Asiatic Lily Seedlings already? - Torn down Woods

So I go out back while muttering about Old Man Winter's tardiness, see? What do my eyes see?

No. Yes. What? Wait...

Is this some weed taking over my box? No. The other three pots with different winter-sowed seeds are empty. I snap a picture, hop on Google, and to my horror, I discover that these indeed are asiatic lily seedlings. What are they doing popping up already? This is the curse of a winter that won't stay cold. I dragged the pot into the greenhouse because with the seedlings trying to grow before winter has even fully settled in yet is making me nervous. Now I wonder if the other winter-sowed seedlings are setting out roots and haven't popped up yet. Stress. Stress. Stress.

Speaking of stress...

The picture above was taken on December 3rd when I noticed the pink string on the tree.

This picture was taken today. The owner of the land decided to hire a company to take down all the pine trees so that he could sell them to a sawmill. It was sad to see the pine trees come down and be carted away. I don't even know if they're done yet because their machines are still sitting in the woods. Now when night comes, we can see lights from other buildings on the other side of the woods. It's an odd sight to see when coming out onto the back porch at night.

I lived in this house since 1995 and for a lot of things to change so abruptly this year alone was really difficult for me to handle. Our beloved Bear that we adopted in 1995 passed away this year. The fence we built for him around the backyard in 1995 had been destroyed during Hurricane Irene. Now the beautiful woods have been destroyed. I think 2011 will personally be the year that will be remembered as the year that everything 'home sweet home' came to an end.

Winter Sowing and Schlumbergera

Pots ready for winter-sowing of the seeds!

I got these four pots ready for winter sowing. Iris (Black Mom/Purple Dad), Iris (Purple Mom/Black Dad), Asiatic Lily, and Clematis. I kept reading over and over that winter sowing was needed for these seeds so I'm just going to have these pots sitting outside all winter long and see if the seeds do pop out come spring. A fun new experience. At the moment, it's the Iris that I can't wait for. I'd love to see those pop up but the others would be fun to see too.

Dark Maria - Schlumbergera

It also turns out that the schlumbergera have started pushing out flower buds. I guess I was a bit surprised because a good chunk of them fell apart or got too much water or it was too hot or... It was a serious pain to keep them happy this year and I have just about given up. Though, it's refreshing to see them try to flower. I know the buds will fall off once the temperatures drop and I have to get the heater running to prevent them from freezing - which always shocks them into dropping their buds, unfortunately.

Pink? Red? Schlumbergera

Asiatic Lily Seed Pods

As time passed, it seems most of the lily seed pods that started swelling have stopped. They're starting to shrivel up and I guess it didn't make it or didn't pollinate afterall? At east that was the Tiger Lily ones that started and then stopped.

I do have one plant in the backyard that have three seed pods swelling right up though!

I thought I posted a picture but apparently I didn't. I took this picture of the plant back on June 5th when it was actively blooming.

I have no idea who the father would be. Possibly pollen from the Tiger Lily, Easter Lily, or Whatever the tall dark red/orange one is.

Amaryllis, Orange Lily, and Marigold

 Marigolds

 Orange Lily

 Orange Lily

This is the second stalk of my seed-grown amaryllis. I thought it was all red but there's a hint of it trying to have a white/yellow throat on the three upper petals of both flowers that opened so far. The other two on the same stalk aren't open just yet.

Yellow Lily Looking at Sun

Yellow Lily Looking at Sun
Originally uploaded by dragonslumber

Ah, see? I can be artistic too.. Okay, this was a lucky shot.

Summer Thoughts

Yellow Lily

You know, as the heat is settling in for the summer, My yearning to garden drops down to 0%. It's weird how it works. When it's winter, I can't wait to get to planting and watching them grow. Now, I find myself groaning as I lug around gallons of water on a daily basis to make sure they stay alive. It's a real pain in the butt to see plants falling over and dying from thirst.

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't humid. My friend tells me that it gets up to 105 in Nevada but because there's no humidity, it isn't bad. It only needs to get 80 here before the air smothers you. As I glance to Weather.com, it's 63% humidity here and it hasn't rained in a week. Where is it all coming from? Oh yes, swampy areas nearby. That's where the overwhelming amount of bugs come from too. I know, enough complaining!

Despite a few disagreements, I lugged out the two remaining thanksgiving cacti and put them on the porch where they'll get shade. I think the air conditioning is causing the plants to shrivel up and not grow. They started to grow in spring during that time when neither the heater or AC was being used but now the AC is on almost 24/7 and the plants just aren't thriving. Hopefully being exposed to heat and minimal sunlight outside will get them back on track.

I'm surprised that my other thanksgiving cacti are growing. They're being exposed to sunlight for the same period as the jade plants are and they're doing wonderful. I wonder if they'll bloom when I move them inside for the winter.


Vegetable Garden

The vegetables are kinda growing. There's Zucchini, Cucumbers, and Squash. They're not vining out as much but I suppose that's a good thing. It won't be demanding so much water but we'll see how far long it gets in July or August... or September. From what I remember, Zucchini is on the far left but only because I see a vegetable growing from it. Cucumber may be on the far right. There's two random pots between the three vegetable pots. One has elephant ears and the other has several Amaryllis.


Amaryllis Seed Pods

Speaking of Amaryllis, It's discouraging that out of several attempts, only these two are hanging on. I wonder what causes a pod to be pollinated and then aborted. These two are of the pink/white one.

I could be horribly wrong but I believe the pod on the left was also partially pollinated by the pollen from the red amaryllis. If the pod does mature and give me seeds, I guess I'll know in due time.

The biggest one is starting to approach the size of the ones my friend sent me so at least I'm happy about that. At least two successful pods is better than none.

Amaryllis, Lilies, Rose, and Cactus

An update on some going-ons in my little area.


Amaryllis Seed Pods

From the two flower stalks from the red Amaryllis, only these three took. I can't wait to collect the seeds.


Orange Lilies

From the entire bed of lilies, the orange ones are the first to emerge.


Rose

One of the roses that bloomed in the rose bed. This is an unusual color pattern.


Opuntia Pusilla


Opuntia Pusilla


Opuntia Pusilla

I'm pretty surprised that there's tons of buds on the prickly pear! I thought they all bloomed in January and that I had completely missed it. I don't think I've ever seen this many buds on them before.

A couple updates...

Amaryllis
Close-up 1
Close-up 2

In the first picture, you can see that the biggest Amaryllis bulb is starting to send out a bud. This bloomed last year and it was a beautiful flower. Oh, also an update on the Amaryllis that bloomed a few weeks back, It appears that only one seed pod was successful out of four.


Lily Bed
Close-up 1

I'm surprised that many of them are starting to bud. I hope many of them open at the same time so that I can cross-pollinate.


Roses Bed
Close-up 1

What blows me away is that three rose bushes are budding. It's only a matter of time before I finally know the colors of some of them.


Yarrow Bed
Close-up 1

People keep asking me what I do for the yarrow and the answer is... nothing! I don't know why they're so tall. It's pretty neat that there's so many buds ready to open. It'll be a blanket of white pretty soon.

Random Garden Stuff

Luckily for me, I was able to borrow a camera. I don't know how long I'll be without my own camera but I hope it won't be for too long. In the meanwhile, on with the pictures I took...


Amaryllis

Sorry MrBrownThumb. You're gonna hate this but I have no specific names on these either! hehehe. The big bulb in the middle sprouted all these babies around it. Towards the 'front' are two bulbs I got from a friend. One of them is sending up two buds. She thinks it's yellow but she said in all the time she had it, it's never bloomed (except she has one blooming this year so we're going to be sharing the surprise.).


Clematis


Hibiscus

Pretty soon, there's going to be three huge bushes and tons of blooms. Not only that but there'll be a very huge war against the sawflies as well. I have sevin spray that I'll be using. It's the only thing that worked against the sawflies last year after I've done many other safer attempts due to the dogs. There's now a fence keeping the dogs out so I may be able to spray more diligently.


Lilies

I'm surprised they're coming up. They were doing badly last year in another part of the yard so I relocated them this spring. I didn't think they'd come up. Now I'm wondering if they'll bloom.


Roses

The roses were also relocated because they've been doing very badly the past few years. They haven't bloomed in so long and it's to the point that I honestly can't tell you what color(s) they are. I finally relocated them to this spot and I'm hoping they'll do much much better and actually bloom.