Vicarious winter gardening - or Show me da blooms!

Ok, Victor, Anita and Candyce.....I've just located a funky little house 4 down from me that a doctor in the neighborhood rents out........we actually checked it out for our friends and former next-door neighbors who like to come down here for a few weeks in the winter. It's very colorful and funky, and they welcome gardening!! Come on down!!! The stats you guys are describing fits it here to a T!!

Candyce - Thanks for the good wishes for our travels. I do hope the weather will be kind to us all as we travel and have our families traveling. I just spoke to my son in CT and it is snowing hard there as we speak. I'm still on the email for my former workplace, and I just got an early release email from there too. yikes! Be very careful everyone!!

I hate to rub salt on a snowy wound, but here's a shot I just took of one of the 2 amaryllis's I dug up and planted here when we arrived.....very pretty for Christmas!

Beautiful amaryllis!
LOL ~ early release from work. You are so funny!

I used to be the one who sent those cool "Go home early" messages to all the staff. LOL

Such power you held at the end of your fingertips, Louise!!

No power.....just the voice of reason. LOL

Ok - after a few weeks' hiatus, I've got a couple of pretty blooms to share. The first is very exciting for us. We have our first bloom of our "Fort Myers" Hibiscus cultivar. The parents of one of my good childhood friends is the hybridizer, and my DH thought it was imperative that we have a couple of the hibiscus named after our town, so we planted two on our 19th anniversary. I was worried about their buds with the freezing temps, but today we have Bloom Number One!

oooops, that was the one early this morning before the flower was fully open. It isn't as good a shot, and it doesn't show the red throat....let me try again.......

....and here are the impatiens at my front door......they provide a nice welcome when I come into the house..

I love the hibiscus and I can see the throat, but the combo effect on the impatients are outstanding!!!!

Thanks, Celeste! Here is the other half of that little bed......This is the first time I've mixed all the colors together.

Oh, Louise! The impatiens are glorious!!!

Louise... they are all beautiful.... and I am sooooo jealous!

Nice Louise!

Thanks, y'all!! (smile) Today I received 3 hefty stem cuttings from a Bolivian Powder Puff tree from a friend in the neighborhood. I've so wanted one of these trees. Logees and the other source on DG sell them for $18.50 for a 2 and 1/2 inch pot. Yikes....No can do!! I'm so excited to have these cuttings. They have a beautiful red puff that attracts the Baltimore Orioles and the Hummers. There are a couple huge trees in the area, and their dark evergreen foliage is gorgeous. I have stuck the cuttings in the moist soil, and can't wait to see what happens with them. Hopefully I will be able to get them on their way before we leave in the spring. We also have some of the gumbo limbo tree cuttings as well. And, I am also rooting some weeping bottle brush trees from my own. Some of these may have to spend the summer in NH, so that I can keep an eye on them, but the gumbos and puffs are so big, they'd be better off establishing here. Oh, how exciting!! LOL

Beautiful blooms Louise! Eleanor

Thanks, Eleanor! I got this photo of one of our oranges just after a few raindrops. I know it's not a bloom, but I liked the drops on it!

Here are a few blooms that are bouncing back after having a sheet thrown over them all a few nights ago. They looked pretty smooshed right after I took the sheet off! Lookin' better today!

The night of the freeze, the wind blew the sheet off of this Big Bertha red bell pepper. It sustained a bit of damage, but hopefully it will bounce back. It has a nice pepper that was growing nicely before the cold temps. We'll see what happens with it.....

Glad to see you survived okay, Louise!

I think we were very fortunate, Victor. This sanguinaria wouldn't agree with me.........

Looks viable though.

Yes, I think it will bounce back. I'm debating whether to cut back the "hurt" part of just leave it alone. What do you think?

I would wait until reliably warm weather and then do it.

Sounds like a good idea. Who knows if we'll have that kind of cold again. The weather everywhere is so wacky now! Thanks, Victor!

Louise, your orange looks good! My father-in-law lives north of Tampa (Spring Hill area), and whenever he brings us oranges from his property, they're all mottled. They taste great, but just not eye-appealing!

At any home grove, there are always some that have discolorations on the skin, Sue, but as you said, that usually doesn't have any effect on the taste. This year we have quite a lot of the clean, pretty ones. I am looking forward to the juice my DH squeezed for breakfast tomorrow. The cold snap should have sweetened the oranges a lot. Yummmm. I just hate it that we are now prohibited from sending any fruit through the mail, etc.. Before we were here in the winter, my neighbor used to pick some of our fruit and send it up to us at Christmas time. I'd love to be able to do that now, but they are very strict about it.

What's the reasoning for that?

The propaganda version is so that there won't be any possible spread of the citrus canker, but how many orange groves do you know that would be at risk in New England??? LOL We believe cynically that it is an effort to make everyone buy/send produce from the commercial companies down here.

Beautiful shot of the orange!! Eleanor

Thanks, Eleanor! The juice was so sweet this morning...tasted as smooth as honey. How are things on the Hudson??

Hi Everyone! Been gone awhile....holidays are so exhausting! Thank you for all the nice comments over the snow photo I posted in December. Your photos all look so warm and summerish! That orange looks absolutely mouth-watering.....to be able to grow that in your own backyard!!

We got alot of snow and ice all thru December here in the midwest.
And guess what?.....the last three days it has been around 70 degrees plus and today we had a Tornado touch down south of town! Nothing damaged here in Monroe City, but some towns further south were not so lucky, according to the six o'clock news. Two years ago, this March, we were not so lucky, so we were all holding our breath today.

January 7th and Tornadoes.....more snow forecasted for the upcoming weekend....aaahhh.....winter in the midwest!!!!!!!!!

Hi granny. Good luck with the weather!

Oh, My, Granny! Tornadoes are really frightening!! I hope things calm down for you, weatherwise, and thank goodness you weren't in the area of the tornado!! Stay safe and enjoy your 70s weather while you can!

Anyone know why cold makes oranges and rose hips sweeter? It seems like there's an obvious answer, but i don't know what it is! x, C

and grapes and brussel sprouts

Exactly. Broccoli. C.

I dunno.
Do you know?

No. But I'd like to,,,,, maybe I can find out. x, C

Here's a lemon blossom from today....

I've never seen a lemon blossom before - very pretty!