February Update on the Leap Day

Today is the leap day, thought it would be great to give an update of my February garden, just make this post a little special :)

There are so many colors and flowers bursting in my February South Florida garden due to the mild winter we had this year.

In the past, I only tried pink snapdragons, and this is my first time to grow yellow and white ones, and I find myself loving them so much in the winter garden, warm and bright.

This is the time for Golden shrimp plant(Pachystachys lutea) to bloom.

Giant Apostle's Iris (Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina') started blooming, much earlier than last year.

This Lobelia plant is one of the rare blue flowers I have ever seen.  They make the great trailing (spiller) plants for the container.

Lobelia 

This Purple Verbenas is also great for container, either as the filler or the spiller.

The following two are the new plants I am trying this year, Cuphea llavea Vienco™.  I love them in a more compacted size, suitable for my small garden.

This year I am trying to grow Mona lavender (Plectranthus) in the ground instead of in the container.  It is in a partial shade area, and they seem quite happy there. Best of all, it doesn't require frequent watering compare to growing in the container.

These two Begonias had their blooming peak this month.

Begonia Odorata Var. Alba

Rex Begonia

Even caladium bulbs are shooting out of the ground here and there much earlier than last year.

Dipladenia pink just started blooming again after a hard trim I did late last year. Now they came back fresh and strong.  I expect they will be on their peak time in March.  

Dipladenia pink

Bulbine plants look the best when they are blooming in a mass. Bees just love them.

This Chorus Line daylily has not finished blooming yet, neither has Pandoras box daylily.

CHORUS LINE 

Wow, I found I am having quite some blues in my garden.  I guess that doesn't happen by accident considering blue if one of my favorite colors in the garden. Could not help snap some pictures of this blue butterfly flower every time I pass it by.

Blue Butterfly
Clerodendrum ugandense

February is also the month when many orchids bloom.  One of most impressive orchids bloomed this month is Epidendrum Orchid, or go with the common names such as Crucifix Orchid, Reed-stem Epidendrum, Sun Orchid,and etc.

 I bought one in April of 2010.  After the initial blooming, it only had a few flowers last year.  After I put them into the ground (this orchid is terrestrial type) in a more sunny location, this year they just bloomed like crazy.  If you are trying to find an easy growing orchid, this is the one that you should try!  They are also so easy to propagate by division of pseudobulbous stems or offsets, or by removing and planting those pups on old stems or flower spikes. From one 5 gallon container, now I have three clumps of this orchid spread in my garden.

You also can spot Epidendrum Orchid in the below flower bed.

Now the rest are different orchids blooming currently in my garden. I put them mostly in my front porch since my back porch has too many suns.  I really need more space for more orchids!

For those of you living in the cold weather area, hope you enjoyed the flowers in my Tropical garden, and remember Spring is coming!

Happy Gardening!

Purple, Blue, or Lavender?

I always thought I am quite good when coming to tell the colors (well, at least compare to my husband :))  However, I started doubting this recently because I constantly wondering some flowers' color in my garden, are they purple, blue, or lavender?  Sometimes it is just hard to tell.  What it made even harder is that they change with the light!

So, I decide to put them all here, let me know if you agree with my color judgement?  These are the flowers currently blooming in my garden.

I think this one is blue, but really sometimes I thought I can see the purple out of it.

Salvia farinacea (Mealycup sage)

Same with this one...

Porterweed (Stachytarpheta jamaicensis)

This is an obvious blue.  Duh, is this why they call it Blue Daze?!

Blue Daze (Evolvulus)

An easy purple:

Petunia

Mostly purple, some blue??

Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha)

This is easy, Purple! Just like the name suggested!

Purple Queen (Tradescantia pallida)

Nobody will mistaken this one either...

Persian Shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus)

Look what I found hidden under the purple leaves of Persian shield?  Blue flowers!  Did not know persian shield can have flower...  Nice surprise!

Persian Shield bloom

Hmmm... this garlic society flower is more lavendar or liac, not the true purple.  In the winter, who would think those green narrow grasslike leaves would produce a nice large cluster of flowers like this?

Society Garlic (Tulbaghia violacea)

Mona lavendar is about to put the show on now....  And yes, it is lavender color :))

'Mona Lavender’ Plectranthus

Have you ever had the same question about your garden flower color as I have? 

Happy Easter and Have a nice weekend!

For other colors all over the world, please check out Katrarina's site at http://rosorochris.blogspot.com/  (This is the last Blooming friday she hosts).