Iris Seed Pods / Sunflowers

I was surprised to wake up this morning and find out that it poured last night. A lot of green everywhere! Boy, everything certainly perks up pretty quickly when a good rain comes through the area. Too bad it only seems to happen once every few weeks. Thunderstorms sure don't like passing through here for some reason.

Iris Seed Pod

Iris Seed Pod

I was surprised that the pods have started splitting open. They were white-ish yesterday but this morning they seemed to have really jumped and started splitting.

Sunflower

Sunflower

Amaryllis Seed Pods opening

A couple amaryllis seed pods have begun to open. This is when I break the heads off, spread them out over a paper towel, and let them dry for a few days. Then I immediately stick them in a flowerbox to germinate them as soon as possible.

Milky Way Morning Glories

I can't believe it's only 56 degrees as of 6:30 a.m. I decided to head out and get some pictures of the Morning Glories.

They've been growing in this pot out of the blue so I guess some seeds came from last year. It was a total surprise because I dug up some green elephant ears and stuck them in this pot so you can also see them mingling with the MG leaves there. So far one kind of flower has revealed itself. Milky Way Morning Glories.

The white morning glory flowers with purple marks are pretty interesting to see.

Radish Seed Pods?

The only thing I know about radishes is that you have to pluck them while they're young or that they'll get too 'hot' to eat. I plucked one radish but it was this long root so I didn't bother dealing with any of the others. Eventually they grew very tall and had lots of white flowers which attracted butterflies.

Eventually I saw these weird seed pods. My first thought was that they were a lot like green beans. I went on Google and was surprised to see a bunch of articles where people say to harvest them when young and then eat them raw - such as using them as salad topping!

You always learn something new!

Cucumbers and Morning Glories

I actually have cucumbers growing. The plant isn't withering away in the humidity in the hot sun or full shade. The cucumbers aren't growing all weird and wonky. It's actually pretty neat! With how dry it has been around here and the humidity being lower than normal, I think I might have a shot at growing a batch of normal cucumbers this summer! And to think I complained about how it hasn't rained in a few weeks. (It did rain on Sunday and the humidity on Monday caused a couple of sunflowers to fold over and break. The garden struggled in Monday's humidity, that's for sure.)

I've been equally surprised with the Morning Glories. I don't know what kind these are except they're growing from a pot where I put Crimson Ramblers in the previous summer. However it's clear from the flower's coloring that this seems to be some other sort.

There are several sorts of vines growing. I don't want to say the leaves are dinner plate-sized but they're rapidly approaching it. I had the pot in the middle of the backyard but from how thick the vines have been, I decided to lug this pot over to the fence so that they can have some support. It has been wilting in the sun but I'm trying to keep the pot watered in the meanwhile just to see what all the flowers are.

What is also interesting to see is that there's Daddy Longlegs all throughout the vines. It's like they've positioned themselves at certain intervals and waiting...