August Outside Plant Pictures

THANK YOU, Turtlechi (Susan)
You sent me cuttings of plumerias 2 summers ago and now they are blooming. (even in our 45 mph winds everyday) I can't help wondering how beautiful they would be without our winds.

Here is another angle.
I am in love with the pink ones. Can't thank you enough!
gail

I don't have much to look at except any plants that don't seem to mind the heat and wind. Glad this croton didn't die this summer.

The only reason my caricature (or graphtophylum) has stayed alive is because I can pour water on her from the back door without going outside.

small pot of a mini size coleus and pink begonia, one of my fav things growing in the yard right now

Pep is a busy little guy, but yesterday he finally took the time to stop and smell the hoyas.

Do you know how jealous I am that you can even grow coleus and fibrous begonias in a pot outside?!!!

I hadn't considered that you couldn't down there - but then I have been to TX and I know that that sun is brutal in the summer months. I don't know how you deal with it, really. I can't even take the heat up here. THe fact that I can grow these probably has more to do with the humidity, because the pot is getting full sun on my patio

Took a few of things growing around here...

How pretty , Phoebes.........what is she? All those white blooms are incredibly nice!!

It is one Queen Ann"s Lace flower--grows wild here.











Almost Black dahlia

Outside my door--a wetlands oasis

Another Dahlia--The new manager here seems to like them--he's a novice gardener.

He likes that I take pics of his flowers.

The last time I grew a dahlia was when I lived in a much cooler zone..........just fine flowers!!! The only natural flower growing around here are sunflowers and the farmers chop them down (LOL)>

Phoebe,I like that you take pictures of his flowers too !! ^_^.Love the black Dahlia.
Gail, I love your pictures too,especially the caricature plant!
jmp24,very pretty plants and such a cute little doggie!

Lynn

Pretty flowers! I love Queen Anne's Lace. We had it growing wild when we lived in TN. Just like lace.

Sally, to grow it here I had to first put the seeds in the freezer for five days and then grow her as a winter plant in the garden in 2007. They were beautiful but a lot of trouble and she says they just grow wild there.

Sorry Gail--LOL! Some consider them a weed....

jmp--that's a gorgeous Hoya! Did Pep get that sticky stuff on his nose?

I missed a hoya............gotta go back and look..........

I love the old fashioned hoyas the best, jmp!!!

This message was edited Aug 4, 2009 10:52 PM

No, Phoebe, it was a fresh flower, and it's a carnosa, they don't get as much of the sticky sappy stuff like some other hoyas, though they do secrete some sort of clear liquid as the flowers get older. It was cute the way it happened, he was just walking by and all the sudden stopped in his tracks like "Whoa! Something smells weird here...."

That plant was a "bad day" present to myself a few years ago, I had to take one of the nursing school entrance exams - very stressful - and did not do half as well as I hoped. On the way home I stopped at a garden center I had never been in, and there it was, only $12 and already pretty big, and even though I already had about 40 hoyas at home, including this particular variety, I decided I needed it anyway. I am glad I got it, it's a very healthy plant, and this particular variety (carnosa Tricolor) is a slow grower till it gets established.

Just wanted to ask you all, I have noticed alot of honeybees around this year, which is great because in the past few years I haven;t seen many at all. Has anyone else noticed this? I also see alot of Japanese beetles for the first time in years, not so great....but the birds find them tasty.

Yes--I am seeing more honey bees, as opposed to seeing none the past couple of years!
jmp-- I didn't know you went to nursing school--did I? (brain dead :-( .....brain overworked in nsg school!)

I don't think I mention it much, but may have...I am getting ready to start the last semester, then will graduate in the spring. The pressure and amount of stuff you have to learn is unbelievable! I can barely remember my own last name sometimes. Hopefully it will all pay off in the end.

Good thing about the honeybees, maybe less ppl are overusing pesiticides. It's good to see the little bees back, buzzing around the flowers!

Congratulations, jmp!!! It is harder I think when we go back to school after we are college age. I thought it would be a cinch to go back to college when I was 40 to get a degree in horticulture since I already had a college degree. WRONG.......... I couldn't even pass biology but I loved all the upper level courses in propagation, etc.

you got that right, Gail, it is much harder when you are older, and sometimes you think why the heck am I doing this?? I don't know if you finished school, but even if you didn't, I am sure what you learned has been valuable to you.

I figure I have at least another 25 or 30 years till retirement, might as well make some money. Nurses make a great living in my area, and there is no loss for jobs. Once I can get myself secure financially, I will be able to devote more time to the other things I love, I will be able to build a greenhouse, I will be able to have more space for my pets, I'll be able to travel to Spain for an art workshop if I feel like it (or if I get the guts to board a plane, not something I like to do these days) and I will be able to help my family out, my son, and all of my brother's kids.

Money doesn't buy happiness, but it sure makes life easier.

I love these flowers, "cleome", we call them spider flowers. Have them all over the garden, they seed themselves and come back in such abundance every year that we have to weed them out and throw almost half of them away. They come in this purple and in a hot pink color...not sure what else. Oh yeah, and the deer don't eat them!

This message was edited Aug 5, 2009 12:10 PM

Cleome is one of my very favorite flowers and we can grow them easily here and we even use them as cutting flowers..........great pic. I finished the first degree at age 20 but I never got through with the second one as the science was just too hard for me. I really admire you as I know you have to have many science courses in nursing, a noble noble very much needed profession.

what colors are the cleomes you grow Gail? Same as mine?

Yes, nursing is a good profession, and I am sure I will be good at it, but I am really mostly going into it for the financial security. It is going to be a nightmare, but after I get my RN I plan on continuing in school for my masters so that I can teach, and won't have to be around sick people all the time.

The dark purple ones are my favorite,,,,,,,,,,,but let's face it, mixing the white, pink and lavender are pretty, too.

We can't buy them here but I always ordered seed..........

I don't think we have dark purple, just the lavender in my pic above, and the pink. None that are all white either, though the pink and lavender have some white petals on some. I haven't bought them since the first pack of seeds years ago, because the kind I have put out about 50 seed pods each on every plant....If you ever see any seed pods on the dark purple, grab some for me!

I can't believe I remember this but there are different cultivars............Helen Campbell I think is the white one............can't remember the name of the dark one.........I will look them up later.........going to Park Seed and see what I can find...............

I don't have any growing right now...............

great, let me know what you find, I would love to order some colors I don't have. Never really looked into them, thought what I had was all there was...

I looked through about 5 seed companies and didn't find what I used to order..........will keep looking.

jmp24,
Good luck in school. I graduated 21 years ago. There were some days, I tell you, that I just had to take an "r&r" day at home to regroup. And I did that with 3 kids at home at the time. God was so looking out for me, always, but esp then because I don't know how I got through. It is a lot of work but will be worth it. Teaching will be fun when you get there.
Laura

Glad you to see you posting, Laura!!!

Ceropegia woodii, aka String of Hearts, that I have growing outside. I love this plant. The blooms are so different, yet so pretty. I got quite a lot of seeds from this plant last year and just sprinkled them all back into the pot when I put it outside in spring. Most of them have germinated, it looks like. The pot is getting nice and full. :o)

Thanks Gail. I try not to sit here too long but it is nice to talk to you all.
Laura

Oh Rain, that is such a beautiful plant!! My sister has one on her mantle, it goes on forever. Just beautiful!!

I love ceropegias too, have two types of rosary vine, including the one above, they are such delicate looking but tough plants. I have one up on a high shelf that has vines down to the floor, so pretty!

Thanks Laura, I keep telling myself I can get through this hell that is nursing school, almost there, but I think the stress of the past few years has taken 10 yrs off my life! I give you alot of credit for doing it with 3 kids, alot of the women in my classes have families and/or work full time, and I know I would never make it if I had to do all that!

PS Gail, please don't go to too much trouble for the cleome, just let me know if you ever run across any - you are very sweet to look for me!

This message was edited Aug 6, 2009 9:17 PM

When I have time, jmp, I am going to go through a chest of seeds I ordered in 2007 before I hurt my back and knee. I literally have hundreds of packets of seed unopened....................there might be some in there and I know that seed properly packed can last for years...........