Garden Pics: 'Postcards from the Garden.'...#7

It will be a while before I can take more photos. Yesterday I was taking a pic of the big neighborhood tree (see thread philosophy 101) and when Koka charged after a squirrel I was still holding the leash and alas dropped my camera.

Julie - love the Sweet Ballerina. Such a lovely pink.

Judi, Saw that about the camera.....bummer! The plus side is that technology is changing so fast that whatever you replace it with should have much better features and picture quality!

This picture doesn't do this peony justice..it is soooooo pretty.

And I saw my first swallowtail about a week or so ago, but it was way up in a cedar tree and I couldn't get a pic. I barely managed to get one of this kid before he flew away.

I am soooooo excited! My Toona tree got here today! Thanks again Shelly for all your help in finding it!

Looks great!!!

Wow- I've never heard of toona trees before, but now that I've looked them up, I want one! Gorgeous!

Pony, You should see the pictures that Redchic posted in one of the earlier photo threads. She has a couple of her own, and also has pics of an older one, and they are just awesome. Her pictures were the reason that I looked into them, and after I did a little research, I decided that I MUST have one. I am just sad I missed it's pink stage this year, but the red of the branches mixed with the leaf color is still just awesome. It is up against the blue wall of my office right now waiting to come home with me, and it is just stunning with that backdrop. I don't think that I have ever been more excited about a non-flowering tree.

I saw her photos in the plant files here, they're awesome! So where does one find one of these lovely trees? The one nursery listed in the plant scout thing didn't have it.

RC refered me to Greer Gardens in Eugene for mine... I was not able to find anything locally. I think that there was only one of the size that I got left, but they had several of the next size down. I dealt with Geoff, and he was wonderful and I had my tree in two days. They only charged 9.99 to ship it, and it was very well packed.

Ooh. Thank you for the info! :D

Julie...that tree looks great!! It doesn't flower, bt then it does in a way with the pink stage. Wish I had room for one. Greer Gardens is my favorite nursery. I've always had good luck with their plants and they stand behind them too. Nice flower pics too!!

rc....pretty senior kitty!

Thanks Sally and RJ! Or I Should say that 'My Lady' (senior kitty) thanks you. And yes, I agree about the random bouts of childhood getting into them. It's so strange, most of the time she wanders at her own, slow pace, and looks very hesitantly about getting onto anything more than 6" off of the ground. Then every once in a while, she'll take off in a flat out sprint across the house, hit the wood floor and slide the rest of the way. She seems to love doing that.

thanks for the raves on the Toona tree and photos RJ and Pony. RJ, I'm so happy that you were able to get a good one to live in your garden. I'm sure that it will be very happy there! I look forward to seeing pictures of your garden next spring, with this flamingo pink tree, standing out from every angle! Lovely flower pics too!

Judi... so sorry to hear about your camera. Hopefully it's not out of commission for too long. What a bummer. I blame the squirrel! Your philosophy on the cats and their own email is a good one. I think to make that happen, we need to invent a keyboard with keys that are large enough to accomodate paws. But, once that is done.... i'm sure that they'll be right there with you on the porch emailing away!

Wish I had room for a Toona tree! My little garden is getting pretty packed full.

My camera is dead dead dead. Looks like I will be needing another. Red - what kind is yours?

When I went out to work outdoors yesterday, I was absolutely surprised to see what greeted me through my greenhouse window! I have pretty much ignored the remaining few plants in there while desperately trying to get outdoor stuff in the ground, so had no clue this was coming.

Ohhh.... very pretty Sharon! i bet that it must smell just wonderful too!

Judi.... I wish that you had room for one as well. One thing that might work for it in you garden would be that, while they do reach a decent height, they dont get very wide. And, since they don't branch low, they're very easy to have things growing around and under as well. That's too bad about your camera. It did a good job! Mine is a Lumix DMC-LZ8 (made be Panasonic) I really like the Lumix series as they're farely user friendly for the not so technically/photographically advanced folks. The fully auto modes require little to no thinking on the users part. Overall they are at the low end for both price and amount of functions for decent quality digital camers. When I bought mine it was $150, but now I see them all over the place for $99-110. I decided on that one after reading something in Consumer Reports, I also checked with several other consumer products websites, that gave the camera an A in it's class because it takes good quality pictures compared to other cameras in that price range. If you want to know the cons, I can list those as well.

Hey Sharon, that's beautiful. What is it?

RC and Kathy, it is some form of cactus, kind of like but not just like the orchid cactuses. I feel really badly when I post something I can't identify, but can't resist when they are so pretty. RC, no smell, unfortunately.

It's okay Sharon because there's no way I could keep something like that alive - crazy household and no greenhouse Those cacti really do have some amazing blossoms

Too bad about the camera, but now you can justify getting a new one. LOL

Sharon......that flower is gorgeous, hope it lasts a long time for you.^_^

Sharon.... your plant is some kind of Epiphyllum, or Cereus. But, most cereus have been put into the epiphyllum genus. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=epiphyllum&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&searcher%5Bgrex%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=with&Search=Search If you were to post a pic of it in the cactus forum, someone there might be able to give you a species name. Some of the species are hard to tell apart. While most of the are fragrant... there are some that are only fragrant on the first night that the bloom. That could be the case with yours. It's a heavenly fragrance.

This message was edited Jun 11, 2009 11:45 PM

BeaHive- so sorry I just saw your post. I found a hardy fuchsia Paula Jane. I had removed a couple of shrubs in my sunny border.
Rarejem- nice find. I can't wait to see it!
PNWMountainGirl- beautiful cactus flowers. Surprises are always fun

beautiful fuschia Azorina! I much prefer the purple shades over the red ones in fuschias.

Lovely fuschia Linda! I like the color and the form. I am excited that some of mine that are chubbier like that one (not long and pointy like my common one) are finally starting to come into their own.

I have had some lovely iris this year, but with the heat it seems like I missed out on my typical lengthy iris show. A late bloomer opened for me this morning...Her Kingdom. I love this color combo, although the burgandy doesn't show up so well in the pic!

And a siberian that I really wish I could capture the true deep purple color of.

This is not the best picture, but my island is filling out nicely and the yellow and blue together are a wonderful combo.

Nice island. Wish I had one. Have you thought about putting a Gunnera out there?

LOL Kathy, great minds think alike! On the other side of the island that you can't see in the pic, I have our hardy banana that Azorina gifted us with, and a baby gunnera that was just put in this spring. I am hoping that the gunnera takes of as well as my gifted darmera (Yup Linda, we will always think of you guys when we walk on our island!) on the left side of my island pic did!

Pretty pics today. Rj..Your island is looking very nice and filling in great. Should be wonderful as summer progresses.


1st bloom on Impatien balfourii or "poor man orchids". They are very delicate.

grape poppy

The Sweet Williams are doing great this year and smell wonderful.

Pink Renucula- orange one behind it.

Many poppies in bloom around the yard today.

a fluffy pink one

The poppy pod in the upper right corner of this picture is leaning over to kiss the columbine seed pods.

A bright yellow rose with CA poppies

Where's Waldo?

Beautiful stuff Bea! I have missed your pics over the last several days! Love the impatien...had not seen one of those before. The rose/poppy combo is just beautiful, as are all of the poppies. Have you had luck with the reniculus coming back for you? Mom and I just love them, but have quite buying them as they act like annuals in are yard. And of course I just adore the frog pic!

I can't tell if these are repeat reniculus or some I put in this year. I must mark some to see if they are back next year. I know they are tempermental like the freesia. I gave up on those my first year in Oregon. Grew like wild flowers in the Bay area. Miss them!

I love your Sweet William. I just ran across a big bag of Sweet William seeds that I had completely forgotten to plant... *sigh* I'm such a dork.

Your poppys are so pretty. And now I know where the odd looking columbine come from--kissing in the garden--I never!