Rita, how silly of me, haha! I did think it looked like mondo grass but as I had never heard it called monkey grass I thought it was something different! Your mother of thousands looks beautiful from that angle. Looking again I realize what it is! I think those are beautiful, it's too bad they are considered invasive over here in so Cal....
Merry Christmas to everyone! This is my first X-mas in my new home and I am very excited! : )
Merry Christmas.
This weeks blogs
Out of Africa, A Miracle on 10th st.
http://www.chron.com/channel/houstongardening/commons/persona.html?newspaperUserId=rjudd&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3arjuddPost%3afb0394f4-2d65-4e86-8930-8108a2dccc47
Changing on friday to
"Tripping the Garden Lights Fantastic.
http://www.chron.com/commons/persona.html?newspaperUserId=rjudd&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3arjuddPost%3afefa5d77-6dd5-404c-8a77-04ec56abf080
Rj
This message was edited Dec 25, 2008 8:17 PM
Merry Chirstmas all!
RJ your articles are always so interesting! Thank you for sharing them with us!
I'm glad you enjoy them! Thanks
RJ, excellent article on your Tamarind tree and very interesting conversation about invasive plants for your area. Also, if those are your garden lights, they are beatiful.
Great bit of work RJ..nice varried articles...the LED piece was great.. the first link was dead here.. but the second showing some new things was great... that moon light you mentioned is lovely.. I've had one here . for the last year... on top of a column .. it changes color from one to another all night .. red blue green yellow... always slowly morphing from one to another.. red for awhile.. then red/blue.. fading to just blue.. then blue for a while.. solar powered.. nice accent piece..
anyway.. great bit of work.. and such fun having a new article every so often.. research broadens one.. just like travel.. not dissimilar..
pretty lights too.... but I've had only poor reports from the led replacements fot the high powerered grow lights.. getting a led [ or a pile of them ] to do for a plant.. what a 1000 watt bulb does.. maybe sometime soon..
This message was edited Dec 26, 2008 5:03 AM
Monkey Grass - better known as Mondo Grass>
I hope that everyone had a very good Christmas.
Rj, I love the article, especially the progression of growth pictures. It will be very exciting whenever it blossoms.
This Clivia had one solitary bloom on Christmas, a nice present to me. They usually bloom in the spring.
close up of Clivia flower
sunshinesw, those are very nice pictures. I would like to know what the plant is, in your second picture, behind the San Cylindrical with the peeling bark.
Dale, the monkey grass in your picture looks good that way. May be I will let mine take over so it would look like that!
Pacenciarita, thanks for your kind words. The plant is Velvet ear elephant ears, the leaves get huge when planted in the ground. 10-11" long.
Your Clivia was nice Christmas present. Noid orchid and Hoya australis was my christmas present.
Red orchid.
Snail vine flower arrangement.
Velvet elephant ear.
Hello Sunshinesw, I can't help but to admire the Velvet EE. I along with others on the Mid-South gardening forum love EE's. Might I ask where they can be purchases? Lee
Sunshine,
Your Velvet Elephant Ear is http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2370/
Amazon Water Lily or
Victoria amazonica>
RJ, I got very emotional with your article! I forwarded it to my family as they will, like me, enjoy to read about our cherished Africa.
It took me many many years to realize my love of nature comes from my childhood in Ivory Coast!
Leeflea51, I purchased mine in Key West years ago.
Dale thegardener, thanks for the info. You sure have lots of diffrent happy plants.
Roberta, beautiful photos.
Beautiful Pictures everyone, I hope everyone has a Good Holiday time.. I had a bloom on Christmas day... well, I should say a baby... my aloe that Tropicman gave me to foster has had a baby!
Bought this for my MIL
ooops. I meant to browse and post picture.
And these...
I can't grow orchid for the life of me! But these zygocactus were a bargain for my mom...
Been so busy here that I had to get up in the middle of the night to catch up. Randy, your articles for the Chronicle are great. You have more than one gift.
Christi
RJ, I just took the time to read both your artivles , and I must say you have given me a wonderful start to my day, thank you for that! I will be wanting to google about your tree and those dragon fly lights from work I just know it! again, thanks for giving me the "lift" I needed before going to work! ( makes me want to go through all my 40 yr old California boxes to look for shells, seeds and trinkets) Debra
sunshinesw, thank you for showing us that unusual, very interesting velvet elephant ear plant. I can only imagine how pretty it looks when in bloom. Candela did send me a cutting, but it seems as if a elephant sat on the package at the post office, it was squashed.
The clivia is about 10 yrs or older, I divided it once, that one bloom was unusual for this time of year. I did not get any plants for Christmas. I will have to stop saying that I do not need anything, they took me seriously this year.
Charles Grimaldi blooming in the GH
robcorrea, I love that picture. It reminds me of my childhood home. I took a photo of an old snapshot.
LiliMerci, what a nice present for your MIL, I love the cream color of the blooms. I went to Lowe's yesterday trying to find mark-down christmas catcus but they were all gone. They had a few orchids that were left out in the cold.
Your Mom is a lucky Lady.
Shooting Star plant that I started for a friend
Joeswife, we did have a very quiet holiday. We went to my son's house and had breakfast, opened presents and got to leave, so I did not have any cleaning up to do. I hope that you had a Good Christmas also.
Congratulations on the new baby plant. Tropicman will be pleased that you are taking such good care of the Aloe. Do you have any more pictures of your visit to his garden?
jasmine
I went to the nursery but their plants wasn't a bargain. I found my bargains at the grocery store.
x-mas cactus in bloom finally
Beautiful.
Patty, now I know where you are 'hanging out' these days. Love your Christmas Cactus in full bloom.....nice.
gail
Hey Gail
It's good to hear from you. You've discovered my new obsession--tropicals!
I change every year, Patty! I still have my brugs you gave me and my plumies, but with this wind, I am becoming very discouraged with tropicals.
Guess what! One day in October I was over at Bloomers and they had a big manifestation of white flies on all the hibiscus but they had been treated for three weeks and all the foliage had been stripped. So........for only 3.50 a gallon I bought 11 gorgeous hibiscus and now they are magnificent looking. I can't wait until this spring for blooms. Will come back and post pics of some.
Now I am only into streptocarpus and very few of their relatives..............hoyas and orchids. Patty, you would love growing orchids on your wonderful patio.
gessi: you make me want to google streptocarpus so I can know what they are...LOL.. I have lots of pictures of tropicmans gardens , and it was a huge tropical area in a very plain oak tree and maple neighborhood.. he should name it the the mid-town botsnicl tropic Grden.. he had a banana tree that was at least 20 ft tall, and his ruby glow passion vine was in full bloom as well as all his brumansias, and well.. it was just a gorgeous place I could have spent a month there and not been bored...
LiliMerci, thanks, I suddenly have the urge to go grocery shopping.
Phughes, your basket is so full, it is lovely. I would like to find a yellow Christmas cactus today
This is a pink firespike from candela.
joeswife I do enjoy looking at other gardens, and love to incorporate their ideas in mine. That is a beautiful tall banana tree. I hope that he got to enjoy those bananas, there is nothing like eating your own fruit.
