.

Around the garden, I added some cool weather annuals to fill in those vacant spots left by summer annuals.  New Guinea Impatiens are becoming my new favorites since they can be put in the wide range of light condition, including the full sun.  Although I think the partial sun is the optimum since they would require more water if put in the full sun. 

Roses are loving this cool weather.

Josephine's Land

Josephine's Land

Queen Elizabeth

The following two are the double knock outs that I started from the cutting s five months ago. Really love the color and the form, and no black spots!

Belinda's Dream had lots of flowers since the weather cooled down.

This Kalanchoe thrysiflora was a small pup from my friend's plant, and look how tall it has grown, and it has lots of pups its own now.

Look down from the top of Kalanchoe thrysiflora.  Don't you think it looks like a green rose?

The small corner in the front yard near the front door entry.  The Rex begonia in the down left corner of the picture was moved from a total shade place.  It lost most of leaves after the move since this spot gets some morning sun. Now it has been fully recovered and showing its fantastic foliage.

It even bloomed!  Although the flowers are almost lost in the colorful leaves.

This Birds' nest fern started from a 4 inch houseplant, and it grows so big and lush after putting it into the ground.  

Bromeliads collection are getting bigger and bigger, and they are all expanding!  For those who just started gardening in Florida, I have to tell you, get some Bromeliads for your garden, you will love them!  You don't need many for each kind since they produce pups quickly. You also can exchange pups with your friends to get more varieties. Here are some pictures of the Bromeliads all around my garden.  

In South Florida climate, Bromeliads are among the easiest plants to grow, and they provide the year around colors to your garden too!  I am glad that I came to know this plant and became addicted to it when I just started my garden three years ago.

Happy Gardening! Be safe for the folks under the  Hurricane Sandy's impact!

February Garden and Happy Valentine's Day

February is a busy month for me, and I am happy that my garden is thriving without this gardener's much help.  Thanks for warm and sunny days of this month in Florida!

This is one of my garden beds that I am very happy with right now.  This reminds me more of a spring garden than a winter garden.  It also makes me thinking that I really should take more pictures of broad views of the garden each month for the records. 

With a relative mild winter, this year the agaves did not get any frost bites.  I expect they will grow much larger this year.  Bulbine plants and Indian blanket flowers are mingled with them quite nicely.

This corner used to be a boring spot with a rain barrel nearby and a gutter downspout next to the fence.  Now the downspout extension is covered with the purple hearts (Tradescantia pallida) trailing over from the other side of garden bed, and blooming begonia flowers.  Now I found I often stop to smell the fragrance of the begonia every time I walk by.

Another begonia is in blooming...   Love two tone shades of the flower.  Pink and red, perfect for the Valentine's Day!

This geranium was bought last winter. When summer came, it barely had any leaves left under Florida heat.  I did not pull it out since I still saw the life out of it.  Now it rewards me again with the beautiful flowers.   I will plant something around it when it is ready to retreat back to the ground, so that I won't have any bare spot left in the summer garden. 

This new verbena was discovered from a local nursery.  Just love the unique shade of the flowers.  Another Valentine's color-perfect flower, don't you think?

Oh, I just can not help to bring one more ground orchid home.  I am slowly starting a small collection of ground orchids in my garden. 

I grow impatiens in the ground, as well as in the containers.  This picture contains impatiens from two adjacent containers.  Thought it is a nice combination for Valentine's Day too!

The soft pink tone on Kiwi Ti looks even more beautiful under the early morning sunshine.

I am saving the best to the last!  My first ever Amazon Lily is in blooming.  Love the pure white on this flower.  For me, sometimes the white is even more romantic than the red and pink.

Amazon Lily
Eucharis grandiflora

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

One Year Blogversary and A Rain Splashed Garden

The 14th day of this month was my one year blogversary day.  I started a post draft a few days before that day.  The day came and went, and I did not get time to finish the post for the day.  Actually, struggling to find the time has always been the common theme in my one year experience with the blogging.  With only 79 posts to the day, obviously I am not a prolific writer, but how glad I am that I made it to my one year blogversary!

We had a good day of rain several days ago, which was much needed in my area.  I would like to present you some foliage and blooms in my rain splashed garden along with my one year blogversary rambling. 

Delicious Cordyline fruticosa 'Kiwi'

Hawaiian Ti is showing its bright pink new leaves of the season

As lots of my readers might have known,  English is my second language.  I know most of my blog friends can  flow their thoughts naturally through their flying fingers without the need to think about the grammar, spelling or the organization of the sentence.  For me, I need to look up the dictionary to make sure I am not saying something I didn't mean to. Not to mention the grammar, spelling or a common English saying. Although I tried to check as much as I can before I click the "Publish" button, I am sure there still have been lots of mistakes in my writing. Thanks to all my forgiving readers for the encouragement you have given me over the past year by reading my blog and leaving the comments!  I still could not believe my blog got nearly 7900 visitors from all over the world, and more than 21600 hits within one year.

Christmas Cacti

Together with the writing, it is also a year that I learned to take pictures of plants. I use a Cannon EOS Digital Rebel XTi as my viewfinder. I have to admit that I still have not read the manual yet. All of my knowledge about this camera are from my husband, who is the real owner of this camera since it was gifted to him several years ago. I really need to take some time to read the manual since I believe there are still something about this camera I am not fully taking advantage of. 

Snapdragons  (saved from the distressed rack in the big box store)

I never took so many pictures in a year, and 98% of them don't have people in it.  Thanks for the invention of the digital camera.  It made it possible for an amateur like me to choose a presentable picture out of numerous blurring, not well-exposed, or unbalanced pictures for my posts.  My family is now used to seeing me rushing out in the morning before work to capture some flowers in the soft morning sun.  Sometimes, I wonder what my neighbors think about me when they saw me in my apron taking pictures in the front garden during the late afternoon time. That was when I had dinner cooking on the oven, and wanted to take some pictures before sunset, and forgot I am still wearing apron!



Various bromeliads, one of my favorite collection in the garden!

Of course, the main driving factor for me to start this blog is to record my garden progress I started around the time we bought our house about one and half year ago.  It helped me to record my gardening lessons and fun as a beginning gardener. So many of you have endured my whining since very beginning, and shared the excitement and joy with me every time a new bloom was unfurled, a new plant was acquired and a new garden bed was opened. Thanks for all the tips and plant identification help you have given me along the way.  I guess many of you are now used to seeing me asking the questions in my post!


Loving this swan container full of double impatiens blooms!



Lemon Lime Warneckii is now blooming




Angelonia angustifolia

 Now one year has passed, and I definitely want to continue my blogging fun.  Please bear with me when I could not post frequently, response to all the comments you have left, or visit your blog and leave the comment as much as I would like.  I do enjoying reading every single comment you have spent time to write.   I felt I have made so many friends in this blogging world, and learned so much from all of you.   I deeply appreciate the help you have provided to me in various ways, and I know I am growing up both as a blogger and a gardener because of all of you precious readers and fellow gardeners.  Thanks for the continous support!

To end this post, I need to ask "the question of the post" :)  Could anybody identify the cultivar of the hibiscus I have in my header picture?  I got two cuttings over one year ago, and now they are both blooming.  One has been identified by Floridagirl at "Peace in the Valley" as "Jane Cowell", and the one in the header picture is still unknown.  Thanks!