Red Amaryllis

Amaryllis is opening!

I have plans of sticking all the potted amaryllis into the ground once they're all done blooming. They'll go into the old spot where the hibiscus used to be.

Eggs under Leaf - Bugs?

I was watering my spider plants and noticed this.




A close-up. I wonder if anyone knows what they're eggs of? Pretty neat to find!

Dragon Arum - Sending out flowers!

I don't believe it. My two biggest dragon arums are each sending out a bloom.





Hard to see. I tried getting closer shots but the camera decided to focus on random parts instead of the part I wanted. hehe.

Iris

The Iris are all sending out buds. Two of them have opened. Everything else is still working on it. hehe.

Planted Seeds - Joy!

Turns out that there was another tube from Desert Gatherings. A hummingbird garden. I was thinking of opening the capsules and spreading the seeds out but a few people I talked to all said the same thing. "Why?" I can't imagine a bunch of seeds in capsules are gonna do fine but... Instructions say nothing about doing anything with capsules so I just stuck them both each in a pot.



The large brown seeds - I put two to each pot so that's 5 pots altogether for the hummingbird assortment.




I planted 2 Century Plant seeds and 2 Joshua Tree seeds. Didn't want to use them all up right away. I was confused by the instructions though. It says to keep the pots in an inch of water. I found two lids and just poured water in 'em and all. You can see the tiny terracotta pot there, obscured by the spider plant stolons. hehe.

The one thing I did find neat in the instructions was this: If your plant reaches at least four inches in height, please return it to the desert from which it came.

My sister bought the seeds in Las Vegas soooo... I don't see myself going there any time soon! hehe.

Seeds of Century Plant and Joshua Tree

Look at this! My sister got 'em for me. She knows I'm a sucker for kits and all.

One's a Century Plant Kit (Giant Agave). It comes with a tiny terracotta pot, a little bag of dirt, and seeds for the ultimate experience!

The other is a tube for Joshua Tree seeds. It contains a small shovel (decoration?) inside.

They're both from "Desert Gatherings". Anyone have experience with them?

Camera Fun

Schlumbergera



Clematis



Clematis



Clematis



Sun Plaque

So what am I complaining about, right? ;)

Goodbye Hibiscus

Sometimes you have to make a choice on what plants you have to banish from your garden - even when you've struggled for years on trying to save it. I used to grow pumpkins for years but I finally gave up because there's quite a few varieties of bugs here that attack the pumpkin. I loved growing them and sometimes I miss them but the aggravation of trying to save the pumpkins just drives me nuts.

Well, a choice was made today. The hibiscus is to be exiled and never to return to my kingdom.




Why? Because of these...



Sawflies. I've tried and tried to get rid of these suckers but it just ain't working. Sevin worked like a miracle but it required a huge fence around the three so that the dogs couldn't brush up against them. Once the plants get big and start blooming, I stop spraying because I just don't feel comfortable with the idea of bees and butterflies coming up to the plant and getting poisoned.

My fingers were crossed that the cold winter would kill these buggers but it hasn't done a thing. There's a huge cloud of 'em over the trio and it was a nightmare trying to get pictures when they were getting all over my legs and arms. Ugh.

I tried. I tried but ain't no saving them. They have to go.

And of course, an obligatory macro picture just to make sure the silly thing is functioning...

Bush Honeysuckles are Evil!

It's in full bloom again. I remember *years* back when this first flowered, I took pictures and posted it at a forum to see if anyone would recognize it. Everyone said the flowers look like the honeysuckle vine but no one's ever seen it in tree form. "A hybrid of some sort?" so I thought that was pretty nifty. I did tons of searches but never did find anything except the annoying honeysuckle vine.




Today when I went out, I took pictures of the tree and decided that maybe I should post them on a forum again but out of curiosity I did a google search for honeysuckle and came across Bush Honeysuckles! I was pretty surprised to discover it so quickly! ... and also surprised to see that there were many sites devoted to the idea of destroying them. Yikes.




I don't think this tree will be destroyed. Hummingbirds know there's a feeder hanging in the tree so they return every year for it.

May Night Salvia - Hen and Chicks

Hey. Can you see him? Yeah, I can't either.




Totally surprised to see two pots of May Night Salvia. I planted them in the bed. Definitely a welcome addition!




I kind of um... not sure how I feel about the Hen and Chicks when I saw these. Every time I have these, they never really do anything. They slowly die out instead of spreading out and growing more. I've tried them in several beds in case they were getting too much sun or too much shade or... Hm. I guess it's neat to have them again. They are definitely one of my favorites.

Twists and Turns

Life is full of twists and turns. That's something we learn early on. My four year old nephew is visiting and there was a big ceremonial sunflower planting. He learned to put dirt in peat pots and stuck sunflower seeds in each one. Then they were obviously planted in my freshly dug bed. I wasn't there for it but hey...






I haven't seen any of the seeds sprout in the bed anyhow. There's no room to stick amaryllis in here for now so I guess they'll just stay in pots for a little bit longer.



A most unexpected surprise! A rose bush! This spot had a raised bed with two rose bushes growing. When I made those banana peel concoctions, the plants thrived and bloomed. As soon as I stopped, the plants just went back to struggling and sickly. The two rosebushes were thrown out and the raised bed was taken out. The dirt was spread around. To see this rose bush pop up... I'm not sure how that happened. Roots? Seeds? I don't know. It's most unusual!



This was also another neat surprise. I didn't expect anything to return because of how frozen the winter was. To see moss roses growing in this basket was pretty awesome.



Sometimes my camera hates me and doesn't want to do macro. Then there are times when a shot comes out surprisingly well. This is a close-up of Spiderwort flowers.



The dragon arum was starting to do its little 'getting weak and ready to fall over' act so a cage was set up around it to keep it upright. The base of the dragon arums are pretty thick though. My fingers are crossed for a bloom this year!



I wasn't sure if I was going to toss this one in or not... It's a shot of the Empress Paulownia flowers. The tree itself is pretty terrible looking.

Vegetable Pots

Okay, cheating happens... like when you think the peat pot thing was a total disaster so you rush out to get something big and awesome instead. There's Spacemaster Bush Cucumber, Goldbar Squash, and Sweet Banana Peppers.




This spot here is in the shade. When I had this in full sun last year and the whole thing bombed, I just decided that maybe the plants will be less stressed if they had shade for a good chunk of the day. They will get evening sun though...



I am also happy to see that a couple amaryllis are starting to send these up... None in my grown-from-seed amaryllis though. :\ Shucks. Which means I'll be fertilizing them like nuts this year but I do want to get them in the ground since the flowerbox is warping from their growing mass.

Freshly Dug

I'm convinced that the cold winter destroyed my Elephant Ear bulbs. I had regular green that returned every year as well as Illustris Elephant Ears that were pretty invasive. Pretty to look at but if you plant it in one spot, expect it to forever thrive there!



I was told to be patient, that they'll come back. I still decided to dig up the bed. If I find bulbs, I know they'll return... After all, as you can see from this old picture, I couldn't get rid of them at all from that spot! However, as I dug up the bed, I didn't find a single bulb. I thought for sure I would find rotted bulbs or something but.. no. There was nothing!

I added cow manure and some fertilizer. I haven't added anything to the bed yet. I do plan to put Salvia, Catnip, Morning Glories, Hyacinth Bean Vine - so far.



It looks like the leaves are impatient again this year. As you can see from this old post, Wisterian Adventures, the flowers pop out first in full force and then the leaves come. It looks like the wisteria decided to skip tradition again this year.



And of course, an obligatory 'Do not buy Wisteria if you're thinking about it because they're totally invasive and will take over everything and spread for miles and miles and miles just like this sentence'.

New Tomato Hanger

I got a new tomato hanger. This time it is "Tomato Planter" by Handy Trends. I was thankful that my tomato plant was still rather small. The plastic 'star' there was really tough. I'm not even sure this was a good design. What happens when the trunk of the tomato plant gets thicker than that?



I struggled to pull the tomato plant through and filled the bag up. I hope I didn't damage the root system or anything. Guess we'll see. This is definitely a temporary location! Just couldn't find any other hook! hehe.




And then an update on my peat pot tray. Some of my Salvia grew and then died. I guess it was too much for them so I may have to stick the seeds directly into the bed that I plan to make for 'em. The Scarlet O'Hara Morning Glory seeds were planted in three peat pots but for some reason only one peat pot took off!

Pollenerrific!

*cough cough* The pollen in the air is getting worse. Every day that passes, the air gets more and more yellow. Yesterday I was filling a bird feeder when suddenly thick yellow stuff rained down from above. A pine tree was literally dumping them by the pound over my head. Not amused.



The only thing pollen is helpful for is identifying locations of spiderwebs. I had to take a picture of this one because it looks like it's just hovering there. What I am curious about is why the immediate spiderweb got pollen-clogged yet the strands that support the web is untouched...



I love surprises! Guess what I spotted growing in my banana plant pot? This tomato plant! It's definitely gotta be from the cherry tomato variety. Towards the end of summer, lots of little cherry tomatoes were rotting and falling off. One must've landed inside this pot and this little plant took off. It's the only one I see right now. When it gets bigger, I'll have to repot it - maybe even do a hanging tomato with this one - if not, it'll be in a container of its own at least.



I was asked to post my Pachira Tree. This guy was the only one to survive from a 'Dollar Tree'. The rest died one by one and this one was the last one to hang in there. Eventually he grew! I wish I could show how fat the base is. It just seems small in this picture. hehe.



And of course, the trailing petunias that took off in the pachira pot. I was really surprised that they already started blooming. That was fast.

Dragon Arum update

Getting quite big already... I also noticed the base is getting thick as well so maybe the plants will follow through this year.