Pink Surprise Amaryllis - Jan 2009

Winter is dreary for the most part. No one posts about their gardens because they're all covered in snow (no offense to those who don't get snow!) Amarylles (?) Amaryllises? Amarylli? are a real highlight for me. This the first one I ever bought. I bought it Dec 2008 at WalMart for $7.00+ tax. It is a pink surprise, and I'm pretty impressed! Enjoy

It was labelled as Pink Diamond, but I think actually it is Pink Surprise

late GBBD

The following two pictures are actually from December. I bought two new plants.

This is Salvia - not sure what kind

Shrimp plant. I am glad they are hardy here!


And the following three are more recent

Paperwhite blooms. When I planted the bulbs, they were very curved over from being pot bound for so long. However, they did straighten out eventually. Some people do not like the smell of paperwhites, but I don't think it's too bad. They seemed like such a boring concept to me before I actually owned any. An all white flower just seemed--- sort of boring. However, and it's not evident in the picture, the petals actually have sort of a nacreous finish and sort of shimmer in the light. It's nice.

I bought this last plant at Home Depot recently. It is Gynura aurantiaca or purple passion plant. It is actually a vine, and I'm not sure how long it takes to start 'extending.' The woman at Home Depot said that it has ugly yellow flowers - however I think they are sort of cool. You can find a picture if you google 'gynura aurantiaca yellow flowers'

Plants I want eventually

I thought I would make a picture list of some of the plants that are on my 'buy list.' Picture lists are more fun than word lists anyway

1.I cannot for the life of me right now think of what this is called. OMG I just did - Honey Locust. There we go. Thanks for being with me for that real-time typing/thought moment

2. This is Strawberry Guava, Feijoa i think.

3. OOOOO.... Rangoon Creeper. I have been looking for seeds of this, but I can't find any. Isn't it beautful?

4. This last one is some sort of Clematis. Prettttyy

Stuff I am growing

Here is an update on some plants I've started from seed.

This is Adenium. The seedling looks like a wormy - haha I'll keep updating

Freesia bulbs - ill make a post later dedicated just to freesias. I am a little concerned I planted them too shallowly. Thoughts?

Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' As you can see (if you'd been tracking this plant through my blog), I cut it back heavily because it almost died on my parent's back patio. I saw a BEAUTIFUL specimen at Green 'N Growing in Pflugerville - it was so nice and bushy. Sorry I did not take a picture

Poppies. My mom says they look like weeds. I am REALLY crossing my fingers that they make it through the winter. I started these from seeds

This is also a poppy - california poppy, I believe

Petunia in a babylon bag. I bought these bags on amazon for like $4.00. Good deal. I hope these bloom - I had to bring them inside because it was too cold out. It should be very beautiful when it comes into bloom

Lastly, here is the view from my parent's back patio.

Rodents + garages + Plumeria = disaster

I brought 3 of my plumerias to my parents house for overwintering. I knew we had a mouse in the garage we were trying to catch, but I did not put two and two together. At least now I know that rodents like to eat plumerias? We were having trouble catching it, and kinda of hoped it would die from eating the plumeria sap. That did not happen.

When we caught the 'mouse' we actually realized it was a rat that was over a foot long. ew.

Here is the damage:

Hey, maybe at least it will branch now. I have no idea how a rat that big could climb up this plant without breaking it. Somehow, it completely left the growing tip. Miracle of miracles

New Plants

Here, I hope to show you two plants you've never seen before!

Here is Silver Thyme. Because it's an herb, it's hardy from zone 4a to 10b (According to PlantFiles), so there is NO excuse not to go buy it! I bought this one at The Natural Gardener - it was like $2.00. 

Here is a plant that took me a while to figure out what it was. It was very much an impulse by at Home Depot. I had never seen this color magenta before in a flower, let alone paired with yellow. I also really liked the leaves. Only about 2 weeks after I bought it, did I figure out that I overpaid for it by about $4.00. Lessons learned. It is Linaria - Toadflax

Isn't it beautiful? I have hence found that it is sold quite commonly online - haha

This summer, I planted morning glories. In November, I looked down and saw this beautiful light blue flower. What a surprise, since I had planted purple and pink morning glories. Unfortunately, I didn't get any seeds from it, but at least I got a picture

I think this next one is pretty common. It's a blue lobelia. I love the texture.

TX OU weekend (this post is not about football)

My boyfriend and I went to Texas/OU weekend with his frat on the 4th of October, and at the Texas State Fair, there were BEAUTIFUL flower garden displays. Just thought I'd share them because it's been a while since my last post.

go longhorns!