Cool weather brings back the blogger

I can not believe I have not posted anything for this long.  After coming back from a three-week vacation in China, I have been busy catching up the work. The blogging had to take the back seat. The gardening work was mostly involved with weeding, weeding, and weeding!  Yes, Florida gardeners know what I meant by non-stopping weeding in the rainy summer season.  Also, lots of plants have grown wild, and have turned the flower beds into the jungle.  I had to do lots of trimming on those bushes, and removing the dead branches, plants.  

I have to admit that I am still not very fond of the hot humid weather of South Florida after living here for 18 years!  The mosquitoes and strong sun light are simply not the best friends to my sensitive skins.  So, the summer time I usually do the limited gardening, and try enjoying what I have in the garden.

Now the weather has been cooling down, especially in the morning and evening. It feels so comfortable to wander around the garden with the cool breeze blowing on my face.  Yes, once again, I feel energetic and want to get out to do more in the garden, and also some blogging!!!


Since this is the first post after a long break, I really don't know where to start. Let me first show you a new addition to the garden that I am very happy about.

A new fountain! I have been wanting a fountain for a long time, and have been searching for it for quite some time now. The experience was quite dramatic. Let me just say, this is the third one we brought home, and the only one kept! The first one was from a big box store, made of fiberglass. Looked quite nice, and fit our budget. However, after we finished installation, we found some coating already peeled off. So, we returned. Then we spent almost double of the price as the first one to buy another one from a specialty store. On the way the worker carried it to our car, they dropped the piece on the floor! So, the store said they would order for us with the color we preferred. We waited for almost three months for the order, and when we called to ask for the update, they found the person forgot to place the order! I almost gave up, but when we went to that store to discuss this matter, I fell love into this piece they had in store immediately! So, we bought it right that day, and delivered to us within a week. Good thing doesn't come easily, huh?

It is very heavy, although I don't think it is made of the real stone, it was made looking like stone.  Not only I liked the textures and the finishing color, I loved the four birds (one is blocked, not shown in the picture) at the top the most.  The birds sipping the fountain water just add more tranquility to the garden.

Speak of garden decoration, look what I have brought all the way from China, a Stone Turtle!  This one was made of the real stone, and has a hole carved underneath to connect to the mouth.  So if sinking this turtle half way into the water, and attach a bump to it, water can come out of the turtle's mouth.  For now, I just put it on the top of a boulder in the garden.  Love how it adds the life into the garden!

This is the first time Tibouchina grandifolia bloomed in my garden.  The new flower has a white center, and it turns to red with the flowers aging.  I also love its large fuzzy leaves even when it is not blooming. 

Another first in the garden is blackberry lily.  I started it from the seeds sent by Susan  two years ago.  After the seeds sprouted, it only grew leaves for the first year, and finally they bloomed for me this year.  Thanks, Susan!  I love them!

This knockout roses I started from some cuttings early this year, see how well it has bloomed this summer.

Griffinia liboniana bloomed again this year, yay!

The following are the orchids currently blooming in the garden. 

Finally, let me show you a visitor to my garden this past weekend, a Wood Stork, standing on the fence, looking down my flower bed.

That's it for now.  Happy Gardening, my friends all over the world!

Spring has come in full speed

Spring has come in full speed, and I found myself hardly catching up.  The garden really looks wonderful in any angle, well, at least in my eyes :)

Nun's orchid (Phaius tankervilliae) bloomed in March.

Three Irises also started blooming in March.

Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina'

Dietas bicolor

Neomarica Gracilis

Five Amaryllis bulbs I bought last year, now two "Apple Blossom"s are blooming.  The other three are still taking their time, and have not even shown the sign of buds.

'Apple Blossom'

Caladiums started popping up everywhere around the garden.

This is the second year of this Peruvian Lily  (Eucrosia Bicolor) called my garden home.  After it finished blooming last year, it gradually lost all the leaves, and completely disappeared from the ground.  I almost thought maybe they are rotten in the ground, and I lost them for good.  A couple of weeks ago, several flower spikes popping up from the ground without any leaves around.  That was real sweet surprise for me.  Beautiful, huh?  The leaves appeared after the flowers were opened.

Last year I started some Marigolds from store bought seeds.  After they finished blooming, I collected those seed heads, and casually spread them in several containers, and then almost forgot them.  Surprisingly, the seedlings grow so fast and strong, better than those that I put much care for.  Since I had so many seedlings, I started putting them everywhere in my garden, and distributed them to the friends.

The new flowerbed I opened two months ago is also gradually filling in.  I added some annuals for the season color.  Vinca is becoming my favorite annuals.  They just thrive in the Florida sun without much care, and they reseed themselves easily.  They are almost like perennials in this South Florida Garden since they could bloom all year long.  I have several different colors, pink, white, lavender, and crimson.

Flax Lily, Daisy Bush, Marigolds, and double Portulaca (Portulaca 'Fairytale Cinderella')

Love how the leave of Aechmea blanchetiana 'Orangeade' reflected the morning sunshine in following two  pictures.

Other areas of the garden...

Spiderwort has grown from one small division into a big clump. (Thank you, Meems!)

Spiderwort (Tradescantia)

Dipladenia pink got a heavy trim the end of last year, now it is coming back stronger and more beautiful.

Happy Spring!

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!