Garden update August 21, 2008

Here are a few new photos from my garden. I wish desperately I had more room to plant things, but my patio is so small, that I am doing the best with what I've got. I have a couple of plants I would like to plant in their permanent positions, but my parents are going to be moving within the next couple of years, so I'm afraid that if I plant these, I won't be able to transplant them when they move! Anyway - Here you go!

Here are some mums I bought at Home Depot. Yes, I cheated. I didn't grow them from seed - but they're just so beautiful and cheap that I can't resist. Right now I am trying to hand cross-pollinate them with another mum variety so we'll see what happens.

Cat break! My roommate's cat, Dolce

Pot. There is a plumeria planted smack in the middle. Starting from the mum on the left and going counter clock-wise: purple ornamental sweet potato, an amberish colored ornamental sweet potato, ornamental oregano, and lastly a gomphrena I started from seed at the end of march. The rocks are to keep the dang squirrels out! I swear they are driving me INSANE. They don't dig where I don't have plants- they dig AT the roots of the plants I planted! How annoying.

Unknown blue flower. I think it might be Lobelia. I would love an ID

Desert willow seedlings. Don't ask me what I'm going to do with them when they are bigger... haha

My deformed green envy zinnia. I'm hoping it will set seed

Maroon nasturtium seedlings with plumeria seedlings in the background!

My first seed harvest!! Purple LabLab seeds. So excited!

3 Passiflora mollissima seedlings. 

Allamanda Cherries Jubilee. Supposedly, these can set seed but I can't seem to find the reproductive structures inside the flower. Any help would be appreciated!

Unfurled 'cherries jubilee' flower. Cool shape.

Snapdragon seedlings. Growing slowly, growing slowly. I hope I can get them to survive to flower!

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I don't really have anything of interest to say - I just wanted to post some recent pictures

 

Ipomoea batatas Ornamental Sweet Potato. It started flowering last week. I love the flowers and how the lighter shade of purple contrasts with the deep purple of new leaf growth 

 

Evolvulus Blue Daze. The silvery-green foliage is beautiful with the blue flowers

Mandevilla I think it's Alice duPont but i'm not sure. I had it planted where it got full sun in the afternoon and it was really struggling. I moved it to a pot on my patio where it gets indirect sunlight and it's really taken off.

Another Ipomoea batatas flower

Fireman's cap at Shoal Creek Nursery. I thin it's Erythrina crista-galli or something to that effect. It's a tree with beautiful coral flowers

Mandevilla again

 

 

I was at Chuy's last week in Round Rock and I spotted this unknown plant. If anyone knows what it is, I'd be greatly appreciative

Garden Photography

Delonix regia Flamboyan tree. This tree is extremely fast growing. It reached this size from seed in 2-2.5 mo. It has a beautifully light and lacy texture. It is not hardy in zone 8b, so I'll have to take it inside in the winter. It might not ever bloom here, but I have hope! If you've never seen this tree, I would google search it.

Morning glory mixture and some close-up shots

Cypress vine

I used Picasa to edit all of these pictures. I was really impressed - for a free program, it really enhances photos well. It also lets you upload 4 pictures at a time directly from the program to your blog. Kinda cool.

A little history for you.

As I walk through West Campus in Austin every day, I notice imprints in the concrete - MAUFRAIS, D.H. PAGE, and the other day I noticed one slab of concrete that was dated 3-3-25. It hit me all of a sudden, that one slab of concrete could have been sitting in west campus since 1925. That's almost 100 years ago. I took a picture of where I was walking and I am so curious as to what Salado St. looked like 83 years go. 

What a fun thing to think about.

Garden update August 21, 2008

Hyacinth Bean Vine flower - I thought this would never bloom, but mid-august, it finally did. I really need to find some pollinators for my garden though - I don't have anything but small ants.

One of my plumeria seedlings. It's very strange - it has a hole in the base. I think this is two seeds that didn't separate correctly when they were forming - a little like siamese twins. I wonder if it will bloom two different colors.

Another strange seedling. I ordered a Thai mix and a lot of them ended up being deformed. You can't really tell from this picture but somehow the apical meristem got almost completely destroyed so the entire top the the seedling was scar tissues. Eventually a small leaf started to grow, and I think it will be just fine!

Here are all the plumeria seedlings I started last month. 

After MONTHS and MONTHS where I felt like I was a zinnia-failure, my Green envy is FINALLY growing a flower bud! I am so excited! I told myself, I didn't want a fancy zinnia bloom profusion, all I wanted was ONE flower to go to seed so I could tell myself I sucessfully completed one garden life-cycle this year. I didn't plant these seeds until the end of march, so I think that's why it's blooming so late. These suckers are leggy - over two feet tall. I had to stake them. I hope I am not disappointed with this flower!

Allamanda - Cherries Jubliee. This grows so fast and flowers profusely. The flowers are such an interesting color I think. I wish I had more room in the ground so I could plant it and see how big it grows. It's in a container for now. I'm going to havet o bring it in for the winter because I believe it's tropical and won't overwinter in 8b.

Here is a picture of one of my beds. The large plant on the left is Cassia alata Candlestick plant. It is a very fast grower, when I got it about three or so months ago, it was only a foot tall. You can't really see any of the other plants, but I have two zinnias planted there and cypress vine.

Young plants

I just wanted to post some pictures of seedlings because I think they're interesting

These are Puya  seedlings - almost 2 mo. old. They grow a little slowly

Another slow grower - Melaleuca linariifolia (?) a.k.a. Snow in Summer. Apparently there is another plant with this common name. These seedlings are the same age as the Puya. I keep hoping they'll take off!

Plumeria seedlings. Look at the one in the very back. I think this is the equivalent of some sort of conjoined twin in the plumeria world. It is very deformed. I hope it survives to see what flower it will make. It came from a Thai variety mix

A lot of people wonder why one would want to start Plumeria from seed because it can take as many as 6 years before they bloom,  however, I love starting new seeds - I think the process is fascinating. The prospect of new exciting varieties is also a big draw for me. There is a man somewhere in the states who has a plumeria called Sierra Jane (google it) that has the most beautiful flower, and he's going to start selling cuttings for $300.00! If one can get a new, highly demanded flower like that - they can make a lot of money. Of course, I'm not out to get rich like that, I just like to see how seeds will turn out!

Seedlings

Statice seedling. I've never grown this before, and this seedling is about a month and a half old - I guess it's a slow grower

Two Vigna caracalla seedlings. These seeds ran about $0.75 to $1 each, they were a little pricey, and for a while I wasn't sure they were going to make it, but they seem fine now! If you have never seen what this plant looks like, its BEAUTIFUL

Plumeria seedling. this one has two odd leaves. Look at the top left corner, it has a little ledge on it where it folds down. Also, bottom right corner, its hard to see, but its very deformed.

Puya caerulea. Sapphire tower. Another interesting plant. Left of center are week-old seedlings. All the bigger ones are about 2-2.5 months old. Very slow grower

Snow-in-summer seedlings Melaleuca linariifolia. Yes, these are really 2 months old also. They are tiny and very slow growing

I just wanted to post some pictures of seedlings because I think they're interesting