Southeast Florida Garden Evolvement

Early blooming of Daylilies and Other Things in the Garden

2012-01-18T22:05:00.004-05:00

Since this is my first post of the year, let me first say "Happy New Year" to you all !!! Wish you have all the fun of the gardening in this new year!

Every year, from early Spring through the summer, I admire those beautiful pictures of Daylilies from other people's blog, wondering when I can own some of these beauties in my garden.

For some reasons, Daylilies are hard to find in South Florida. Occasionally, the big box stores have some for sale. I brought two home in two different times, and both died after the initial blooming. I did some researches, and found out that among thousands of Daylilies, there are three foliage types: Dormant, Semi-evergreen, and Evergreen. For people live deep South like me, Evergreen is the one that will survive our long-lasting hot weather. No wonder I failed twice since those two were all Domant types! Then why they even sold them in the store since Daylilies are not supposed to be a one-time thing in the garden?!

Anyway, since I did not find any local nurseries to buy Evergreen Daylilies, I looked over the Internet. I ordered 5 bareroot Evergreen double-fans from http://smokeysdaylilygardens.com/, and they arrived at the end of last October.

This week, two of them are already blooming! I am not sure if it is only because they are the early bloomers ( 'Lavender Silence' is labled as "Extra-early", and "Whooperee' is labled as "Early-mid" ), or also because of the mild winter we are having in South Florida. Nevertheless, I am excited to see these beauties are finally finding a home in my garden! If they all perform well after this summer, I think I will order more this fall. With a small garden, Daylilies are the ones I can find some space to squeeze in.

Whooperee
Evergreen, early-mid, rebloomer, 6.5" flower, 24" scape height, fragrant, recurved

Lavender Silence
Evergreen, extra-early, 6.5" flower, 22" scape height, ruffled, fragrant, recurved

Other things going on in the garden...

This Rex Begonia is in a shady area, and recently started shooting up the flower scapes. I bought it last year. After one year, it has been growing nicely. I have separated it into four plants. I think after a couple of years, I can expand them to the whole border that surrounds the air conditioner area. Even when it is not blooming, I love the texture of this plant.

Begonia

Love this combo in this part of flower bed. White Vincas, Orange Indian Blanket flowers, pink Pentas. That purple leaf plant with white dotted flowers is Alternanthera dentata 'Purple Knight'. Some says 'Purple Knight' is kind of invasive, but I have not found it is a big problem for me. It does have some seedlings, but only a handful I found so far. I can easily pulled them out, or give them to the friends. In the winter, they are full of those tiny white flowers, brighten the winter garden, and give us Floridians some snowy touch :)

Another combo I like: White Angelonia angustifolia, colorful coleus, and blue Lobelia erinus Techno Heat. This Lobelia is supposed to withstand the hottest summer temperatures while blooming nonstop. I will see if it holds true to Florida heat as well.

My front entry is quite colorful this winter. I removed some copperleaf bushes in the front, and put two cast iron cranes statues there together with some bromeliads.

This philodendron 'moonlight' behind the cranes statues started as a 3-in house plant from the big box store. Oh boy, how much it has grown! Wonder how much bigger it will get if I put it in the ground.

philodendron 'moonlight'

and I did not know it blooms as well!!!

philodendron 'moonlight' bloom

Snapdragon flower is one of my favorite winter annuals...

Pertunia is perfect for containers. Red is used to combo the white.

Purple petunia is in this container I have just redone, together with Flax lily and purple Verbenas.

Red and white petunias are in this pot with 'Red Star'.

My most favorite red-white stripe petunia is in this container.

Orchids that are currently blooming...

The first is a Cattleya orchid gifted from my friend this Christmas. Love this soft yellow.

This Moth orchid is reblooming the second time for me since I bought it one year ago. I have special thing for any orchid flowers with dots.

I recently purchased this Mini Oncidium Equitant from a big box store. It has five flower spikes.

It looks so pretty and fits well in the pot that my husband brought for me from China last year.

I am really enjoying my winter garden. I have to say I am spoiled by this year's Florida winter.

December Florida Garden and Merry Christmas Happy New Year

2011-12-21T11:21:00.001-05:00

We are having the best weather this December in Florida! Last year December we had a cold snap and left gardeners lots of work and brown leaves. This year, the weather in South Florida has kept at 60s and 70s, and my garden is just loving it!

Started last week, I have been taking my year end vacation. This vacation will be stay-home vacation. I hosted a big party with 18 families coming to our house last Saturday. Before that I spent some time to clean my garden, put on some fresh mulches, removed the old/dead plants, planted some winter annuals. The garden looks lovely, at least in my eyes :)

Let me just show you some pictures of my December garden. If you are in the winter up north, hope all these flowers can give you some warmth and colors in your cold winter days.

First, I need help to identify one new plant. I got it from a local nursery. The owner did not know the name either. The next two pictures shows both flowers and leaves. Anybody recognize it?

Update on 1/2/2012: Autumn Belle at "My Nice Garden" identified the above plant as "Strobilanthes cusia", common name: "Chinese Rain Bell". Thank you, Autumn Belle!!!

The following is Schaueria flavicoma, also know as common name "Golden plume". This is a shade or partial shade shrub, and first time blooming since I got it from Flamingo Gardens Member Day in May this year.

Schaueria flavicoma
Golden plume

This is the second year that Amazon Lily bloomed for me. This year it was early though. Last time it bloomed in February.

Amazon Lily
Eucharis grandiflora

Two types of matchstick bromeliads are blooming.

Bought two new bromeliads recently.

Looks like this year the Christmas Cactus are on time for Christmas. They just started opening last week.

Kalanchoes have been in my garden for three winters, and they never failed to bloom in winter time.

My favorite red and white combinations for Christmas.

Even cordylines are in blooming...

Cordyline fruticosa 'Kiwi'

Hawaiian Ti

I got these mums from clearance rack in bad condition, after one month of care, they rewarded me with these. Feels so good to be a plants rescuer!

Love the color of this Aster, and it is almost done with blooming.

Cuphea melvilleaCigar Plant

Begonia Odorata Var. Alba

My Dear Friends in the real world and the gardening world, I wish you a very

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Fall Florida Garden Update

2011-11-16T12:21:00.001-05:00

Have not been posting anything for a while... Being busy and maybe also a little bit lazy explains this long blog break very well. Now the hot summer is behind us, we Floridian are in the best weather of the year. I love this cool weather, and I got more energy out of it. I found myself enjoying working in the garden again, although the gardening time is even more limited after daylight savings time ended.

I have been doing lots of gardening chores, most of them were related to cleaning, trimming, removing the dead plants. After a long summer, lots of plants are either growing huge, or looking sad. However, there are lots of plants seem enjoying this cool weather as much as this gardener.

Here are some pictures from last month that I would like to post here for my own record keeping.

Roses perform much better in this cool weather than they were in the hot humid Florida summer.

Josephine's Land

Queen Elizabeth

Peace

Belinda's Dream

Firespike (Odontonema strictum)

My friend gave me one small cutting of pagoda flower early this year. Since I have not found the proper spot, I kept it in a one gallon pot. As young as it was, it surprised me with its first flower cluster last month.

Pagoda Flower (Clerodendrum paniculatum)

Bridal Bouquet (Plumeria pudica)

The following are more recent pictures from this month's garden.

Bromeliad Corner is now more filled in.

Does anybody know the name of the bromeliad below? This one performs very well in the full sun.

On the other side, Neoregelia Zoe could not take much sun. Too much sun will burn its leaves and fade the color. This clump is located in a partial shade area, and kept its showy color.

Neoregelia Zoe

Matchstick bromeliad multiplies itself quite fast. This is one of a few flowers.

Aechmea gamsepala
'Matchstick Bromeliad'

Various ground orchids are putting up shows in this fall garden. Over the past two years, I have bought, divided the ground orchids and they are now all quite happy in the different flower beds.

These are other orchids that are blooming now...

Here are more recent looks of the east side garden I opened during the summer. Comparing them to the picture in August post , the bed looks much more established although I still have not finished planting at the further end. Except some bushes as foundation plants, I used lots of free plants from other parts of my garden. Those colorful coleus, impatiens, and Vincas are all volunteer seedlings from last year's plants. White and purple Angelonia angustifolia are from the cuttings. Don't you love the free plants?

Some other plants in this flower bed:

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Brunfelsia pauciflora

Mealycup sage

Dwarf Mussaenda, White Wing

Blue Butterfly
Clerodendrum ugandense

Sorry for a long post, but feel much needed after a long blogging break :)

My Garden: Two Years Later

2011-08-31T22:44:00.002-04:00

I cannot believe today is already the last day of August! With the new beginning of a school year, excessive heat, humidity and abundant mosquitos, the time I spent in the garden has been cut to the minimum recently. Luckily, the frequent rain has been keeping my garden alive, or should I say, converting my garden into a jungle.

I am also very overdue to write my garden anniversary report. After all, recording garden progress was the main reason that I started this blog from the first place. By the The end of June, my garden turned to two years old!

Let me give you a tour to my garden. Don’t worry, that won’t take long since I only have a tiny garden. If you are interested to see how I started my garden, you can find the beginning here and one year report here.

My garden space basically is limited to the strip around my house. Let’s start from the front yard.

Front yard was the only space that had established landscape before we moved in. After we added decorative concrete border to the flower beds and side yard, we did a front garden make over. You can find the detail of this makeover here.

This is how it looked when it was just finished in March.

Since then, I have been adding more plants, such as bromeliads, society garlics, and some of original plants had to be moved since the Sun changed the direction in the summer, and those plants were being scorched. Here is how it looks now.

Now move to the right (west) side of the house. Looking toward the back yard from the front… The caladiums have started fading away. (Note to myself: Need to move the caladiums to a more shaded area.)

The same bed looking toward the front of the house. From this picture, you also can see the small flowerbed in the front that circles an oak tree. Four of my Vanda orchids are hanging on this tree.

Continue walking inside the fence of this side yard toward the back yard…

I opened this side flower bed last year. Wow, how everything has been out growing! I already did lots of trimming, but it still looks like a jungle.

Ground orchids are almost hidden under the Angel's Trumpet tree.

Angel’s Trumpet has been blooming on and off for the whole year. I am not very satisfied with its shape though. Maybe I can start another one since striking a cutting of it is super easy, and they really grow VERY FAST! At least in my climate.

Now we are almost in the back yard. From here, you can see how the side yard and the back yard are connected. The path is a paved gravel path with step stones. I still need to put more big stones on the path to level the step stones, a project that has been postponed for almost one year.

The following are the sections of the west flowerbed of the backyard, also my biggest flowerbed. I will show you the broad view of this flower bed later.

White Angel's trumpet is also flowering...

Can you tell why I said the weather has been turning my garden into a jungle? Zinnias have been growing to almost 5 feet tall, blocking the flowers in the back of the bed. I think they almost passed their peak time, and I need to remove them soon.

Here is the broad view of this flower bed. If you compare it to the one year report post, you can find out that I have widened this flower bed to remove the remaining grass strip.

The other flower bed in the above picture that is perpendicular to the west bed has also been widened since last year. This flower bed is parallel to the “lake” of my back yard. The papaya trees outside of the fence were planted one and half years ago starting from little seedlings given by my friend. Now all trees are bearing the fruits.

Different sections of this flower bed…

The bromeliads around the Christmas palm tree have been setting the pups. I want them eventually climbing up the tree.

Again, the zinnias are too tall to fall over the flower bed.

Now here is the east (left) side of my backyard. Still looking at the “lake”…

I already opened one corner of this side in the first year. This is close-up view of the corner:

Then I started to remove the rest of the strip of this side in April. The idea was using this bed partially as the vegetable garden. My frequent readers might remember I did mention that I had a Veggie garden project in progress. You might have been wondering why I never gave any update about that project. Well, that was because the plan of having a partial vegetable garden failed miserably. The Chinese Yard long beans I planted were attacked by the aphids, and died before they could produce the beans. The string-less beans I started from seeds were also developed some decease that made the leaves looking rusty. The eggplants seedlings could not grow bigger at all for some reason. The only things I had some sort of harvest were tomatoes (already removed, you can see the cages in the pictures), hyacinth beans, herbs and some Chinese leave veggies.

I think the wet and hot weather might be the one to blame, and even I already amended the soil with compost and horse manure, I think the soil might still not be ideal for the vegetables. Of course, the major reason of my failure will be the lack of experience of this gardener. Now I even don’t know if I have the courage to try again. Maybe fall is the good season to try? At least I know I can always use it as the regular flower bed.

The other end of this flower bed close to the back yard has already been used to grow flowers: Gardenias, Jasmines, Rain lilies, wishbones….

Now we have finished touring the backyard. Let's walk back to the front yard via the east (left) side of the house.

The east side only had the bushes that builder put there. Here is a picture of it right after the concrete border was installed in March.

Since then I have been removing the bushes one by one to open it as a new flower bed. Here is a sneak preview of the unfinished bed:

Now I don’t know how I removed all those bushes in this hot summer. Not counting the sweat and the mosquito bites! I just know I am determined to remove two or three at a time before the garbage collecting days, so that the bushes could be disposed. There still are the last five bushes to be removed at the far end, and the plants are not matured yet. Will give another update about this bed after I finish it.

Okay, now we have come back to the front garden to conclude my garden tour. Did I tell you that it won’t take long? You can see I have almost opened all space I can find for my garden. Wonder what I can show you in next year’s anniversary report…Things will be changed for sure. That is part of the gardening fun after all!!!

I am looking forward to the cool season... and wish I can have more time for my garden.

Happy Gardening, friends!

Finally!

2011-08-08T23:01:00.001-04:00

I love butterflies, and grow quite some plants that butterflies love. But for some reason, up to recent months, I hardly saw butterflies visiting my garden. The most popular one I saw was white peacock butterfly. Even when I occasionally spotted some butterflies visiting my garden, I either did not have camera in the hand, or just not fast enough to got some good shots of them.

Fortunately, this past weekend, I had luck to see two butterflies in my garden, and out of more than a couple dozen of blurred pictures, I indeed had some worth posting. Finally!

I started from one milkweed plant over one year ago. It serves as Monarch butterfly’s host plant, and often seen being chewed to the bare sticks. Now this one plant has so many volunteered seedlings popping up from here and there. I kept another four in the ground to let them grow since they are in good locations, the rest of them will be pulled out or given away. I was excited to see monarch caterpillars on them early this year, and even more excited to see the monarch butterflies finally visiting my garden! (Update: Floridagirl pointed out that the below two images are indeed Queen Butterfly, not Monarch butterfly. Thanks, Floridagirl!)

This gulf fritillary butterfly actually landed on lots of my giant Zinnia flowers, but none of those pictures were coming out clear! I ended only have this one on the hibiscus leaves. Yes, I am asking too much, not only a butterfly, but also on a beautiful flower with a perfect steady pose for me?? I should not be too greedy!

Some other things going on in my garden.

This desert rose (Adenium obesum) is always one of my favorites that requires little attention from me. I often wonder why I don’t see many Florida bloggers post this plant since for me it is such a easy and beautiful plant, blooming almost year around, with Spring being its peak time. I only brought them against the house wall in those below 40 days in the past winters, otherwise they are in the full sun all year long. They really did very well in the past two winters even they are considered tropical plant.

The other day, I spotted two long bean-like things growing from the branch. Those are actually its seed pods! I actually already started some from seeds my friend gave me, and wonder how long it will take for them to bloom from seedlings. I will try to collect these seeds by wrapping a plastic bag around it, so that the seeds will not fly away in the wind when the pod pops open.

First Canna lily flower. It is late this year, maybe I need give them a little more sun.

Several Dendrobium orchids are blooming again in my garden. I often think I should have fertilized my orchids more often, but they still surprise me with flowers from time to time. Maybe they will reward me more flowers if I feed them a little bit more?

I hang this one on the tree in the front yard, and now I can see four flower scrapes from far away every day I come home.

The following one was started from a cutting two years ago, and this is first time it blooms. The original color is light purple, and I surprised to see now the flowers are in white with some purple in the center.

The one is called “Blue Fox Tail”, in my favorite blue/purple color!

Don’t you think these purple/blue colors are so soothing cool to the eyes in this hot hot summer days?

July Garden

2011-08-02T23:08:00.001-04:00

With a two-week vacation, and very hot humid weather we have been experiencing in South Florida, my gardening time has been cut to the minimum in July.

Fortunately, there are lots of plants in my garden love this weather much better than the gardener.

This south east garden corner of my backyard is in a full sun area. Various agaves, bulbine plants, yellow allamanda, black and blue salvia, red ornamantal pineapple thrive by their own without much help from me.

This narrow stripe of flower bed is located at the south side of the backyard, and also in the full sun. Three rose bushes were situated in this bed, including ‘Belinda’s Dream’ and other two hybrid tea roses. Other plants include zinnias, pentas, bulbine plants, bromeliads around the Christmas palm tree base, purple fountain grass, flax lilies, marigolds, dusty miller, mealy cup sage and Artillery Fern.

Remember my post “Singing The Zinnia Song” ? They are now growing everywhere in my full sun flowerbeds, and they almost reach to four to five feet tall! Look at all these colorful big flowers! I almost think they look like roses in distant, only without the fragrance.

All my three ‘Orange Marmalade Crossandras’ are now blooming, and pups are growing from their bases too.

More American Elegans Zinnias are growing in this west side flowerbed.

‘Miss Muffet’ caladiums and bromeliads in a shady corner of this same flower bed.

Ground orchids this year are a little late than last year. Although the leaves are growing healthy and full, but the flowers are not as prolific as last year. Hopefully I can see their outstanding performance in the next a couple of months.

I have three different colors of Siam Tulips, white, light pink and deep pink. This is the second year I have them in my garden. One of the clumps might not be in its optimum location. I need to relocate it to a shady area after they finish blooming.

I was very surprised to find out several of my roses were actually doing great, and even blooming when I came back from the vacation in the middle of July.

Below is ‘Josephine Land’ which was brought home unplanned. I went to that nursery to expect they had “Belinda’s Dream” for sale early this year, only found out it was sold out. The owner then recommended me ‘Josephine Land’ for its fragrance. It does have nice fragrance, but very light. However, look at her, blooming in the middle of Florida Summer, no black spots to spray, I think this one might have longer life in my garden compared to other roses I had.

For some reason, I have not had much good luck to grow Agapathus (African Lily) in my garden. Believe it or not, this is the only flower scrape I got out of six Agapathus I have, and it did not bloom until July. They seem to be such easy plants for all other Florida gardeners. hmmm….

This plumbago started taking off this summer since I bought it in one gallon size last year. Love love to look at its sky-blue color, soothing in this hot summer.

August is expected to be another hot month for us Florida Gardeners. I will continue spend more time indoor. I am glad that at least my previous efforts paid off, so that now I can enjoy my garden from my air-conditioned house .

Stay cool, my friends!

Flowers In The Wild: Part 2

2011-07-27T00:01:00.001-04:00

This is the second part of my post to introduce wildflowers I spotted during my recent trip to six national parks in the west. You can read part 1 here. This part is specific for what we saw in Yellowstone National Park.

Geyser Eruption

"Grand Canyon" in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone Lake

Not only there are abundant wildflowers in Yellowstone, we also had lots of close encounters of wildlife such as Mule Deer, Bison, Moose, Elks, Pronghorn Antelopes and coyotes.

A bird standing on a Pronghorn Antelope

Elk

After a long winter, Bison still have ragged patches of lighter-colored, old hair that have not shed.

Now let me show you more pretty wildflowers in this beautiful park.

Gentianopsis thermalis

Rocky Mountain Fringed Gentian

Gentianopsis thermalis
Rocky Mountain Fringed Gentian

Common Dandelion

Linaaria dalmatica
Tall Butter and Eggs

Heracleum lanatum Cow Parsnip

Geranium viscosissimum
Sticky Geranium

Golden Columbine

Campanula rotundifolia
Common Harebell

I spotted this huge flower at the road side when husband was driving. Husband offered me to pull over to let me take the picture of it :)

Cirsium scariosum
Elk Thistle

Camassia quamash
COMMON CAMAS

Don't you love a meadow like this? This meadow is close to Yellowstone lake.

Lupinus lepidus ssp. Caespitosus
Stemless Dwarf Lupine

All of these were very small part of all pictures I took during our two week trip. I am glad that I finally get chance to share with you, and I do hope my pictures could trigger some interests if you have not been there before, or stir up some beautiful memories of yours if you have visited there.

Flowers In The Wild: Part 1

2011-07-22T15:36:00.003-04:00

I have been back from my two week vacation for about six days now. We have visited six national parks including Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion and Timpanogos Cave National Monument in Salt Lake City. The experience were unbelievable!

While we have been enjoying the beautiful scenery, I could not help noticing all the wild flowers in the wild. They were blooming at different elevation levels, some in the open meadows, some on the rocky mountains, some near the cliffs, some next to the water falls, some next to an active erupting geyser or hot springs, everywhere and anywhere! They call them as Wild Flowers for a reason!

I have taken lots of flowers’ pictures while hiking, which made the hiking even more interesting. It is hard to choose just a few in one post, I will divide it into two parts.

I marked those flowers that I was able to find names by comparing the pictures. For rest of them, I will leave them for my dear readers to tell me...

Bryce Canyon National Park

Sego lily (Bryce Canyon)

(Bryce Canyon)

Zion National Park

Sacred Datura (Zion National Park)

Globemallow (Zion National Park)

Orange Columbine (Zion National Park)

Grand Canyon National Park

Three squirrels posed for us in Grand Canyon

Indian Paintbrush (Grand Canyon)

Arizona Thistle (Grand Canyon)

Grand Canyon

Firecracker (Grand Canyon)

Grand Teton National Park

These yellow mules ears were seen everywhere during our five days visit to Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.

Grand Teton

You still can see snow on the mountains in the background in the following two pictures.

Grand Teton

Do you see why I said these yellow mules ears were EVERYWHERE?

Grand Teton

Taken in Grand Teton

Skyrocket (Grand Teton)

Bluemat Penstemon (Grand Teton)

As of my own garden, it rained a lot over the two weeks I was away. You can imagine how wild the weeds have grown, and so were the plants. The abundant mosquitos were making my weeding progress very slow, and quite frankly I was also feeling a little tired after the vacation. I need another stay-home vacation to recover from this vacation! :)

Just realized that this post indeed is my 100th post! Yay!

Here Comes the Rain!

2011-06-28T23:35:00.011-04:00

I think the raining season finally comes to South Florida! The past week, almost everyday we got some rain, enough kept my garden watered. Everything looks more lush and green, including grass.

Rain lilies (Zephyranthes) opened after a good rain. I only had one rain lily last year, and this year I bought one small pot from my favorite nursery, and came home found there were more than two dozen of bulbs packed in! I planted them on the border of my flower bed. They were still quite young. Expecting next year they can really make the show when they multiply more and open flowers all together.

Meems at Hoe and Shovel got me hooked on caladiums with her beautiful caladium pictures in her garden. I do not have much shade or partial area in my garden, but I still managed to squeeze about 75 bulbs into different flower beds and containers.

I think this is ‘Florida Cardinal’.

Meems also sent me some of her favorite ‘Miss Muffet’ caladium. They blend in the Bromeliad corner so nicely . Just love the texture and the color! Thanks, Meems!

I need to buy more of these. This year it was sold out on the online store when I was ready to put the order.

The same bromeliad corner from another angle. The white caladium in the distant is ‘White Christmas’.

Don’t know what is the name of this caladium.

This is what happened when you bought those “mixed” packages, and had no idea what would come up when you planted. Maybe I should sort them out before they disappear to the ground this fall, so that I can have more planned color arrangement next year.

Although I don’t mind this combination in the container…

Firespike (Odontonema strictum) is setting lots of flower scapes. Hope I can see hummers visiting this one soon.

Self seeded white Zinnias and pink Vincas are becoming a nice combination in this flower bed.

I tucked different types of house plants into this container and now it mixes with all different textures and colors together quite nicely. Sometimes simply throwing something together might not be a bad thing.

Yay! Finally I got several shots of a Monarch butterfly on my Zinnias! Not very clear shots, but I was so happy that I finally found some butterfly other than ‘White Peacock’ visiting my garden, and I was able to capture it in my picture.

More Siam tulip flowers…

Now we have more rain, Ground orchids are picking up the speed to shoot more flower scapes.

It is nice to see this Griffinia liboniana is reblooming!

My family is going away for a two week vacation starting this weekend. We are going to visit YellowStone, Grand Canyon and other national parks in the West. Kids are excited, and me too!

This raining season came just in time, so that I don’t need to worry too much about my garden.

If I don’t post again before I go, Happy 4th of July, and Happy Gardening, my friends!

Blue Lips and Other Flowers

2011-06-21T00:01:00.002-04:00

This Sclerochiton harveyanus, also known as ‘Blue Lips’, was one of two plants I got from Member’s Day at Flamingo Gardens this year. I will post the other plant later when it flowers.

Can you guess why I chose this plant? Yes, it is blue, my favorite color! Also, it has such unusual flower shape as well. Plus, this tropical shrub attracts hummingbird and butterflies. I planted it in a partial shade location.

Three Aechmea blanchetiana 'Orangeade' are shooting flower scapes for the first time! They are also all setting the pups. Hope they won’t set too many pups for me to handle.

This year Ground orchids did not bloom as prolific as last year, or maybe they are taking time.

Rose bushes are not flowering under the South Florida sun, but the zinnias planted in front of them are not minding the blazing sun at all!

More Zinnias are planted in this flowerbed. I have redone this bed a couple of months ago when trying to find a location for my Belinda’s Dream Rose.

The same bed from another direction…

Can you see the Belinda’s Dream next to the Purple Fountain grass? It has healthy leaves, but no flowers either. This bed gets truly full sun in my garden, from sunrise to sundown. Maybe too much even for the rose?

In front of the Belinda’s Dream, I planted a fern like Chartreuse colored plant. The nursery owner said it is called “Pallaia”, but I could not find any image with this name matching the plant. Maybe I got the wrong name.

This is the closeup look of this plant. I love it can take the full sun, and the chartreuse color. The texture of the leaves is also very airly. It was said that it will keep this short, and I think it will be a perfect companion plant to the rose bush. Anybody recognizes this plant? (Update: Rick Brown identified this plant as Artillery Fern, or Pilea microphylla. Thank you, Rick! )

Another plant I recently purchased, but with no name tag. I thought I saw this one from somewhere, but just could not remember the name.

My first Siam Tulip (curcumas) flower this year! As a relative new gardener, it is still fairly new thing to see the plants that died to the ground last year emerges in the Spring, and opens the beautiful flowers once again!

Medinilla cumingii is opening more and more flowers. Most of them are not fully opened yet.

I put it in a big container in a partial shade area in the front garden. It has grown a lot since I got it last year. Here is how it looks with other containers in my front door entry way. All those colors are coming together quite nicely. It is fun to play with containers combination.

This is the first blog post I wrote using Windows Live Writer. Although I think I still need to get used to it, but I started loving it.

Blogger Challenge and Hooray for the Rain

2011-06-15T23:34:00.001-04:00

I have been having issues with commenting certain blogger sites for a couple of weeks now. I could not leave any comments on those blogs that use "Embedded below post" as Comments setting. I read over the Internet that lots of people are having the same issue, and seems it is an issue of Blogger. I still can leave comment if you have the comments setting as "Full page" or "Pop-up window".

Today, I finally had time to try using Google Chrome to visit those sites with "embedded below post" setting, and was able to leave comments! Unfortunately, not every computer I use outside of the home has Google Chrome installed. I really have missed leaving comments on my favorite blogs.

South Florida has been in drought condition for quite a while now. I had to hand water my garden almost everyday to keep it happy. With a busy schedule and hot hot summer temperature, dragging the hose all over the garden really becomes chore for me. I almost do not have much time left to actually enjoy the garden.

For the last a couple of days, finally we got some rain, not enough, but better than nothing. Hooray for the rain!!!

Before I end this quick post, I thought I can share some of flowers in my summer garden that I have not got time to share. I did not take much pictures recently, and hope with more rain coming, my garden could look more beautiful, and I will have the desire to take lots of pictures again.

portulaca double with Red star, Caladium in containers

caladiums and ornamental sweet potato vines

Lemon Lime Warneckii

Datura metel
(Devil's trumpet)

Arabian Jasmine

Miss Muffet caladium

Sun flower

allamanda

Mealycup sage and purple fountain grass

I wish more rain will come my way!

Singing the Zinnia Song

2011-06-01T22:56:00.001-04:00

Zinnia was one of those very first plants I have grown even before I claimed myself as a gardener. When we were selling our previous house, I bought one 18-pack of zinnias from a big box store to give the yard some instant color. Notice I said “yard” instead of “garden” because there were almost no plants in my previous house except some bushes. The only thing I did was just planting them in several containers and watering them. They just bloomed non-stopping.

Even after we moved into the new house, they kept blooming for me for another couple of months. Any plants can perform that well with little attention is a big plus for a non-gardener like me at that time. Next year, I found some free seedlings from that same zinnia in the garden. Since then I have bought a couple of more Zinnias with different colors from big box store. I loved them all even they might look very simple compared to so many other plants in my garden.

Early this year, I bought a pack of Burpee's Zinnia Elegans "Candy cane red on white" seeds, and planted.

When seedlings came up, I am surprised that the leaves are much broader than all the ones I had bought from the big box stores. The seedlings grew quite fast, and when it was the time to transplant, the big size of seedlings made it very easier to handle. Now the plants started developing the buds, and they are giving me more surprises with every opening flower.

Some came in red/white stripes as expected, with some variations on the colors:

Some came in different solid colors:

Most of them are 4 inch double flowers, but some came in small size with single layered flowers:

The flowers hold higher on the stems, and last for more than a couple of weeks, which made them great cutting flowers. They thrive in the South Florida full sun, which is another character I love about this plant!

Recently I received some more American Elegans Zinnia seeds from my blog friend (thanks, Meems!). The seedlings are almost ready to be transplanted. These seeds are supposed to be multi-colored. I am sure that I will have a lot more to expect, and my garden will be so colorful with all these giant flowers dotted everywhere.

So, expect me singing the Zinnia song all Summer long, and well into the Fall!

May Flowers

2011-05-21T12:06:00.000-04:00

Just realized that I have not posted for quite a while, although my May garden has been growing by leaps and bounds.

I have been working on a new raised bed in my garden, which will also be served partially as a vegetable bed. Will show you some photos when it is more presentable.

For now, let me just show you some new flowers in the garden.

Tropical Liac (Cornutia grandifolia) lost majority of leaves during the cold weather in last December. It grows so fast after the weather warmed up. Now they are shooting their lavendar colored flower spikes into the air again.

Just love the scent of this plant when walking by and brush against the leaves, or when hand-watering the leaves.

Since this plant is not seen in the nurseries, I have tried several times to start more of this plant from seeds, or cuttings to share with friends,but with no luck. I heard it should not be too difficult based on what I read from the Internet. So, I will keep trying. Maybe I just did not do it in the right way.

I picked up this Salvia 'Black and Blue' at the clearance rack in last December after the cold front visited Florida. The plant had bad frost bites. Now it looks so happy in a full sun location of my garden. I love any blue flowers in the garden, and the almost black sepals contrast the blue flowers so nicely. Oh, wait a minute. Is that a spiderweb? Often when I intend to capture a spiderweb in the picture, it hardly comes out good. It is either out of focus, or invisible in the photo. Seems this spiderweb that I caught by accident in the photo is my most successful shot!

Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'

Another blue flower: Blue butterfly. It has such beautiful flower, does look like a blue butterfly.

Clerodendrum ugandenseCommon name: Blue Butterfly

This Penta plant was started from several cuttings from my friend's garden. It now becomes my favorite Penta plant.

Yay, Medinilla started showing lots of flowers again after a dormant period! Remember how I got it? See the story behind this plant, read here.

Medinilla cumingii

Crape Jasmine in full blooming...

Love the combination of Crape Jasmine and the pink Ixora.

My friend gave me this bush daisy. I love its airy leaves, and risen cheery yellow flowers. The flowers come in waves, one flush after another with a short resting period in between.

Bush Daisy (Gamolepis chrysanthemoides)

Remember I mentioned that I only have one green branch left in my Hybrid Tea Rose 'Peace' in my Rose Update post? That single green branch recently had one bud developed, and it is blooming now!

'Peace'

Look what I found in the garden! A Calla Lily bloom! Yes, you can tell I am excited. My friend gave me a bunch of seedlings from her Calla lilies, which were originally bought from a big box store. She said every year the leaves emerge in early spring, but never re-bloomed for her. Last year, the leaves grow so nicely, but no flowers, and then leaves disappeared in the winter. This spring the leaves grow again, and I did not expect much from them although the leaves alone are beautiful. My friend called me a couple of weeks ago and told me that she saw one flower from her Calla lily, and sure enough, one week later, I saw one from mine! Yes, it only has one flower, but better than nothing, and it is a good start!

Here is another surprise from garden. When I just started my garden almost two years ago, one of my coworkers gave me one bromeliad with dark purple leaves, and no name. He only told me that the leave will burn if put in a sunny location. So I kept it in a container located in a partial shade area. For two years, it did nothing except shooting out of the pups. It started looking messy, and working around it becomes a dangerous job since the edge of the leaves has saw blade like spikes.

I am that close to toss it away. It seems knows what I am thinking, almost like all of sudden, two flower spikes shot out from the middle of leaves, and The flowers are orange-red color, and have wax like texture. Anybody recognize this bromeliad? I think for the time being, it will be a keeper.

What have been flowering in your May Garden?

Daylily Disappointment and Other Things in April Garden

2011-05-03T22:18:00.000-04:00

Ever since I learned that we also can grow Day Lily (Hemerocallis ) in South Florida, Day Lily has been on the top of my wish list.

Unfortunately, I have not found any good sources for it locally. Last June, I found one (Day Lily 'Stella') for sale at HomeDepot and immediately bought it. It only lasted about three weeks, and disappeared completely after finishing blooming. I think it might not be the right foliage type for South Florida. There are three foliage types for Day Lily: Dormant, semi-evergreen, evergreen. For south regions, Evergreen is the one that will thrive.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw two types of Day Lilies for sale at Lowes. I asked the store staff and was told that they are "Evergreen". Imagine how excited I was when I brought these two home!

Daylily (Hemerocallis ) 'Black Eyed Stella'

Daylily (Hemerocallis ) 'Fooled Me'

They were labeled as Daylily 'Black Eyed Stella' and Daylily 'Fooled Me'. After I came home, I did more reading on these two daylilies, and only found they both are dormant foliage type!!! I also looked back the Day Lily 'Stella' picture I took last year, and found it is identical to 'Black Eyed Stella'. How disappointing! I bought them expecting they will bloom for me year after year, not just for short a couple of weeks! I returned them immediately.

My mission to search for right Daylilies shall continue...

On the bright side, my garden has been happily singing the spring song. It is May already, and I found I have missed posting some beautiful April bloomings. Here are some of them.

First Matchstick bromeliad bloomed... Looks so beautiful in the early morning sun.

Aechmea gamosepala
MatchStick Bromeliad

Opening more...

Aechmea gamosepala
MatchStick Bromeliad

Other Neoregelia Bromeliads in the garden are also blooming. Their flowers are hidden in the center of the leaves. The blooming usually means it is the time for the mother plant to produce the babies, or pups. Yay!

April is the month for Jasmine and Gardenia. The fragrance made the garden walk even more pleasant.

Arabian Jasmine
(Jasminum Sambac 'Maid of Orleans')

I also like to bring them indoor to enjoy more...

Needle flowers or Augusta rivalis has set out so many buds, and looks like May will be their peak time.

Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina' has been flowering on and off since early March.

Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina'
(Giant Apostle's Iris)

The warm weather also brought early blooming of frangipani (Plumeria). I checked last year's record, and it did not flower until last September.

Last year's Caladium bulbs have been emerging from the ground one by one, adding different colors into the shady corner.

What May will bring for the garden?

Rose Update

2011-05-01T19:04:00.000-04:00

I love roses, but with no growing experience at all.

Last year I dedicated one corner of my flower bed to be "Rose Corner", and planted six roses there. Four of them are those bare root roses sold at Costco every spring. One is 'Double Delight' on Fortuniana rootstalk, and another one is "First Prize". Along with another two roses in other area of my garden, I had total eight hybrid tea roses in my garden one year ago. For those experienced Florida gardeners, you may already see the problem when you read to this point.

Yes, tea roses usually do not agree with hot humid weather of Florida, especially Central and South Florida. In this environment, they develop black spots so easily, and are subject to nematodes in the soil. Only hybrid rose could survive in this weather are those that grafted on Fortuniana rootstalk. So, out of eight roses, I really only had one that meet this criteria.

Before the weather got really hot, all my roses grew beautifully, and bloomed one by one. Here was a collage I made with all those rose excitement last year.

From top left clockwise: First Prize, Paradise, Double Delight, Queen Elizabeth,
'Burgundy Surprise', Perfume Delight and Peace (Click to enlarge to see detail)

Now one year later, I lost three out of four bare-root roses. Their leaves lost and eventually died. I am still not very sure what exactly caused their death. The one bare-root rose left is "Peace", but only has one branch green, and I have the feeling that it won't last long either.

The remaining four are: 'Double Delight', "First Prize","Queen Elizabeth", and "Perfume Delight". They continue producing the flowers sporadically through out the year, but never have more than three flowers opening at the same time.

I have learned from other Florida Gardeners that some Old Garden Roses or Antique Roses can thrive in Florida very well.

Here is one Antique Rose called "Josephine Land" sold by one Nelsons' Florida Roses retailer locally. It was recommended by the owner for its fragrance. For me, the fragrance is nice, but since the bush is still low and the flowers are not prolific yet, I need to be close to enjoy the scent.

I love how delicate looking of the flowers. They start simple and small...

gradually reveal their beauties...

After fully opened, they only last two to three days before their pedals fall off themselves.

Since I could not find much information about Josephine's Land over the Internet, I don't know how well it will react to Florida's summer yet. We shall see. Anybody grows this same rose, please share your experience with me.

Here is the other rose that lots of Florida gardeners are raving about: Belinda's Dream. I have been searching for this rose for quite a while, above Josephine's land was discovered by accident when I went for Belinda's Dream. Finally, recently I found it from Bah's Nursery, my favorite nursery. I guess "Dream" does come true!

The flower has the look of Tea roses, and quite fragrant and big.

I heard it is a prolific bloomer. Looking forward to it...

Just lovely!

I have not put it into the ground yet. One candidate spot I am considering for it got the full sun, almost from sunrise to sundown, which means 12+ hours in Summer. Will it be too much for it? I know Roses love full sun, just don't know if it also loves South Florida summer's blazing full sun.

While I am enjoying my new roses, here are some old roses recently flowered. They look so pretty with rain drops.

Hybrid tea rose 'Perfume Delight'

'Double Delight'

I love roses, and wish can gain some experience to be successful growing roses in South Florida. Next on my wish list is: Louis Phillipe, or Florida's Cracker Rose. Can not wait the day I find it!

A Touch of China for My Indoor Garden

2011-04-27T23:17:00.005-04:00

Before my husband went back to China to visit his parents recently, he asked me what I wanted him to bring from China. Well, can you guess what I asked for? No, not plants, not seeds, since it is illegal to bring those back to United States from foreign countries. What else could be close to what a gardener wants? Yes, some containers!

No, I was not asking him to carry those big heavy pots all the way across Pacific. I wanted something beautiful, reasonable sized, and of course in Chinese Style.

He brought me back five beautiful pots for indoor plants. They are all hand made by pottery craftsmen. Each one has those traditional Chinese pottery design elements, such as poems, or poetic Chinese phrases inscription, mountain/water drawing, bamboo, orchid, lotus flower, or Plum flower drawings. To show you the detail of those elements, I made one collage for each pot. You also can click each picture to enlarge it.

My original intent was explaining to you what are those Chinese words mean by translation, but only found they just lost its poetic rhythm after translation. So I only can point you out that those words have something to do with "Breeze", "Moon", "Fragrance", "Charm", and etc. Now, use your imagination to make up some poetic words in your mind when you look the pictures :)

The plant in the first pot is Fern "Green Fantasy" (Nephrolepis exaltata), a gift from my friend. I have been looking for this fern for quite a while because it is a very popular indoor plant in China. Now it just looks perfect in this Chinese style pot, bringing me so many nostalgic feelings...

Update: FlowerLady found the picture of Fern "Green Fantasy" does not match the plant. I looked it up over the Internet, and I think the correct name for this fern is: Asparagus setaceus. The original tag that came with the plant was obviously mislabeled. Thanks, FlowerLady!

The plant in the second pot is my newest purchase, Paphiopedilum orchid, or Lady's Slipper Orchid (yes, my orchid collection is growing!).

The following two pots had Phalaenopsis orchids.

This one not only has drainage holes at the bottom, but also on the sides. Would be perfect for orchids growing.

This one has most unique shape, curved triangle. I have not found a suitable plant to put in yet. It looks beautiful enough even just by its own.

All pots except the third one (the lighter color) are all made of famous ZiSha (purple) clay, although the color is not really purple. You probably also see the Chinese Tea pots made of the same material.

I am so thankful that DH brought all these beautiful pots for me. You can imagine how hard to carry on and protect these fragile pots on a total 24 hour long journey.

Now finally I am having a touch of China for my indoor garden.

Another Lily from My Favorite Nursery!

2011-04-24T21:51:00.002-04:00

In one of my recent posts I mentioned that I bought an unknown lily from a local nursery. Floridagirl at http://gardeninpeace.blogspot.com/ helped me to identify that lily is one of Griffinia cordata, Griffinia aracensis or G. liboniana. I think the best match is Griffinia liboniana since my plant has spotted leaves. Thank you, Floridagirl! Its origin is Brazilian rainforest. Even it is small, but what a cute beauty it is!

Griffinia liboniana
Family:Amaryllidaceae
Chinese Common name: 蓝晶花 (blue crystal flower)

I visited the same nursery again a couple of weeks ago, and discovered another lily like plant in blooming. The flower is orange color with long yellow stamens. The one that is flowering doesn't have leaves, but I can see leaves on other non-flowering plants. The leaves are similar to the one that Griffinia liboniana has, without spots though. I asked the owner Sherry what its name is, and she said: "Orange lily, go find the name and bring back to me, and I will write down." She is such a pleasant lady with a good sense of humor, and every time I visit her nursery, we always chat a little bit about plants.

Eucrosia Bicolor
Family:Amaryllidaceae

I used the google image to match this lily. After going through a couple of hundreds of pictures, I found the match!

It is called Peruvian Lily or the scientific name Eucrosia Bicolor, from Amaryllidaceae family. It is found in Ecuador and Peru. I am so glad to find another bulb will thrive in South Florida.

Now you know why Sherry's nursery becomes my favorite nursery. Every time I go there, I feel like going treasure hunt. With no disappointment, I almost always can find something new and worth bringing home. This lily is another treasure I discovered!

For readers living in Broward County Florida, if you are interested in this nursery, you might not be able to find it from the Internet. Its name is "Bah's Nursery", and it is located on the south side of Griffin Rd, East of I-75. If you drive on Griffin Rd from West to East, you can find "Bah's Nursery" sign on the right side of the road after you pass I-75 not far away. No, Sherry did not ask me to write this for her,and she even does not know I have a blog. For a nursery like this, I am happy to use my little public space to promote this hidden treasure. Happy Hunting :)

Wordless Wednesday: Pink Brugmansia or Angel's Trumpet

2011-04-20T00:01:00.007-04:00

"Wordless Wednesday: Pink Brugmansia or Angel's Trumpet" is a copyrighted post, written by Ami @ http://sefloridagardenevolvement.blogspot.com/ on April 20th, 2011.

"Wordless Wednesday: Pink Brugmansia or Angel's Trumpet" is a copyrighted post, written by Ami @http://sefloridagardenevolvement.blogspot.com/ on April 20th, 2011.

This is my entry to "Wordless Wednesday" this week...

Sago Palm, Orchids and Unknown Plants

2011-04-17T00:01:00.000-04:00

This year, my Sago Palm is growing new fronds earlier than last year, thanks for the warmer weather. I was a little concerned about the yellow spots on the old leaves. I did some research over the Internet, and I think it might be caused by magnesium deficiency. This weekend I applied some Rite Green Magnesium Sulphate Soil Enhancer to it, and then watered it thoroughly. Hope it can correct the issue.

The ground cover under the sago palm is Acalypha reptans, also known as Dwarf Chenille or fire tail. They look together beautifully, especially when the Sago leaves are all nice and green.

I love orchids, and found myself bringing more and more home. My family also gifts me with orchids for my Birthday, Mother's Day, and other holidays. I started with 4 orchids about two years ago, now I have 22 of them.

The first two are the new purchase. Could not resist the colors and the pattern. I love orchids with speckle pattern.

This one was a Christmas gift of 2010. It had two flower spikes when I bought it. After it finished flowering in February, I thought I have to wait for a long time for its reblooming. It surprised me with another flower spike a couple of weeks ago. Love an orchid can bloom more than once a year.

Vanda Sawita 'blue'

Another orchid with speckle...

I placed three flowering orchids together in a plant stander at the front door patio. Every time I enter the front door, I stop and enjoy their beauties.

Now I need some help with two unknown plants in the garden.

Since I discovered some local nurseries, I check them out quite often for any new plants. A couple of months ago, I spotted one small container with a lily like plant hidden in a corner. I asked the owner what it was, and she said it was something similar to rain lily. There were no flowers, only leaves. I love anything lily related, and I trust that nursery since they only carry the plants that can thrive in my area. Also I like any bulb that grows well in this weather. So I brought it home.

It did not grow any bigger except setting some new leaves. The leaves are about 6 to 7 inch long, with one inch width. Recently it started flowering. The color is beautiful lavender. The shape of the flower also resemble some crinium lily, but smaller. It doesn't look like rain lily though.

Anybody recognizes this plant?

Here is another plant that I need help with the ID. I found it when I was weeding the flower bed this morning. It is under my Tropical lilac tree, so it is in a deep shade.

Two flower spikes are above the ground. No leaves were found on the plant. The flower is very small, maybe at most one inch across.

Next to the flower spike, I found a bulb like new growth. Not sure if they belong together to the same plant though.

The flower reminds me of orchid, but I never saw it anywhere before. This flower bed was opened last summer, so I know it is not something from the previous owner. It also doesn't look like another wild orchid (Oeceoclades maculata) I found in my yard before.

I love mystery, now who wants to be the detective?

A Busy Month and The Weather My Garden Loves

2011-04-14T21:54:00.002-04:00

April started as a busy month for me.

First, we were preparing for parents going back to China after a six month stay with us. It was a long and exhausting trip coming here all the way from China for their ages, so once they were here, we wanted them to stay longer. Some of my western friends think that is very unusual for parents to stay with their grow-up children for this long time, but it is not that uncommon for Chinese families in the past. Although now more and more Chinese families are taking the same life style as here in States, i.e., keeping the family small. I am a mother myself now, and I know how much we are willing to sacrifice for our kids and how hard we have worked for our kids when they are little, and my parents did the exact same for me and my sister when we were little. Now they are in the ages that need cares from their children, and I wish I can give them more than what I can give now. Confucius said: "While your parents are alive, do not journey afar (父母在，不远游)". While this becomes more and more difficult in these modern days, I understand its meaning more than ever now with parents getting older and weaker. Not only I have journeied afar, it is across-pacific-ocean far from them! I am happy at least I got this half year to stay with them and took care of them like they did when I was a kid...

Second, my husband is also on a trip back to China to visit his parents. I am here alone with two boys, and this week is the FCAT (Florida's Comprehensive Assessment Test) week! For those Floridian parents who have kids taking the test, you know how schools make a big deal out of this. I will be glad when this is over :)

To add on all of this, the Internet service that our community uses had some issues, so we are having on and off connections this week. Kids need Internet to do their homework, so I had to drive them to the places that have Wi-Fi connections. I wish we could have our choice for the Internet service provider, not stuck with the one that community has chosen for us.

With all of these going on, blogging and gardening have to take the back seats, although I have been squeezing some time to do some necessary gardening chores here and there.

The April weather in South Florida is gorgeous, the temperature has kept in middle to upper 80s for the high. To be honest, it is a little bit too hot for me to work in the garden in the middle of the day already, but this is the weather my garden loves!

Here are some pictures I shoot recently. Everyday there are new things occurring in the garden, and I really can not keep up with them.

Pentas love the hot weather...

So are these Indian blanket flowers...

One early morning, I took out the long lens that I hardly use, and caught this view from my patio. It is a merged view of the bromeliad corner and my container area at the patio. There actually is a little gravel path between the corner and patio. Do you see my effort of "Vertical" gardening with that bromliad wreath attached on the fence on the back? The pink Angel's trumpet (Brugmansia) on the back was the result of my stucking a branch trimmed off my other Angel's trumpet into the ground last year. Now it has become a small tree!

Here is the view of the west backyard flower bed looking towards the bromeliad corner, you can see both white and pink Angel's trumpets blooming in this picture. Loving the colors shown in this picture, so Spring!

Oh, want to show you a picture of this same area that I took one month ago. Do you see that big rosemary in front of the Orange Marmalade Crossandra? That was a small plant in six inch container that I started from seed about one year ago. As you know me, I can not stand any bare spot in the garden, and love to squeeze plants here and there, so I decided to stuck that young plant in that location. Now one year later, it becomes huge, and blocked the view of the three Orange Marmalade Crossandras that are major focal point of this flower bed. I moved the rosemary somewhere else in the garden, now it looked better :)

Mealycup sage started blooming again once the weather warmed up. It has my favorite color of blue/purle, I expect it will become even more prolific in the next several months.

Salvia farinacea 'Victoria Blue'
Common name: Mealycup Sage

I got this purple shooting stars from Lowes' clearance rack. The label says full sun for it, but I found it wilted easily in the sunny location. After I planted it in a partial shade area ( a couple of hour of sun), it has been growing quite well. Not only I love its ability to bloom constantly, I also love its deep green shinny leaves.

Pseuderanthemum laxiflorum
common name: Shooting Stars

I forgot to trim this Crape Jasmine bush until I saw all the fresh buds shooting out early March. Since I prefer a more compact version of bush, I trimmed it anyway. The result is that I had to wait for another one and half month for new buds developed, and now it finally openning the first set of flowers. The bush is located in the center of the front garden.

Crape Jasmine

April is also the month that Desert Rose blooms its head off!

Even this hibiscus is still in a container, it blooms quite often for me. I think it deserves a spot in my garden ground.

Hibiscus 'Jane Cowell'

This is my new Rose called "Josephine Land". It was recommended by the nursery for its fragrance, and it is one of the varieties sold as Nelson's Florida Roses. So I am hoping it will do well in South Florida weather as well. So far, it looks very healthy, and has developed lots of buds recently. Florida's hot hummid summer will be a real test for it.

Needle flower has been growing quite big, and full of flower buds as well. Very soon, I will be able to enjoy its 2 inch long delicate white flowers. Hmmm, looks like I was not the only one who was enjoying its flower buds.

Augusta rivalis

Common name: Needle Flower

It gets hot outside, but this is the weather that my garden loves, so I am not complaining...

I am submitting this post to the GBBD at http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/ and Fertilizer Friday at http://tootsietime.blogspot.com/.

End of March Garden

2011-03-31T23:42:00.002-04:00

Can not believe it is the last day of March already! I have not got much time to post recently, but everyday I can find something new blooming in my garden.

Let me give you a quick tour in my March garden without much words...

This Catteleya bloomed almost the same time as last year.

Catteleya Orchid
Sophrolaeliocattleya Jewel Box 'Scheherazade' AM/AOS

When I bought this moth orchid, it was in a bad state, so I got it at a bargain price. Now after some tender loving care, it rewarded me its beautiful flowers. Love the unique pattern of the flower.

This white moth orchid also blooms the second time for me.

Some of my favorite container combinations...

Mona Lavendar

This Seemannia sylvatica 'Bolivian Sunset' has been non-stopping blooming since last November. It will be interesting to see if it can tolerate Florida heat and humidity as well.

Seemannia sylvatica 'Bolivian Sunset'

I recently bought two blue containers, and this is one of them. The plants I have chosen to put in are: One Cordyline baurei 'Red Star' , verbena (white and pink stripe) and another unknown plant (orange flowers).

A close look... I lost the tag of this small orange flower. Anybody who recognizes the plant please share the name with me.

We got lots of much needed rain on past Tuesday and Wednesday. Bromeliads always look extra fresh and beautiful after the rain.

I cut back this Cat Whiskers to almost half before the winter, now it is growing like wild again. The red leave coleus is one of my favorite coleus plants. I planted it last summer, and it still remians its beautiful color even it has grown much bigger. I also have rooted several cuttings successfully.

Just love the hot pink of this Hawaii Ti leaves!

First several caladiums emerged from the ground. I move them into this new side garden border, next to the air conditioner unit. This spot used to be an eye sore, now it has some much needed colors added.

Three of my ground orchids have started blooming again. Ground orchids have long blooming period in South Florida, and they have become one of my favorite collections.

More Dietes bicolor flowers have opened since they opened the first flower about three weeks ago.

This Dipladenia pink certainly knows the spring is coming. It has been climbing up against the fence, and peeking over neighbour's gackyard.

I am also submitting this post to participate Noel's "Hot, Loud and Proud" meme, and Katarina's Blooming Friday -- 'On the ground' meme. For more beautiful flowers around the world, please also follow the link to visit their sites.

Have a nice weekend!

Front Garden -- Finished!

2011-03-22T00:17:00.000-04:00

...at least for now!

When we hired people coming to install the concrete border for us about one and half month ago, the workers did not follow the curve of the original front yard bed. The result was that the bed got expanded by one foot length wise. I have to say that I love this unexpected surprise. In addition, I asked the extra grass area at the right to be included within the border.

Here is a picture of this same area from last June. Notice we have changed the exterior color and the front door color since then. I am not a big fan of a pink house :)

This front bed was the only area in this house that had some mature landscape before we moved in. On this flower bed, from the back to the front, three palm trees, Crape Jasmine bush in the middle, Ixora bushes, crotons, sago palm with Acalypha reptans (Dwarf Chenille) as ground cover underneath. Between the crotons and sago palm, there were something similar to Split Leafed Philodendron but much smaller, only 1 to 2 feet tall. I used to see the names somewhere, but could not remember it now. Two colors of stones were separated by the black border, with the dark red stones inside and the lighter color outside.

After the border was installed, I did the west side garden first, and I knew this front garden area would be the next one that I want to put my hands on. Thanks for the day light saving time, I was able to find more time after work to start working on this front bed before the spring break. Last week was kids' spring break, and I took two days off. Except for the two visits to some local historical places with family, we used most of the time to finish the front yard.

With all these activities, I cut the blogging time completely for the last five days. I am glad that today I can come here to have a garden update.

While I love to experiment different plants in the backyard for different seasons, I want the front yard to have a more "designed" look, low maintenence, and yet still provides enough interests and colors throughout all seasons.

The grasses were removed, weed-block sheets were laid on before husband carried white marble chips on the outer half of this bed.

Here is the finish look of the front garden.

Two out of three big boulders were moved outward to match the wider bed and make them more standing out. Two ground orchids, two agaves and various bromeliads were planted against red stones or white marble chips to show the colors and stay low maintenance.

For the new area at the right corner, I have been picturing a welcome pot with plants trailing down for a while in my mind. Finally we found the welcome pot at a local store, and I planted Aptenia cordifolia 'Red Apple' into it. Since Aptenia cordifolia 'Red Apple' has been established in another container for a while, so that trailing effect was immediately achieved. More bromeliads and one crown of thorns were spreaded around the pot.

Most of "new" plants in this bed were moved from other areas of my garden except for the following three: Aechmea 'Mend', one unknown bromeliad, and one crown of thorn with large flowers.

Aechmea 'Mend'

Oh, I also found this cast iron blue bird stake in a store over the weekend, perfect for this corner too!

I probably will plant more bromeliads or other plants with foliage interests into the white stone area of this bed, but for now I consider this bed is "finished". Since the day we finished it, I could not help walking around it again and again, feeling proud of this new design of my garden area. I am sure you all felt the same thing when those pictures that have stayed in your mind for a while are finally becoming true!

I think by now, our neighbours should have known the lady living in this house love gardening since they have seen me working on this front bed to move the plants around almost every night for quite a while now :)

Spring is here, YAY! Now I can play more plants in the back yard...

Spring Fever

2011-03-10T22:50:00.005-05:00

My garden is definitely having a Spring Fever! Almost everyday I discover something new blooming. Come to discover them with me...

This Gazania flower is almost too pretty to be real! I started some seeds last fall, and only two seedlings eventually made it. This week I discovered the first bloom, and it is not like those common yellow/orange tone flowers often seen sold in the garden center. Isn't it a beauty? Since the seed package I tried is a mix, now I am wondering what kind of flowers the other plant will have. We shall see.

This is a real surprise to me! I bought two yellow African Iris (Dietes bicolor ) when I just started my brand new garden almost two years ago. They look like ornamental grass with their waving green sword-like leaves, and have multiplied nicely over the the time, but never bloomed. See what I found hidden in all green today?

Dietes bicolor

Oh, my first Nun's orchid blooming! I ordered this from Internet last November, and did not expect I can see a flower this soon. It is still young, and only developed one flower spike. I hope next year, it can bloom as prolific as what has been shown in other blogs. Am I being greedy?!

Phaius tankervilliae
Common name: Nun's Orchid

I love the foliage of Variegated Devil's Backbone (Euphorbia tithymaloides 'Variegatus') since it adds nice texture and variation into the flower bed. I did not know it even can bloom. The flower is small and red, not very significant, but surely is showy and unique!

Euphorbia tithymaloides 'Variegatus'
Variegated Devil's Backbone

Remember how I whined about I missed my first bloom of Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina' (Giant Apostle's Iris) due to the busy schedule? It quickly opened another sets of flowers to reward me! The flowers only last for one day, but surely worth the waiting!

Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina'
Giant Apostle's Iris

I bought this Proven Winners Senorita rosalita Cleome Hybrid last summer after I encountered the mass of blooming of the classic Cleome in China. This one is much smaller than the classic one. I have to say even it is "Proven Winnders", I don't think it is really made for South Florida. It has been attacked by a stem borer twice. Each time, the stem tip wilted and appeared dead. Cutting them back to almost the base of the plant seems have saved it both time. This attack has not occurred during the winter, and finally gave it a chance to bloom again! Hooray!

Senorita rosalita Cleome Hybrid

Yay, my ornamental pineapple bloomed too! Just love this intense red on both leaves and fruit. The leaves only turn to this bright red when the plant in blooming.

This Inca Lily (Alstroemeria) was one of those plants that I bought when I didn't know much South Florida friendly plants (not I know it all now) at all. After finishing its flower period last spring, it quickly melted away in the Florida heat. Fortunately I did not throw away, and kept the pot in a shady place, and gave some occasional irrigation. Once the weather cools down, it develops the new leaves, and now finally rewarded me with its flowers!

AlstroemeriaInca Lily

My Double Delight Rose still occasionally opens some flowers to reserve its spot in the garden. Yes, you are here to stay!

So much Spring Fever in my garden, contagious enough to spread to this gardener too! I can feel so many ideas dancing in my mind to wait for me to execute!

Is your garden having a Spring Fever?

Garden Project: West Side Garden

2011-03-07T22:29:00.003-05:00

I worked in the garden for most of the past weekend except the time for house cleaning, grocery shopping and sending kids to Sunday Chinese school. In another word, I used every bit of the time I can find! When I went to bed on Sunday night with sore muscles, I also felt a big sense of accomplishment :)

Since we moved into the current house almost two years ago (time really flies!), my majority work has been concentrating on the backyard, opening the flower beds from the scratch. Since the land we own has very limited garden space, I know I need to utilize every bit of space, including the stripes at the both sides of the house.

Since the side area is visible to the street, I want to give those future flower beds a more formal look than the backyard. About one month ago, we finally hired somebody to come in and installed the concrete border in the front yard and both sides of the house.

The result is nice, and the border does give an instant face lift to the yard. Now it is up to me to play with those bordered areas.

As every new flower bed in my garden, before I can actually enjoy the planting fun, grass needs to be removed, big rocks need to be dug out, new soils need to be brought in. Since I really have not got much time since the border was installed, the progress has been rather slow.

The past weekend I finally "nearly finised" the west side garden.

Here is how it looked like in August last year. This area is at the low point of the land, even grass can not survive here. We often have to walk in the water puddles during the raining season. It really has become an eye sore for us.

Here is how it looked like after I "finished" planting this past Sunday.

This is the view looking from the backyard side.

The rain gutter downspout and the rain barrel we installed last year is cutting this flower bed into two sections. Right now we just paved the area where rain barrel is located with gravels, and put two stepping stones there. I also planted one Persian shield plant against the wall, and put an Aloe container in front of it. I need to think more about how to use this area, maybe for container plannting so it doesn't look too bared comparing other sections of this flower bed.

This flower bed is located the west side of the house, and the neighbor's house blocks some of afternoon sun, so I consider it is a partial sun area.

West side garden left section

In the left section of this bed, three Hawaii Ti plants and Plumeria pudica were planted there even before this area was bordered. I added three ground orchids which were lifted from other part of the garden during the near freeze days in December. One of the new begonia is also planted here. I also squeezed in a dragon wing begonia at the back and a Brunfelsia latifolia (aka 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow'). I need to keep Brunfelsia latifolia prunned to keep it compact.

West side garden right section

In the right section, Plumeria rubra was planted last year, and now the leaves all fell off, left only the bare branches in the ground. I will see if it will do well this year, if not, then maybe it needs to be moved ino a more sunny area.

In front of Plumeria rubra are five Amaryllis bulbs. I bought these five bulbs last December, and they finished blooming at the end of December. I hope by putting them into the ground can bring second round of flowers this year, or at least rebloom next season. At the back of this section, I moved two Cordyline fruticosa 'Kiwi' from other part of the garden. In addition, another dragon wing begonia, one very young Mussaenda luteola (Mussaenda White Wing) from cuttings, and a Cuphea ignea (Cigar plant) were also squeezed in.

Have you noticed that I used "squeeze" twice already? Yes, in my tiny garden, space is at premium, so I am used to squeezing plants into the flower bed when they are still young. Only if they grow out of the allocated space, I move them into another location. I am sure I will do quite some "moving around" for the next a couple of months depending on how the plants perform in their location.

As I said earlier, this flower bed is just nearly finished, still have some work to be done.

Meanwhile, I will give you an update to one of my existing flower beds, located at the right side of the drive way in the front.

A view from last year June.... Notice the border is still the old black rubber border.

West frontyard bed June 2010

Although this bed looked lush in the summer, Pentas and ground orchids don't have the best look over the winter. I moved them into other areas. Five Euphorbia splendens (Crown of Thorns) replaced them in this area to give this bed a tidier look and bring some consistent color through the year.

At the curve side of this bed, I planted two kinds of matchstick bromeliads around the oak tree base, and hoping some day they can grow up to hug the tree trunk. Overall, I think the new plants in this flower bed will be low maitenence, easy controlled, and yet still have the tropical look. When African iris comes to blooming, all those white flowers instant add more life and color into this bed.

Before I finish my garden update, I want to also show you where I will work on for the future projects, the front yard and the east side.

Front yard

There are one narrow stripe between the new border and the original rock garden edge. The grass needs to be removed, and put more rocks on. The border also contained more lawn area at the corner, so more plants are needed there.

At the east side, all the bushes against the wall will eventually be removed, so lots of planting opportunites in this bed.

East side

I am excited about all these projects, but don't know when I can get to them, so stay tuned :)

A Busy Gardener's Garden

2011-03-03T22:23:00.003-05:00

For those who are the regular readers of my blog, you might have noticed that I have not posted anything for more than two weeks now. The weather has been wonderful for the garden in the past month, only this gardener has not got much time to work in the garden with numerous kids' activities and busy working schedule.

Of course, that did not stop me visiting my favorite local nursery and bringing two new begonias. I don't know what are their names, but I think they are Rhizomatous Begonias. Anybody recognize them, please let me know the names.

This one is said that can grow in the sun. I planted it in a new partial sun flower bed. I will write more about this new flower bed later.

This one requires shade, and as always, I struggled to find a shady place in my garden, so it is still in the container. Even without the flowers, I love the texture of its hairy foliage.

After being attacked by some sort of insects last year, this Orange Marmalade Crossandra was pulled off from the container (at least I thought I did). I was surprised and happy to see its glossy green leaves emerging from the soil. Now it opened its orange flowers again. Together with purple petunia and white frost diamond, they made a beautiful container combination.

Another orchid has been reblooming for me after I owned it for two years.

Indian blanket flowers (Gaillardia pulchella) have been blooming without any special care from this gardener. Can you believe all these flowers are coming from only three plants that were started from seeds last year?

African Iris and crown of thorns are another combination that doesn't require much of care once establised.

I noticed the flower buds from this Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina' (Giant Apostle's Iris) ten days ago and was looking forward to seeing its flowers in person for the very first time. Two days ago, I finally managed to come home in the daylight, only found the flowers are already gone! Since the plant is still quite young, I don't know when I can see they rebloom.

At least this bromeliad bloom is not easy to miss, it will be quite a while from it starts showing red to finishing the blooming.

Amazon Lily has also finished blooming. Its beauty is so impressive!

Meanwhile, Ground orchids just started their long blooming period. In my garden, It did not stop blooming until temperature dropped down to 40s and 30s.

For me, one of fun to grow a garden is to see the plants take turns to show their beauties, either through the flowers or the foliage. Each stage is unique for each plant. Even with a new garden as young as mine, I have been amazed with the cycle of the plants life.

I do believe Spring has arrived to my part of the garden. I am itchy to put my hands into the soil, at least more than what the time has permitted me.

Happy Gardening, my friends!