I will start us off with Zexmenia spilling over onto the driveway, chrysanthemums a la Josephine, Ageratum houstonianum, firespike, wax begonias in a pot on the driveway.
December Blooms
These are not all "blooms" per se, but colorful as blooms. The 4th and 5th photos hardly classify as blooms, they are sparse. I have never had many blooms on my Mexican Mint Marigold. If anyone knows the secret, I hope you will share. In the same photo is red lantana and the blue ageratum. 3rd photo is angel wing begonia, purple jew and white wax begonia with the foliage of nasturtiums showing on the right.The last one of the pink vinca is pitiful and on it's last legs.
This message was edited Dec 7, 2012 12:38 AM
Very nice Marty, I especially like the mums a la Josephine. It is nice that you still have a lot of things blooming.
A few random blooms but still lots of butterflies today.
Who is this?
Some of the butterflies are starting to look a bit bedraggled, I still have a couple daisies blooming. My Katrina rose is still happy,this beauty berry was a stick this spring. The firecracker was an orphan from Lowes in the summer and near dead, will be mulching him in today.
I don't remember who these were for at our RU, but they have taken off and are doing well, all were blooming last week, never thought to take the photo then.
We are predicted a low of 27, from a high of 80 today, hope I can get everything tucked in.
Very pretty Joy. That beauty berry looks so healthy! And Katrina is such a pretty girl.
Maggie and Westerland are sporadically blooming and my Nacadoches might not open before the freeze. Hope so, they are huge and buttery yellow.
Rouxcrew - love the butterfly...and beauty berry.
I see everyone else is getting ready for a freeze as well. Knowing this could be the last day of blooms, I grabbed my camera too.
Butterflies were on everything still blooming.....mostly Cosmos and Lantana. But I also have a Hibiscus in ground that just keeps coming back every year. I bought it at HEB....go figure.
We also picked everything from the garden.....hoping they will ripen inside.
OMG that Hibiscus is gorgeous! Do you know the names of the butterflies in #2 and #3 photo?
American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) is on the orange cosmos and Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) is on the lantana. Yes, I'm afraid that after several nights of freezes this week that most of the blooms (and butterflies) will be gone -- at least up here in north Texas.
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
Gotta brave the 35mph wind and try and pick my tomatoes too, today. I am hoping that the wind will die down this afternoon and I can rake up leave to throw over the plants. We gave up on the garden earlier when the tiller, the mower AND DR trimmer all decided to go on the fritz. Now all I have are gourds and sprawling tomato plants. We have tons of leaves and maybe I can weather this freeze by piling on insulation. If it doesn't work I can always till it back into the soil once the Bermuda dies.
Ok, the last isn't a bloom but we just finished our first round of lambing, and I trout the cute factor was worth the space.
Such pretty blooms, vegetables, butterflies, and lambs.
lepfarmer - so glad someone knows the name of all the butterflies. I know the Monarch, but not too many others.....but they are just everywhere. And some must make it through freezes because I remember a few January's ago, sitting in the hot tub marveling at all the butterflies.....in January!
rouxcrew - the cute factor is adorable.....I would want to play all day with them. We get the baby fawns around here in the spring but they are wild and not playable with! LOL.
Looks like this guy on the Lantana has fur...LOL.
Lambs are kinda like blooms...or maybe pregnant ewes are like blooms and lambs are like seeds? Anyway, so cuddly-looking, just begs to be hugged. We got to 55 last night and the wind appears to be 55 today, chuckle. My cat went out the front door and came in the back door...in about the length of time it takes to walk around the house!
Thanks, Dale for the ID's. We are learning slowly but surely.
Not a native but pretty none the less.
Golden Shrimp Plant, Cherry sage, mix of cherry sage. ageratum and Mexican Mint Marigold and finally the Mexican Mint Marigold. The Golden shrimp plant will need to be brought in if the weather is close to freezing. It handled the 34* recently without a problem, however. Im so glad my MMM finally is blooming. I moved it to give it more light and I think it's working.
Newton, I looked up your pretty plant. Where do you find such unusual plants?
This message was edited Dec 15, 2012 6:41 PM
mail order of course
I came home from South America just in time to enjoy one day of these flowers !
... just in time to cover my poor vegetable garden ...
All my stuff is still blooming! Including the golden shrimp plant I got at the Spring RU at Joy's last year. It is supposed to be tropical and so is my Rotheca, blue butterflies but they are still truckin'. The only thing that has been touched by the colder weather is the purple/lime coleus the white potatoes and the asparagus. Leaves nipped a bit. Ive taken plenty of cuttings so it's OK if they get damaged some. I can add pansies, snapdragons and cyclamen to the bloom list. Just need to get out there and snap their photos. I grew all my pansies from saved seed this year just to see if I could do it.
My stratified Cowpen Daisy Seeds have not germinated even tho they passed the sink test. I have some at room temp and some outside in 40* to 50* range. It has been a month since I sowed. So those of you who get volunteers, please put my name on a couple for the RU. I love those plants!
They probably will come up in spring when the weather warms up.
I have never failed to have volunteers. They will come up.
Do either of you remember when you first see them? Mine would come up a month earlier than yours... so I could know when to expect them.
Your "golden shrimp plant" is originally from Uruguay. Its botanical name is Pachystachys lutea. It's a wonderful shrubby plant which appears root hardy (but suffers so badly from a serious cold spell that you're almost better off replacing it). It's also sometimes called 'Lollipop' plant. The true 'yellow shrimp plant' is enormous, growing up to 10' tall (and maybe taller, I gave mine away before it could reach the stars). You can spot the difference this way: "real" shrimp plant blooms are somewhat downward facing; whereas Pachystachys holds its blooms stiffly upright. I think it gives more bang for the buck that a lot of more easily-accessible plants. For years, only one small Houston-area nursery sold Packhystachys. Now, occasionally, you can get large specimens at Buchanan's. I haven't tried to root it, but I bet this is possible. I've found this plant often more popular with hummingbirds that other so-called hummingbird plants. I wish more nurseries stocked it; it's THAT good.
LeslieT
Leslie, I grew this Pachystachys from a cutting given to me at a DG plant swap. I had already been wondering why a yellow shrimp plant would wo uld be in a different genus than the red or the fruit cocktail one ie, Justicia.
I think pretty early like march.
Thanks, Cheryl
I was thinking around March as well. I ALWAYS get volunteers!
Thanks. That means mine should come up around February. Only a month to go!
Feb should, sometimes they drag their feet into first of March- think the cancer vines bloom first
What are cancer vines?
If you go into the countryside about that time, there is a vine climbing the trees with yellow blooms, don't know any other name for it...only blooms early spring
Are you talkin' carolina jessamine?
Dont think it is, newspapers write up the cowpen daisies and the cancer vines every spring- but i have yet to be able to catch a pic of it. IF I am home this spring...
I can't find any reference to a cancer vine.
I could not find anything either, Newton.
Me too. and I have been searching. The where I first saw it is along hwy 19 in Huntsville,Tx I don't see it wilod anywhere else, and it grows up thru the trees like wisteria in southern Georgia and Alabama.
Kitt, where did you learn the term, cancer vine?
common name by locals, there are Huntsville newspaper articles about it- but I lived there from '93 to 2010, and wasn't home in the spring until '98 thru '04. They only bloom once, but blooms are so hi in the trees....camera is a new 'must have' -didn't keep one then.