Flowers in the Garden #2

"miss thailand" adenium, my new love.

Closeup. . .can't help it. I think she's so pretty.

Allamanda

Triple datura. . .sorry the pic is so washed out. Can't see all the details.

Ixora. . .sorry for all the closeups. Too embarrassed to show the whole picture!

Container garden

Variegated spiral ginger. No blooms, maybe next year?

Candee, I wonder if your plumeria needs to be outside in the warm sun for it to bloom? What is the secret in growing dahlias? Can they be grown in pots? I tried that last summer and this summer. . .no luck so far.

Thanks everyone for making me feel better about not having a perfect lush garden. The closeups sure don't look so bad when you can't see the weeds!

Lovely flowers Karma, Thanks for sharing.

I had no idea you had datura, I love that stuff and that spiral ginger is wonderful! Great garden you have there, and am sure more to come.

relly nice pics karma, and an inspiration for me to try out the "macro" shots.
Tiny little orchid, (only one) in the shade house

Peach blossoms on my dwarf peach. I will have to net it this year, or the dogs will eat them all!

Thanks Terri. Candee, I received the datura at the midsouth RU. A dger brought me a yellow triple datura seedling, and I couldn't believe it bloomed! It is really gorgeous in person, but didn't last very long. Sue, that's a cutle little orchid. Is that a recent pic of the peach blossom? It's beautiful.

Lovely flowers, everyone.

Here is a few more from my garden. My first tuberose of the season - fuzzy photo, but great fragrance

White dahlia - the plant has really dwindled with the years, so it is time to transplant it.

Abutilon - I planted this by my front entrance and it flowers about 8 months. Too bad that it does not make a good cut flower.

A slightly closer up view of the abutilon. I got some seeds of other colors from a roundup two years ago, but have not gotten around to planting them. wonder if they are still any good?

Hi Karma, yes, I took the peach picture on the day. I was playing with the macro. It is starting to warm up here, and I saw some hippeastrium buds poking through the mulch today. It also hasn't rained for nearly a month, so I've watered for an hour both yesterday and today.
Remember I said your bees look black.? Here is one on an Osteospermum.
BTW soils, beautiful flowers as always. I also saw your pics in the garden to vase thread and they looked lovely too.

Your macro shots are looking great Sue, glad you are on a warming trend. Do the dogs eat the blossoms or the peaches or both? Reminds me I gotta get some more and start making pies soon. That elmira peach pie didn't last 24 hours LOL!

Dianne, loving to see your gardens. The tuberrose I can smell from here, they are lucious. Your dahlias are quite lovely as well, the cactus type? The abutilon is getting huge, just stick the others in and see what happens.

Sue - I echo Candee's comment on your great macro shot. Check this one out - it is not as close-up or as detailed as yours, but if you look closely, there is a smaller yellowish/brown bee in the upper blossom, and the big black bee in the lower one.

And thanks for the yard to vase comments.

Candee - tuberoses do smell great - but I don't have too many blooms anymore. I had one patch that did great - so great that I decided to divide it. Big Mistake - never got hardy any blooms after that in any of the split patches. that dahlia may be a cactus type, but I am not sure. I have to share this bloom of Hedychium gardnerianum. Whereas the above tuberose move was disastrous, this is one of my success stories. I moved some of this from the backyard where it got afternoon sun to the front porch with morning sun and it bloomed a good 2 months earlier than normal. Bonus comes with no burnt leaves in this dappled morning light area. The abutilon is in the background.

Hey Soils, that bee is a monster! Thanks for the comments and I too ahve the Kahili ginger, doesn't it smell devine. I'll have to wait a couple of months for flowers yet I think!
Candee, Its the peaches they eat, on the very day they are soft enough to indicate readiness, poof! They are gone.
Have to show you the ant on the Euphorbia wulfenii. Hope I haven;t posted it already!
Sue

Diann you have some busy bees at work there. I don't know what the heck a Hedychium gardnerianum is, but it is stunning in bloom. I'll have to check into one of those!
Sue, do you think you could pick them a bit early and brown bag them to rippen? Or is there no tricking your precious pups?
Thanks for the macro, I can go around all day itchin that I got ants in my pants!

Candy - As Sue said, the H. gardneranum is a ginger. It has a very nice fragrant. The white butterfly ginger is a more well-known ginger plant, and most people are familiar with the white ginger fragrance, but as a cut flower, I much prefer the yellow one above. Flowers open more evenly and last longer.

Sue - another great shot. I have some really neat looking spiders all over the yard that would make great subjects for your macros.

Hi Candee, I've been outside all weekend and have a moment to catch up before starting on some homework that needs to be in by tomorrow!
Do peaches ripen once they are off the tree? I could give it a go, as theres nothing to lose, (well I haven't had one yet, so I don't know what I'm missing)
Hi Soils. I have both the white and the Yellow flowering ginger, but they are on the weeds list here, as they grow so well! I always cut the blooms when they are finished, so as not to let them go to seed. They smell so devine, and that yellow one fills the room with its fragrance!
speaking of spiders, I have a spider on a lantana flower in a picture. I didn't know it was there until I uploaded the pics to the computer. I'll put it on tomorrow if I remember, as its on the 'offline' computer. I find alot of cobwebs and spiders show up in my photos!
Hows the weather in your respective zones? And what did you do over the weekend?
Sue
Ranunculus at a customers garden today. Note the bee in the left red flower. (pic might be a bit small for that)

Sue, you can put the peaches in a brown grocery bag in a closet for a day or two and they will ripen for you. Those ranunculus are pretty.

Thanks for the ginger info, think I have enough tropicals to bring in this season so will wait until next year when I will have surely killed one or two off !

Sue, your macro shots are awesome. Love all the beautiful flowers.

Lovely to see your flowers everyone. I especially like your Abutilon Dianne.
My garden is looking a bit sparse, feels like summer is over (if it ever arrived)! Did some clearing up and pruning at the weekend, collected seeds and sprayed some of the dried flowers I've been saving.
The Jasmine on my arch has some new buds.

Terri - thanks, the abutilon makes a great entry plant because it blooms from March until October here. Does your jasmine have a fragrance?

I spent 5 hours in the garden on Sunday since that is the last chance I have to weed, move plants, fix sprinkler heads, and more weeding. The last thing I need is to return home in October to find a ton of weeds that have gone to seed and have them take over my garden. A few parting shots.....one of the very few orchids that I have gotten to rebloom. I moved it outside in May, and it must have liked it there.

This message was edited Aug 25, 2008 11:59 PM

and another shot of the Salvia chiapensis which is still blooming strong after three months and friend. Sue - I did not realize that the gingers would go to seed if you left them on the stalk. How ironic that what you classify as a weed, others have to baby them to grow.

This message was edited Aug 26, 2008 12:03 AM

Terri, what do you spray your dried with? My jasmine is just about finished blooming for the second time. I do love the sweet smell and yours must be fabulous as it is huge.

Dianne, so much to do and so little time before the plane departs. Nice that you spent so much time in the garden so it is spotless upon your return. By the time you get back there won't be much to enjoy in my garden so will be looking forward to your Ca sunshine and poseys.

Unusual orchid Dianne, will that still be flowering when you get back? Your bees are weird!!
The Jasmine smells wonderful, especially in the evenings.
Candee, I used gold spray paint for some Aquillega and Nigella seed heads also some Gyp.

Hi soils, your orchid is beautiful, and I agree with Terri, if thats a bee, its weird! Have you left on holiday yet? if so, jeeze, you'll have a lot of catch up to do!
Candee, I didn't have a clue what you were asking, until I saw Terris reply, and then all became clear! LOL. Hello, and how are you?
Thanks Karma for being nice as always! I haven't been going to the cafe, so haven't caught up with you in ages. You know who else I haven't heard from in ages? Pupil!
Hi Terri, glad you're back amongst us. Its been showering today, with thunder and lightening, so I'm home, because I can't work with the weather being so changeable, shame that!
I had a poke around at my place instead, and just enjoyed the good feeling of being home in the garden!
Here is my first Blue Moon rose, (it didn't really stop over winter) Winter is over on the first of September, so things should power on now!

The flowers are starting to fill out in the garden

Hi Sue! Shame about your weather keeping you home in that beautiful garden!!!
Ohh love your blue moon, doubt I'll get another flower unless we get one of those Indian summers in September.
Your flowerbed looks lovely and fresh with the new growth and sugarcane mulch. So glad we have your lovely flowers to look forward to in the coming months, when ours will be on their way out!
We are having a farewell bon voyage drinks for Dianne with fireworks tonight! It would be great to see you and karma and Traci pupil all there.

Yikes did I miss the fireworks, I hope not. Is Dianne leaving today or tomorrow, these blond moments are really getting to me.
Sue, I wanna come stay with you for the winter, I'll see if I can sell something to russle up a ticket over there. I so don't want to see my garden end for the season here already, it seems like it just began..
Doesn't look like the weather was all that bad LOL, least not from those wonderful garden pics. Sure you weren't just playin hookey?

Sue and Terri - by weird bees, do you mean the way they look, act, or the size????LoL.
We have a variety of them - the smaller brown ones, the black ones like in the photo above, and the really large bumble bees with the yellow and black strips that everyone is familiar with.

Sue - what kind of work do you do that bad weather keeps you from doing? You sure have a colorful garden for being the end of winter.

I am staying indoors today because of the weather too - it'll be over 100 degrees here today.

It is past midnight, but I wanted to post this because it is my first, ever white naked lady bloom. I planted two bulbs three years ago, and it finally bloomed!!!! It would be gone when I got back, so I wanted to post this before I left.

Beautiful flower soils! Just gorgeous. Nice photo too!
Would you believe I am a gardener? No, I mean for a living! So when it rains, I come home, but I don't mind working in my garden when it rains, because I can go inside, have a shower and get into dry clothes. Sometimes, when I get home after being rained off, the rain clears, but It's so dodgy, I don't know wether to go back to the next job, so usually, I don't. Of course, if its obviously cleared up for good, I usually do go back. Luckily today, it started to rain only half an hour before knock off time, so I managed to make a dollar . I also played with my broms in the rain, but not after I got the fire going inside first. Now I'm all warm and dry again!
Thanks terri, You gals are the only people I get to share my garden with. visitors are so few and far between, and sometimes I wonder why I bother, then I go outside, see the roses or Irises or broms, and I don't care about being on my own so much. At least I'm free to do what I want most of the time.

Candee, the room is all ready! The fires lit and we have beef stew for dinner. What time will you be here?