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December Flowers

13 years ago

I posted a message in the Photo Section about 10 days or so ago, and Pam recommended that I put a link to it here, since she was the only one who responded to it. It shows a few pictures of flowers from my yards this month. I have more pictures, but I haven't had time to edit them, and I cannot view Photobucket at work.

It's been raining so much lately that I have barely been in the back yard recently, and I hope the orchids are not getting too much water. I have them in a protected area between the garage and the wall so that they will not get too much sun, but they are uncovered now, since it is winter. I have no idea whether they will bloom again, but I thought I would give them the chance.

Lars

Comments (9)

arabellamiller
13 years ago
Lovely Lars!

I hope your yard fares well with all the storms you have been experiencing.

AM
mitchdesj
13 years ago
It all looks good; what are those succulents next to the unexpected flowers ?
they look so lush.
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Colleen, I'll check on the mystery bush with pink flowers. It's not the only mystery bush - the other one puts out rather nice red and yellow flowers and is to the right of it in the picture below, which was taken May 2010. Some of the plants in the front yard grow very rapidly, including the two flowering plants mentioned, but also the agaves and the plant with the magenta flowers. We had to take out the New Zealand grass because it spreads too much, and we had several clumps of it. It does make some nice orange flowers in the summer, but we don't need three clumps of it. I have another hibiscus in a wine barrel planter in the back yard that makes the largest flowers, but it's not blooming now, even though it has the largest branches and most leaves of all of my hibiscuses. When I can, I collect hibiscus flowers to make tea.
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Thanks for the suggestion - I guess no one comes over here any more. I had to put out snail bait after the rain because slugs like to attack the succulents, although they leave the cactus (but not orchid cactus) alone. Some of the succulents are spiny enough, but most of the ones I have are not. The aloe in the planter under my window is about to bloom, and I have no idea what color the flowers will be, but I am guessing orange, since that seems to be the most common. I've had aloes with red, orange, and white flowers, but the white one were not very interesting and were on dwarfs. I'll post more pictures when the aloe blooms. I planted it because it has very attractive leaves, and I knew it would also bloom, although I didn't know when. Lars
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Not uncommon but it's better to remove them as the tree needs to spend its energy to establish, grow more roots. Letting the very young tree to flower and fruit could stunt its growth. Some rootstocks, stunting occurs more readily than the other. I won't let two year old apple fruit, either if it does not show vigorous growth. Why risk stunting your tree when it could be ready for you by year 3. Peach or nectarine is another story. Those things flower and fruit plenty in year two.
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Welcome to the world of potted citrus trees. My New Zealand Lemonade tree flowers like a Meyer lemon does. For my tree If I let it flower it sets fruit and continues flowering. The fruits grow while the tree keeps producing more flowers. As the tree continues flowering the tree starts dropping developed fruits followed by leaf discoloration/dropping. My lemonade trees keep putting on new flower buds. Branches start dying back and even more flower buds are produced. I left 2 NZL's alone and in 6 months they both flowered to death. No root rot or soggy or even dried out soil. I don't know if Meyer lemons do that. I remove all flowers after July as soon as the buds are visible, and the trees do fine.
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canarybird01
13 years ago
They all look healthy Lars and are very familiar as we have similar flowers here in our climate.

I do love those kalanchoes with the coral bell flowers on top. We used to have them popping up wild in our cactus garden but now I hardly see any.

Do you also have strelitzia? I think they grow very well in your area and are also winter blooming.

You're doing some nice work in your garden!

SharonCb
ann_t
13 years ago
Lars your garden looks beautiful. Made me think of Sharon's lovely garden.

Ann
Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
13 years ago
I enjoyed seeing your lovely garden ...how nice to have flowers all the time.
Lars
Original Author
13 years ago
Sharon, I do not yet have strelitzia in my garden here, but I did in Venice - the giant ones with white flowers and the short ones with orange and blue flowers. I'm thinking of getting another giant one, perhaps for the front yard. The kalanchoes surprised me when they bloomed - I planted them for the leaves, and so it was a pleasant surprise when they bloomed. They do multiply like crazy, and so I've moved some of the sprouts to some hanging baskets.

Mitch, unfortunately, I do not know the names of most of the succulents that I planted. Perhaps Sharon knows, as I know she has some of the same plants in her garden. Later I'll try to post pictures of the front yard, which needs some tending to get prune back some of the invasive plants. In the front I have a lot of agaves, cactii, aloes, and other succulents. It's beginning to look like a botanical garden with just single samples of each plant, and so it's not very cohesive, but it's interesting to walk through. From a distance, it looks like a jumbled mess, however, as we are still taking out some of the plants that we inherited. I think most of them were planted just for staging, but a couple of them I like because they also bloom in the winter and have unusual flowers. The cala lilies are starting to bloom now also, and they are only in the front.

Lars
Gina_W
13 years ago
Nice variety Lars. I love orchids and would love to get some epidendrums.
Lars
Original Author
13 years ago
Gina, you can come over some time when you are in the neighborhood, and I will give you some cuttings. I have them in pots all over the place, and I love that they are blooming most of the time.

Lars
Gina_W
13 years ago
Thank you Lars. The L.A. group will have to have a get-together after the new year, since everyone was so busy this year.

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