Amaryllis seed pods failing...

As a lot of pods started swelling, I was amazed at how many of them there were. I was starting to think there'd be too many and I wouldn't be able to get them all planted! Unfortunately as the days pass, the number of pods are dwindling.

Some pods burst open - which I'm told it means it hadn't been successfully pollinated?

They're failing in batches as well.

And while some were growing rather big, something attacked them.

So I might end up working with a much smaller batch than I thought.

Sunflower stalk splits into two?

 A sunlit tendril curling in front of a vegetable plant leaf. No idea what the plant is though... So far, I know that cucumber has made an appearance because of all the little cucumber flowers. I also saw a couple of zucchini flowers. Whether any has pollinated or not, I don't know... I seem to still be in that mindset that they'll all die off in the soon-to-come summer heat anyhow but I'm still watering the pots diligently.

I walked by a couple of sunflowers growing in the grass/sand (It's fun to let plants live if they don't exactly get in the way). However, I noticed something really odd!

Somehow this sunflower stalk split into two and it's got two healthy stalks coming out of it. They're pretty much the same height as the other sunflowers. Kind of odd!

Salvia Coccinea returns...

Wow, that's embarrassing. This whole time I thought the plants growing in the bed was Blue Queen Salvia after tossing a packet in.

As soon as I saw the flowers this morning, my eyes bulged. "That's the flower from last year!" I didn't think they would return after the constant snow we had over winter. So now the bed is actually bursting at the seams with Salvia Coccinea and not the Blue Queen Salvia like I thought. Now I wonder if there's any salvia in there.

Maybe it wasn't a total waste of money in buying the May Night Salvia afterall...

I decided to get it to replace the two that died last summer because the bed they were in had dried up way too fast and couldn't stay wet.

Pink/White Amaryllis

Glad to see the Pink/White Amaryllis returning. There's another bud coming up that's like it as well. I'll have to mark them so that I know which seed pods are pink/white - as well as any stalks of any reds that I use the pink/white pollen on.

Random flowers!

 These are the blooms of radish.

 Stella de Oro - daylily

The old sandbox remains. I'm not sure where these sunflowers are coming from. I know my nephew dropped a bunch of seeds in this box last year and one large sunflower grew. Is it possible other seeds overwintered and returned?

White Yarrow

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.

Amaryllis, again...

The left clump of Amaryllis is just exploding with red blooms! The right clump is still slowly sending up blooms - hoping that one of the buds will reveal that the pink/white bulb is still around. The middle seed-grown clump is now sending up a fourth bud!

Also, personal note to self - started second batch of schlumbergera seeds (thanksgiving cactus) in a pot.

First bloom from seed grown Amaryllis

The first bud from my seed-grown batch (from 2007!) finally opened and revealed that it is very much like the other reds! I guess this means there'll be a whole bunch of red amaryllis growing around these parts. hehe.

Amaryllis

My friend sent me a batch of mystery seeds and I told her right away, they look just like the Century Plant seeds. Sure enough, the black seed got pushed out as it germinated and I told her, "Yup. It's agave seeds. It's doing the same thing the Century Plant seedling did." Then suddenly this little green blade shot out. I said to myself, "Well, my Century Plant seedling certainly didn't do this!" I did some searching online and I *think* this is a yucca seedling.

Amaryllis, Clematis, Cat, and the rest....

Red Amaryllis with  strong white/yellow throats.

 Other angle of same amaryllis.

 This red amaryllis has a hint of white/yellow throat but mostly red.

 Clematis seed pods. After the petals fall off, they start looking like thread balls.

 Random cat! Have to toss one of these in here... Meet Gypsy. ;)

 Iris seed pods. Boy, they grow really big, don't they?

 A random Petunia volunteer. There's quite a few of these in the cracks of the stones. I'll have to lift up the stones and pot them all.

This is a mystery seed that a friend sent to me. She has no idea what they are. So far it seems to look and act like the Century Plant seedling with a big giant black seed at the end of a green stalk.

Dragon Arum

The other one is still trying to catch up. It would've been neat to see both of them open at the same time.  Today is surprisingly chilly (56 degrees!) and the wind is constantly blowing. Though, during brief moments when the wind shifted, I could smell a horrible odor wafting from the flower before it got lost in the winds.

I don't know why the leaves are all curled up. Yesterday was hot and I figured that maybe it dried out a bit too much so I gave it a good soak. The leaves haven't responded. You can see that the smaller ones are fine. Their leaves weren't curled up at all through the whole thing so I don't know what gives.