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.