Epiphyllum Orchid Cacti

Posted on by capentalc

I have been growing these orchid cacti since December 2020. I got them when they were only cuttings but they have grown quite a bit. They seemed to be very easy to care for. I water once a week and leave in bright shade or morning sun. It took a couple of months of watering the cuttings before I saw any greens on the stems.

I bought a mix of cuttings so I have no clue what some of these flowers will look like. The seller wrote the names of some of the cuttings as you can see.

Some grow stems outward like spider legs (below).

And some will grow shoots next to or around the main branch. My understanding is that they flower after they become rootbound in the spring.

This pot below flowered for the first time this spring. I have it in this pot for over 3 years. As you can see it is a bit overcrowded with stems everywhere.

The color is a vibrant deep pink. It lasted only a few days if I remember correctly. I had only this one flower. Hopefully next year I will get more. I’m still learning about this plant.

Best Blooms of Spring and Summer 2021

Posted on by capentalc

Happy first day of Autumn! I am so excited that Fall/Autumn is here because the weather will be cooler and it is a great time to start planting or moving plants. It is also a time for cleaning up the yard since the whole summer was spent watering plants!!!

I was thinking la few weeks ago that this year has not been a good flowering year for my garden. I felt a lot of things didn’t take off as well as I had hoped. Looking through my collection of pictures this past spring and summer, I was surprised to see that I DID have an incredible garden this year! This post is showing the best of the blooms in spring and summer.

Spring Blooms

Summer Blooms

That’s all of my favorites for spring and summer! I hope it was a fascinating post for you too! I love looking at all these pictures and this would be a great photo album for years to come.

Hibiscuses, Roses, and a Smattering of Things

Posted on by capentalc

A few of my favorite hibiscuses and roses are starting to bloom in abundance this week. For this week one of my newer hibiscuses bloomed and some more than the previous year. Hibiscuses are very easy to grow here in California because they like warmer weather. It seems late summer is the best flowering period for my hibiscuses and they will flower all into the fall too.

I have some nice looking roses growing now too. Pretty colors these guys are but they are not scented ones, unfortunately. All of my roses here are first year growers so the flowering is not very impressive but I expect next year they will be more plentiful. I think the root system is not very strong so the heat we’ve been having caused the petals to be a little burned on the edges.

Below are the smattering of flowers and fruit that are appearing in my yard.

Dahlia
Dondo Blue
Chicory flower
Carrot flower – carrot going to seed
Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica)

I will leave you with this picture of my one and only papaya tree that has been growing fruit these past few months. I started out with about 13 successful seedlings but I gave some away. I kept about 4 plants but this is the only one that survived these past 3 years. It is now about 9-10 feet tall. The bottom fruit was the first one to turn into a fruit. I hope it doesn’t fall off the tree and getting eaten by my dogs or some other creatures in the yard. This was the first fruit that I have grown from seeds so a lot is riding on this!

Anyway, have a wonderful week ahead!