June Flowers OT 2

I love the Morning glories! One of my favorite garden flowers. And I'm drooling over the tomatoes and beans! :-p```````
Lyn--when I got up this morning, the flower was all closed up--so I'd say it is a night bloomer. The bud is hardly visible with all those curls, which is probably why I never noticed it till last night.

Connie,
There may be people here who grow beautiful Aeschyanthus in self watering pots.I am certainly no expert..LOL.I just find that if you let them dry a little between waterings and give them a nice spot under the lights or a sunny window,they tend to set buds much better.
Great looking Epiphyllum Phoebe!!
I am loving all the tomato and morning glory pictures.

Lynn

Hey--Epi lovers! Got an email today from Logee's---This is on special for $5.50!
http://www.logees.com/prodinfo.asp?number=S7637-2

Oh,that's so pretty....but I do not have room for another plant family........I do not have room.....repeat 10 times LOL.

Hahahahaha! I happen to know that does not work Lynn! Even I'm considereing this one! Good thing I took that quick pic of my epi bloom the other night--the flower has not re-opened as far as I know. Don't know if it had opened prior to the night I discovered it.

O.K. I got drawn into this thread by some beautiful photos, then I got to the end and saw ibrabec's post & had to say something ;)

Phoebesviolets is correct, any plant addict well knows there is no stopping yourself, you can always find room. Just move people out of the house. My current theory is to try to look in the 4" plants only. But I still picked up a 6" ficus tree the other day because I hadn't been to the nursery in a month (...truly...) and it was still there so I figured it was destiny LOL. Plus it already looks like a little bonsai & it's sooooo cute with curly leaves! I think it's a Monique, they are adorable, and I HAVE been wanting a bonsai & a Monique soooooooooo.
I'm sorry you were saying what about you don't have room?

I love your user name "icanfindroom"............priceless!! I can always find one more place for a plant........

LOL....I guess there is always one little piece of space somewhere.I have heard of people installing lights under the bed........ now that's addiction.^_^.

Good idea, Lynn!! You get an A+ for that one.

oooooo! Lights under the bed! Now I just need to install a lift kit to raise it up a bit...

here are some of today's garden blooms:

I grew the coneflower's from seed, love how this pink lily has two different colors going! Also, Hoya cv Mathilde buds are in the process of opening...so far I am not all that impressed. Will see if I can get a decent picture later.

This message was edited Jul 5, 2009 10:26 AM

Everyone has a pretty yard but me (boo hoo) smiling.............

If it makes you feel better gail, I have mosquito bites all over my butt from taking those pics this morning. They got me right thru my jammies. I'll be scratching my @$$ for a week.

jmp24: I love coneflowers and that is a really pretty one in your photo. I also love the colors in that lily, really nice having the contrast of different shades on the same plant!

Something is eating my coneflowers, gerbera's and lots of other plants, whatever it is doesn't seem to be devouring flowers, just foliage.

We finally got so much rain in May that we are no longer under drought conditions thank goodness. Summer is our normal rainy season and we've been having afternoon storms almost every day but yesterday and today have been dry. The heat has been awful and "skeeters" are driving me crazy too! I ran out of Off and bought another brand which caused skin irritations and severe itching! Someone told me Avon Skin so Soft was a good mosquito repellant and I remembered having some from four years ago when my mom passed and we cleaned out her house! Sure enough, I found about 3/4 of a large bottle. I slathered it all over and it really keeps the mosquitoes away from me, I might just have to find an Avon Lady and order some.

edited to correct spelling.

This message was edited Jul 5, 2009 3:30 PM

Skin So Soft works for some people, and not for others. I have never tried it. My mom was weeding this morning and she has a bite swollen to the size of a golf ball, I kid you not, on her inner forearm. She is really sensitive to bites of any type of critter, but this is HUGE. I think some sort of spider got her.

Anyway, I have also noticed that something is eating the foliage on the coneflowers, blackeyed susans, cosmos, and what is left of the columbine. Not sure what it is, but with all the rain we have had recently, I am guessing slugs.

Lin, your coneflowers are pretty - shorter petals, different than mine...my SIL has then in a gorgeous coral color. I have seen that there are alot of different varieties, I would like to plant more next year.

I love Cone Flowers too! There are so many different ones but the only ones I've ever planted are the purple which come back year after year. I had Rudbeckia that would go to seed and return every year but they were in a corner of the backyard near the fence, and weeds and vines from the neighbors yard have taken over that area and choked out all my Rudbeckia. I think I still have some seed, which I may have to sow it to see if it's still good.

Check out some of these: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=images+of+cone+flowers&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=9iJRSqa3HJjKtgeInazRDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1

Lin, those are some gorgeous photos! I only have BlackEyed Susans and the Purple Coneflowers, and the one's that look like a regular daisy. Goldfinches LOVE the Purple Cones, they come after they have been in bloom for a while, I love watching them balance on the flowerheads to get the seeds out.
I hear all are easy to grow from seed. Next spring I will have a little room on my new AV cart to start some seeds...

Hoya cv Mathilde...unfortunately the clearest photo shows the smallest part of the umbel. I don't understand why I can get clear pics of other flowers, but not of hoyas.

This message was edited Jul 5, 2009 8:02 PM

Ooh, I think that's a great picture of Hoya mathilde! I have a small single stem of mathilde that I received in a trade last year ... it isn't doing much but at least it's still alive. I can't wait to get those pretty blooms!

That reminds me. So glad you posted, jmp. I saw some blooms today on obovata when I was watering. Let me run outside and take a picture.........don't you just love hoya blooms?

This is the best time of the day for the pictures to be clear..........it isn't dark yet but no sun........about 8:30 I think.

Here is a less mature bloom than the first.

When I was watering I also saw this orchid starting to bloom and almost fainted. It was only 97 today (heat index higher) but it was 113 only 30 minutes away my brother said as they were coming back home from a trip.

No..........she doesn't have mealy bugs (LOL).......she is so dirty as I brought her in the house to bloom......she is dirty and nasty from the outside winds and dirt.

****edited to say I didn't realize I had missed all the great outside plants on this thread.................love them!

This message was edited Jul 5, 2009 8:33 PM

Lin1 is that a gerbera that I sent?? I hope those things grew?

Nice obovata shots, Gail. If I had taken them, my thumb would have been very clear and the flowers fuzzy. I have no problems with my other camera, I have a Canon Rebel EOS - but I cannot for the life of me get clear pics of hoyas with my digital camera. What type of orchid is that?

Lin, I started my Mathilde with a single cutting, I think I cut it into 2 pieces. That was about 3 years ago though, and my plant has stayed on the small side because I have given away so many cuttings from it! Seems everyone wanted that one. I hear that Exotic Angel is selling it now, might want to check out Home Depot or Lowes. I have heard of people buying them in full bloom!

Maybe you have the kind of camera that you have to push the button half way down until you get a clear picture?? Does that make sense. My last camera was like that. Plus, I just got lucky at the right time of the day to take those. On my camera it works best to just click (on macro setting) about 3 times and take the best picture of the three. Some are fuzzy and some are right on target.

Gerbera daisies are our winter flowers in pots. They won't take our heat.

Guess what? Upon further examination of my orchid, that IS MEALY BUG on the foliage. I got the alcohol out but she might have to go back outside. The writing on the tag has faded and all I can see is Encyclia and I can't read the second name. I got her about a year ago in a trade with Raingazer.

Gail, that's Encyclia fragrans. It's delightful! Mine's spiking, too. Can't wait til it blooms! It smells so good! You should be able to mist it with alcohol all over and not hurt it. Two or three times of that should get all those mealies.

Thanks, Rain..............I will do that today. How much alcohol ? Do you spray it full strength?

I have a sprayer that will fit in an alcohol bottle. I use it full strength, but you can dilute it to half if you feel better about it.

Thanks

Love the obovata blooms ... still waiting for mine to set buds, maybe someday I will see those pretty flowers!

Kivit: Yes, that is one of the Gerbera's you gave me! I love Gerb's, just wish I could find out what's eating everything!

Gail: I use alcohol full strength on everything. I bought a plastic spray bottle and poured the alcohol into it and labeled it. I never thought to try to find a sprayer that would fit the top of the alcohol container ... very smart Rain! I used to sit with q-tips and dip them into alcohol and wipe the mealies off but that can take many hours if you have a plant that is infested and if it's a plant with lots of nooks and crannies like Hoya compacta which is a mealy magnet! Now I just spray the entire plant real good.

Look forward to seeing pic's of that orchid bloom ... a race to see if Gail's or Amy's blooms first! Now I want to know if it's a fragrant one? With the name Encyclia fragrans, sounds like it might be!

Gail, stop making excuses. ALL your closeup photos are beautiful. I don't know what the deal is with my camera, or why I can't get good hoya photos. I tried pushing the button half way to focus it, works maybe one out of ten times. Oh well.

Alcohol sure does kill mealy bugs dead - however, take care not to get it on the soil, if it gets down to the roots, not good.

Thanks for the heads up on not touching the soil with the alcohol.................

Lin, my orchid may go into shock from being outdoors in 100+ temps every day to a nice cool house (LOL)...............can't decide whether to put her back outdoors where she started spiking or leave her inside..........

Yes, my hoyas outside can be a pain to treat for mealy bugs........I just use Bayer's Advanced Tree and Shrub and water it in to work systemically.........really works though.

I use BATS too ... and need to get it out and use it on a few things, on the deck and in the yard.