Trollius
June Flowers OT
Sorry about the blur on the last one.I didn't check them before posting.
It is so easy to figure out what zone people are in by the flowers they post from outside.............nice pics and flowers, Lynn.
Thank you Gail!! I do have a few different items in my yard,but in this zone a lot of things are still not in bloom.It's very different from those of you who live further south and I know we don't all even call things by the same names....for example my Sis's Texas Mountain Laurel is a totally different plant than the ML here.
Lynn
I lived in the mountains once where I grew in summer what I grow in winter down here..........such as geraniums and lots of cool weather plants.........I am amazed that in zone 5 you have that much color already.
Actually,I think the climate here has changed in the last few years.I neglected to take pictures of my spring flowers and early bloomers and they are gone already.Summer bloomers,like Butterfly Weed,Coreopsis,etc. are starting to bloom already and tomatoes seem like they will be early too.
The only good part about living down here is we are still eating every day from the garden. This week I have cooked nothing but vegetables and fresh sweet corn for dinner. Okra, yellow squash, zucchini, green beans, black eyed peas, etc................and no meat...............lots of tomatoes and cantaloupe................
The summer garden is usually gone by now.......but we started it late because of no rain..........then we start again in October for a long winter garden........which I like even better than the summer garden.......we can grow tomatoes year around if we put them in big pots for the winter to be covered up at night if there is a slight frost..
It's funny how different it is everywhere.I love veggies and don't need the meat except once in a while. Your garden sounds yummy!! We will have so many veggies later,we will be giving them away to strangers LOL. Not from my personal garden anymore.It is at the bottom of a very steep bank and I am lucky to get a few tomatoes and peppers planted,but many of my friends share their crops as I used to do with them. I love it!
ibrabc, loving all your garden flowers. I recognize everything except the first one with unusual foliage and white blooms.
No flowers on this yet, but I just love prayer plants. This one looks pretty healthy. I have killed more than a few, but keep buying them anyway. One of these days I'll get it right....it gets tiny purple almost violet-like flowers when it's really happy.
And here is something new, though I doubt the buds will open. It is a cactus that lives thru the winters here, and blooms big yellow flowers with red centers. Not sure of the name, for now I am calling it my "Cemetery Cactus" because I got the cutting off a huge plant growing arond the headstone of very very old grave in a local cemetery. This cemetery is so old that there are still remnants of wooden tombstones here and there. They used to make them out of the cedar that grows in the local pinelands, probably because cedar withstands alot of abuse from the weather....but even cedar eventually starts to wear away.
I am waiting for the cut to callous over, then I will try potting it up with some sand to see if it will root.
It's an Opuntia,but I have no idea which one.
yeah well it got lotsa invisible little stickers. Beware.
I'll look it up, see if I can tell by the flowers- thanks
GL,
Thank you.It is Elderberry Black Lace.The flowers are actually pink,but were fading out when I took the photo.
Somehow I "lost" this thread again ... that seems to be happening a lot with me lately. LOL, I sometimes wonder how I find my way home sometimes! Geesh, I should leave well enough alone and quit playing with my settings on DG, I end up losing some of the threads I'd been watching.
Enjoying the lovely summer blooms!
Lynn: That Elderberry Black Lace is Gorgeous! I had never heard of that one so had to go google and read about it. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/56964/ I sure wish that plant grew this far south, I even like the looks of the foliage when not in bloom: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=images+of+elderberry+black+lace&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=diQ1StnfAYjKtge64Zj5Dg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title
jmp24: That is a lovely Prayer Plant. I have never been able to keep one alive for long.
Many years ago we always saw Opuntia cactus along the roadsides here in Florida but I haven't seen one in a long time. They have beautiful yellow blooms but OUCH! those thorns!
My Epiphyllum Oxypetalum bloomed for the very first time last night! Well, I've had this plant for a long time and this is actually the first time we've seen it bloom. It was so much fun watching the progression. I posted photo's in sequence from when it began opening to how the bloom looks now. I will just post one picture here but if anyone is interested in the sequence of shots you can check it out here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1002283/
Oooh, I just had to google some more for that Elderberry Black Lace because I thought I remembered some sort of Sambucus growing in Florida! I found this one: http://www.floridata.com/ref/S/samb_can.cfm Now I will have to check some local nurseries!
Caladium's showing their pretty ears ..
Crape Myrtle's just beginning to bloom here ...
A basket of Torenia still going strong ...
Pretty Canna ...
Lin,
I just love your pictures!! The Epiphyllum Oxypetalum is gorgeous.
Sambucus Black Lace is a great plant for norhtern gardens,because it is totally carefree.You can cut it down to the ground every year or just let it grow. I just go out a few times a year and cut off any branches that are shading other plants.The black leafed one that is not lacy is also very pretty.
Lynn
Great pics, Plantlady. Wish my oxy would bloom, its over 3 yrs old. I have several epis, inc. ric rac, but they are all younger, growing from cuttings. The only one that blooms is a big red one I bought as a full siize plant. It blooms maybe 3 flowers a year, all around the same time (May) and it seems to me kind of not worth having to look at what basically amounts to a pretty ugly plant the rest of the year.
Here is a pic of the opuntia. The cutting actually bloomed. Fuzzy pic but its too hot outside, I don't feel like going out to take another one. I also had a very painful teeny little sticker in my thumb for two days, man, that thing HURT!!!
Know what you mean about the prayer plants, I have killed more that a few. I think the main issue is overwatering so I tried growing one in hydroculture. It did good for a while, then it too died.
I think the secret is to really let them dry out before watering. I had one at work that I did that with, and it was still alive after a few years and at the time that I left. A record for me with them, usually they live a year if I am lucky. The thing is, you can't leave them dry for too long, maybe just a day or so. If you let them go any longer, they get yellow. They also do well in low light, even bloom. This one needs some fresh soil, but I am not going to repot till I buy some orchid bark. I was thinking maybe a hoya-like soil mix will help with any root rot problems
I love them, and will keep trying. I'd love to get my hands on some of the other varieties, but this is the only one I ever see for sale.
That Opuntia does have a beautiful bloom. Many desert cacti have glorious blooms but I just don't like thorny plants anymore, LOL. I prefer to enjoy them from a distance!
Years ago I had a large collection of desert cacti and finally gave them all away ... couldn't stand getting stuck all the time! Back in the early 70's I bought a packet of cactus seed and sowed them. Had bunches of little cactus that sprouted. That was so exciting to me ... seeing cactus seedlings. At first I thought the package was mislabeled because when they started sprouting they didn't look at all like cactus ... little tiny sprouts with two tiny leaves. Four or five months later they had the cactus shape and the thorns! They were about 4" tall and we went away that Christmas. Well ... it was the coldest, wettest winter we've had since I've been in Florida. There was a hard freeze while we were away and when we came home my little cactus babies (and a couple of larger ones) were mush! That freeze killed most of the 6' hedges we had around the entire perimeter of our backyard as well as orange and grapefruit trees. I still had quite a few different cactus ... once a very large golden barrel cactus was stolen right from my front porch! I wasn't as upset about the plant going missing as I was about the expensive pot it was in! I had the plant for many years so hopefully whoever wanted it was able to enjoy it for many more years!
I've tried growing the Maranta: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/b/Marantaceae/Maranta/none/cultivar/0/ a few times over the years ... never could keep them alive. I know they love humidity but I think mine were getting too much water. I should try one in a terrarium.
jmp24,
I used to grow Opuntia like yours in a wild bed outside. I pulled them out 2 or 3 years ago,just to try something different.Watch out,they multiply rapidly LOL.
Old picture.
That is such a pretty picture but Oh, those barbs!
http://www.floridata.com/ref/O/opun_hum.cfm
The little tiny ones are a different cultivar and their spines are really wicked.
Thanks for that link, learned that the tiny barbed spines in the "pores" of the cactus are called glochids...must be what I had stuck in my thumb.
My mom said we had these in the first house we lived in, which a vaguely remember, but she said she hated them because if she even went near them, the spines would shoot out and get her...
and that link is correct, you can just lay the cutting down on the ground and it will root. Hardy little suckers!
Gail, I hate hearing about plant thefts! I worry all the time about my hoyas when I put them outside for the summer.
I had a couple of small hanging baskets of Hoya stolen from my front porch a few weeks ago! Made me so mad! I went out one morning and 3 baskets were gone! Two of them were blooming too! The three missing were a blooming lacunosa, an australis and I haven't figured out yet which the third one was! I have a heron statue out there too, and found it moved a few feet out into the driveway ... don't know if whoever got the plants meant to take that statue and forgot it, or got spooked and just took off without it! It's very strange. It was 30 years ago that my cactus was stolen and we haven't had any problems since there. Our outside lights are on a timer and come on at dusk and go off at dawn ... I guess whoever the culprit was figured everyone around here was sleeping and they wouldn't be seen. I just hope their new plants bring them joy.
jmp..........I don't remember posting about plant theft. We have never missed a plant out here.
Sorry you had baskets taken, Lin.....................especially hoyas.....
Thanks Gail ... I look at it as someone must have needed them more than me, LOL. I have enough plants that I can spare a few. It's just sad that they had to steal, I would have gladly given them those and more if they had asked.
Gail: jmp24 must have gotten us confused, it was me who posted about my long ago stolen barrel cactus, and now the hoyas.
Lin
I would be upset though I have to admit! True plants aren't children or pets but I put a lot of love and effort into them......smiling
Lin,
Many people here have had their beautiful plants stolden,sadly even their memorials.I have a large Jade at least 30 years old and a really big Cereus,plus pretty good sized Golden Barrel,etc. I always wonder if they will still be there every morning.I have been pretty lucky.Like you,if someone needed or wanted the plant that much,I would have either have given it or a large part of the plant to them!! It is sad when I read in the paper that so many have had their Mother's Day gift or something they treasure from a loved one gone overnight!!
Lynn
I remember as a child my grandmother always knocking on people's doors asking for a 'little cut' of something. It embarrassed my grandfather so much and now ...........I am the same way..........so I am positive if someone knocked on my door I would be happy to share with them........
As would I,and it would give me great pleasure!!
Plantlady! Remember me posting this bloom and not being able to figure out who she was.......well, now that I have about 6 blooms on her, I realize that Hoya kerrii and another Hoya are planted in the same basket.
We haven't had heat like this in June for many years, but I think it is affecting the way my hoyas bloom. Here is a bad pic of jasmine on the left and Hoya australis on the right. They just won't bloom. West sun is ruining the pics.
Wow Gail ... those are Awesome Hoya's! But, ALL of your plants are pretty awesome! That is a beautiful bloom on Hoya kerri! What other hoya is planted in with kerri? I bet it would really be fun to have them both blooming at the same time!
I have to start my hunt for hoyas again........which is so much fun!!! I have several baskets with different hoyas in them together. When I sold so many on ebay, it gives me an excuse to start looking again but I haven't been anywhere there is a nursery lately. At least I didn't have time away from the grandchildren to go nursery hopping.............
Lin, I forgot to ask you if you have ever seen Hoya obscura bloom any color other than the yellow.
I didn't even have time to buy the basket on my way home at a nursery where the foliage looked exactly like obscura but the basket had both pink and yellow blooms coming from the same foliage.
Can't wait to go back that way again.