Blooming In June

Star Gazer - the only bud, out of dozens, that the deer left for me.

Species alstromeria.

Weird NOID salvia. The branch on the left, which is about 5' tall is part of the smaller plant, about 18", seen behind the cycad. I would love to cut this monster branch off, it sticks out where it shouldn't, but it is too pretty.

Edited to add that this plant is about 5 years old. This is the first year it sported this big branch.

This message was edited Jun 15, 2009 9:17 AM

A happy accident among the red caladiums. This white one has the barest hint of a green edge; you have to look really close to even see it. It will be interesting to see how long a leaf without much chlorophyll lasts.

Caladium 'Gingerland', my new favorite.

I love those caladiums! especially the Gingerland. I traded for a bunch this year for filler in the bed on the side of my house which doesn't get much sun. Do you have to dig yours up in the winter? I've been told I have to here.

X

i really like that single white one! it is so pure looking because there is like, no green except for in that tiny border. very nice!
X, i posted a question on the passiflora forum too, and i'm beginning to wonder if it would be wiser to ask my question elsewhere. i've noticed that some places on here tend to be pretty clique-y, and i'm beginning to wonder if this is not another case of clique-ieness.

I don't have to dig them up but since they are planted in a spot that stays damp in the winter I will dig them. If you have yours in sand you should be OK. I had a friend who lived out Bacon's Bridge Road and she never dug hers up because her garden was high and dry.

You may be right about the passiflora crew .. though I have one actually answering some of my posts .. might just take awhile to thaw them.

My passie bloomed again today and now it has pink on the petals.

X

oh well. well, maybe i could ask you... i have had several passifloras, and none of them have ever bloomed while i was growing them. i mean, i have been able to keep them in pots and they bloomed straight out of the nursery, but i have never grown flowers myself. what do you do to get the flowers?

Trent, this is the first year I've grown them. To be honest, I never really like passiflora until I found out they came in other colors besides blue and purple. I've grown mine from seed. They are in a pot and get fed once a week with plain old 2 tbs per gallon food. I do know they like full blazing hot sun and so far, mine have bloomed only in the morning and start closing up by 10am.

X

The salad dressing and I are getting impatient. These are Early Girl I've grown from seed.

X

This is Hibiscus El Capito. I love the deep red.

I grew some Red Ice Geraniums last year and rooted some cuttings in the fall. They are putting on a nice show in the greenhouse.

wow the geraniums are really nice!

Anything with "ice" in it is good today. LOL

Isn't that the truth .. I just came back in from potting up rooted Solandra maxima cuttings for trades .. I'm sure I lost a pound or 2 from sweating. I must confess to preferring sweating to shivering .. but then again there is nothing better than sliding in to pre-warmed microplush sheets on a cold night! Lol.

Those geranium kept blooming their heads off past the first frost last year .. they were growing in large containers next to a southwest facing brick wall - it wasn't until we had that October hard freeze that they finally surrendered.

This year I grew some rare and hard to find daturas in the containers just to get more seeds.

The datura in the picture took bi-color to a new level .. it was suppose to be a Yellow Queen but apparently the parent plant got crossed with something else. The person I received the seeds from said huh? when I asked about open pollination.

X

This message was edited Jun 15, 2009 2:57 PM

wait... what does that mean

Are you being serious or funny?

If serious, open pollination is when a flower is pollinated by wind or bees, so if you have a lot of other flowers of the same genus and species but different cultivars, they will cross and some do not breed true to the parent.

Most of mine is OP Open pollination but I always make a point to sequester a few flowers and hand pollinate them and make sure nothing else can pollinate them. This is achieved by special "socks" over the flower or pinning petals together after hand pollinating. That way I can assure "pure bred" seeds. OP is one of the reasons, some cultivars get "lost".

X

i was being funnily serious. =] thats what i guessed it to be but wasn't 100% sure. so what you got isn't really what you were looking for? im sorry that must be pretty disappointing.

Not so much disappointing as aggravating. Last year I traded my buns off for lots of Teddy Bear Sunflower seeds. When they started blooming it was obvious they were crosses. Out of 40 plants not a one came out true.

But then again, you can come up with some interesting crosses. Like that half and half datura I posted. Crosses for the most part are difficult to stabilize to where they always breed true.

X

This message was edited Jun 15, 2009 4:03 PM

*giggle* I picture Daturas and Brugs being given "socks" as birth control - well, you can make the connection *giggle * snort*

Cool pics everyone!

ardesia - Your lily is not 'Stargazer' - it looks like it could be 'Silk Road'.

I have more daylilies blooming but they can wait until later. I wanted to get some pics of Lilium leucanthum 'Black Dragon' today since they say we may have rain/storms tomorrow. First pic is in daylight. Old House Gardens (where I got the bulbs years ago) says the color on the outside of the petals is darker in cooler areas. Of course NC is at the southern end of their range, and it's been pretty warm recently, so it's not quite as dark as expected but they are still very nice.

Pic taken just minutes ago w/flash. The fragrance is stronger at night.

Another one tonight.

Absolutely gorgeous! How tall do they get?

Thanks Tom, You are correct as usual. :-)
I picked that lily last night and as I brought it into the house I said to myself this is not a Stargazer but I couldn't remember what it was. I did have some Silk Roads once so that has to be it. Around here lilies are nothing but deer candy and after several years of not being able to enjoy the flowers, they are about to be relocated to Jenny's garden where her dogs will protect them from the marauding herds.

I kept looking at this Lord Baltimore this morning thinking "something is wrong here". Since I had just awaken and the coffee hadn't hit my brain, it took awhile and then it hit me .. 4 petals instead of 5!

X

My Crinum 'Ellen Bosanquet' flowered! It was a real surprise when I saw flower stalk forming. I was told transplanted crinum usually don't flower the first year! What a nice surprise!

X

I have 2 crocosmia blooming - this one is one that was sold to me last year as Lucifer by a nursery - The foliage is way too short, and as ity s now blooming you can see that it is not Lucifer. So it is NOID for now

But THIS is Crocosmia Lucifer

NOID Calla lily:

Salvia `Maraschino Cherry' starting to bloom:

X-
That crinum looks like the one Alice gave me last year (is it Alice?) I broke it all up into individual bulbs, gave bulbs to about 8 people, and planted several myself. Three of them are blooming for me, too. I didn't think they'd bloom, either, but they're happy.

Jenny

I was really surprised! I've been feeding the beejeebers out of them every week. It would be stellar if the others will start blooming.

X

Looks pretty close to me. Glad all the bulbs are happy but truthfully, it does not take much to keep a crinum absolutely ecstatic.

This mornings walk-about was extra wonderful this morning .. lots of new things blooming as well as old friends blooming .. I even found as Assassin Bug Convention!

This is a Morning Glory Bush - Ipomoea carnea. It will get over 5 feet tall!

My Plumeria I've had for over 5 years finally decided to bloom.

And here is an old friend, Hoya carnosa. If you'd like to see an extreme close up of the picture on the right go here - dialups beware 7+meg file.

http://www.nerii.org/Ron/Hoya_carnosa_CU_6-17-9.jpg

Another old friend, Corkscrew Vine, Vigna caracalla. If you look closely at the tube in the center you can actually see the pollen inside.