Category: Gardening

Hibiscuses and Pink Flowers

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Last week I took some time off from posting because it was a holiday.  I definitely felt guilty for taking time off as if it’s a weekend job to post something every week!  Well, I used the time off to clean up the yard a bit since the weather was nice.

There is not a whole lot going on in the yard right now because of the terrible heat but a few flowers managed to bloom.

When I was writing up this blog, I tried to upload my pictures but WordPress said I didn’t have enough storage to upload any photos so I relented and paid them for the lowest plan, the “Personal” plan, but at a discount. I held back on renewing my plan a while back in anticipation of them offering me a coupon like they did last year and just a few days ago, they DID! So, I managed to use the coupon for this plan renewal. It would be better if it was a coupon for the Premium plan but this will work! Aside from gardening, I do know a few things about shopping and waiting around for good deals online!

Enough about WordPress, let’s talk about beautiful flowers! A lot of the following are flowers you’ve seen earlier in the season or a few weeks ago. I think every picture is showing something different in the flowers each time no matter how many times you look at the same plant…the lighting, the shape, the colors of the flowers, and time of the year changes its beauty daily.

The Cape Primrose below is one I recently bought but a few weeks ago it had only a couple of flowers at a time, this time there are five gorgeous beauties! That’s SOMETHING!

Plum Perfect is this rose below.  I planted it in February this year.  A few months ago it flowered about 3-4 flowers but this time I had triple that. I managed to get some for my desk at work.

PLUM PERFECT AND ICEBERG WHITE ROSES MIXED WITH STATICE

Mantisalca Salmantica is this awesome, fluffy flower in pink and white. It has been blooming from mid spring until now, although less prolific than it is now. They are adorable pompom-looking flowers!

The below flower is a pink rose mallow, a hibiscus variety that goes dormant in the winter and comes up in the spring. I grew this from seed and this year it grew twice taller about 5 feet tall. This pink flower has some nice shades of dark and light pink!

This white Althea Rose of Sharon hibiscus is a new addition to my yard and bloomed for the first time. If you have been reading my blog posts you know I love hibiscus very much. In fact, hibiscus is my favorite plant! I have at least 12 of them and always looking for more.

HIBISCUS that starts out pink and changed to light salmon color by the end of the day.

Now, I will leave you with my cutie Faucaria Tigrina (tiger jaws) succulent. I know it is not exactly pink blooms to fit with the theme of this post but it is an adorable one. I think my plant is a bit sunburned or diseased but it seems to be okay. The flower bloomed for 2-3 days, opened up in the morning and closed at night. So, like this flower I will close this post on a late afternoon on a Friday. Have a great weekend! I hope the weather is good wherever you are!

Roses and a Profusion of Pinks

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Yesterday was the official day that my Premium WordPress account expired, which meant I lost some of the fancy features that I don’t think I even used this past year. I looked today and I don’t think I was missing much from my site except possibly storage (later on). I had to reduce most of my image sizes in the last several posts in order to keep storage at a minimum, did anyone notice?

If you’ve read my post from four posts back I mentioned I started posting for one whole year this past August 9th. I mentioned that I will not be paying for Premium WordPress and will wait to see where that will take me. Some of you seasoned bloggers may giggle to yourself and say “Ha! That will get you nowhere without Premium and Business services”, you are probably correct. I know there is definitely that risk but hey, I’m new and I’m still trying to find a balance between time and dedication to this art.

I will continue to write this blog to share my flower pictures and to create a digital portfolio of plants I love with my mere audience of five people. Someday, I hope to share this portfolio with my grandchildren! So without further rambling, here are this week’s favorite blooms:

ROSES

It’s hard to capture the beauty of these mini orange roses in this photo but they are so vibrant in real life against the dark shiny green foliage.

HIBISCUS

HYDRANGEA

PLUMERIA

ASTERS

LILY

SOME PURPLES TOO

Passion Flower
Four O’clocks
Morning Glory

Angel’s Trumpet and Other Delights

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Angel’s Trumpet, also known as brugmansia, are blooming abundantly in my garden this week. Two varieties I am particularly excited about finally bloomed. The Pink Velvet was recently potted up after it was living unhappily in the ground for over two years! It flowered a little bit before but the colors were not the true pink color that it was supposed to be. In this pot now, it bloomed more flowers and the colors are delightfully pink and true to its kind. It starts out white and the next day it changed to pink!

Angel’s Trumpet Pink Velvet

The double pink trumpet below is truly adorable with its double ruffles like two flowers stacked in one. It opens into a light yellow first before turning pink like the picture below. What a wonderful work of God!

Audrey Lea Angel’s Trumpet (double pink)

This Charles Grimaldi has been in the ground for 3 and a half years and it is about 9 feet tall. I grew them by my trash bins area to combat the smell when I take the trash out! It is strongly fragranted in the evenings.

Hibiscus

I’m not sure which kind of hibiscus this is because I planted this long before I thought about being a gardener. I bought it because I LOVE the colors of this hibiscus. Amazing colors! This one is also in horrid clay soil for years but periodically fertilizing seems to help it flower from August until November, sometimes in hot December, too!

Cape primrose “Wow“

This little beauty below is spectacularly beautiful with its half ivory and magenta petals. It really does make you want to say “wow” when it flowers. This is a new plant for me and I meant to keep them indoors but for now it’s in mostly bright shade. I don’t water it too much either, only every 3 days.

Four O’clock

I love these Four O’clock flowers. To some people they may seem invasive as they keep appearing everywhere in the yard but it has really beautiful colors like this yellow below. I have dark pink, light pink, orange, and this yellow all over in my backyard. I posted about them in many of my posts before.

Maximillian Sunflowers

Funny story about this sunflower plant is that last year I planted this when I was in a hurry so I did not make a note of where it is to water it. I forgot all about it after I planted. So naturally it died from lack of water ,I guess, but this year it appeared. I had a “that’s where it went” (face palm moment) when I saw it bloomed. By the way, isn’t that a beautiful cranberry hibiscus bush in the background?

Buddha’s Hand

Isn’t this Buddha’s Hand the weirdest fruit ever? It really is creepy and cute at the same time! It’s green now but will turn yellow in a few more weeks and should be good for eating. I never eat these but have used for decorations. They smell really nice and citrus-like. Ignore the long grass weeds in the background. They are so out of control, I have no time for it!

Dragon Fruit

I never thought I would like this plant but it is growing on me. It’s ugly and cactus-like at first but now that is has grown in this pot for more than 2 years, it is starting to sprout a fruit as you can see below. I never liked store bought dragon fruit but maybe this baby will convince me it’s a plant worth keeping.

Well, I will end this post for now. Getting ready for a fun-filled gardening weekend where I pull weeds, clean up the yard, and possibly plant some hibiscus.

Summer Blooms

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Rosella’s Dream Lily

Rosella is a beautiful light pink lily. It had three large flowers on a short 12-inch branch, maybe because it is only in its first year of bloom.

Shrimp Plant

This Shrimp plant is very unique and tolerates heat and dryness well. I have seen them grown in masses on the streets. I like how they look so I purchased them years ago to fill my garden. The flowers are soft and feathery and look like shrimps.

China Asters

I grew a mix of China Asters this year and so far I have many beautiful colors. A few blogs ago I showed them in purple, white, and dark pink. I don’t know much about asters but I love how they grow to have so many pretty flowers!

Poppy or Mantisalca Salmantica

I thought this was a poppy but I cannot find proof in my seeds collection that this is a poppy. I used a plant identification App and was identified as being similar to this Mantisalca. I can tell you that it is heat tolerant and has many beautiful blooms.

Red Courtesan Sunflowers

Just a beautiful red color! I love these sunflowers!

Plumbago

I love plumbagos for its drought tolerance and beautiful flowers. It blooms in clusters in the summer. It is great to grow as a privacy hedge since it fills up and out very quickly .

Amaranth

This new amaranth sprouted in the same location that I planted several last year. It must have reseeded. The ones from last year had their leaves munched up by some creatures. These are edible leaves to humans too. Somehow this perfect little amaranth was unscathed. I love red leaves in plants, so striking in the garden!

Daylily

Beautiful yellow daylily to end the blog! Have a great weekend!

The Art of Wanting Less in Gardening

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Recently I read an article on how to curb spending on clothes and other material goods. Let me just say that I have a problem with spending and it led me to that article. As I was reading the article, I thought I should apply those tips to gardening as well, since that also seems to be a problem for many gardeners like myself. I think a lot of gardeners have a tendency to keep buying and planting more plants. Once we get started, we enjoy the beauty of the plants so much that we want to collect MORE and MORE plants!

If you have been reading my posts you may have noticed that I have a lot of interesting and unusual plants. I like to plant unique things and I like to try a lot of different seeds. If you take a walk in my garden you will notice I own a lot of plants. I can’t seem to stop collecting plants and these days I don’t have time to do that much planting and caring for them. So the tips below are going to be my go-to checklist before I buy new plants.

By the way before you look at the list, check out the beautiful flowers that got me in trouble with spending and hoarding.

Dahlia “Fairway Spur”
Plumeria

TIPS TO PREVENT PLANT HOARDING

  • Reduce your exposure to plant catalogs and emails (take your name off their lists!)
  • Take stock of what you already have. Ask yourself, “Do you need another hibiscus or poppy?” If you already have 10 poppies out there, you don’t need another one, do you? Do you have space to put that plant?
  • Wait 24 hours to see if you still really need that plant? Most of the time I find that I don’t really NEED to have that plant after all. Actually, in gardening, I don’t think there ever is a NEED for any plants. It is all WANTS WANTS WANTS!!!
  • Take a break from buying for a week, a month, or several months. If you can do it, and I know it is almost impossible, try waiting a year before you buy a new plant. You will notice that when you don’t buy new plants, you actually have a lot of time to do other things. This also means one less plant to worry about watering, fertilizing, and mulching.
Iochroma Cyanea “Royal Blue”
Picasso Calla Lily

Blog Posting

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This August 9 will be my one-year anniversary of blogging.  My motivation for starting the blog at the time was that I wanted to share pictures of my flowers and garden with friends and family.   I also wanted to share with others outside of my close circle. I know that it takes years and a lot of time and money invested into blogging to eventually have a sizeable following.  Right now, the most satisfying payoff to writing these posts is knowing there are people all over the world who “liked” the blog and are viewing it.

However, I am at a crossroad now where I have to decide whether I want to pay WordPress more money to have special features on my posts or to boost my blog out there to attract more viewers.  It seems that if you don’t have the Business account, your blog gets drowned in nowhere land and not even you can find your posts! 

I haven’t really invested much time and certainly not much money into this project and I don’t plan to in the near future. I may look into other sites to share my stories and pictures.  I think for now, I will post what I normally post for my current followers and anyone else who manages to find my site.  I know that viewership will be very low because I closed my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, so no referrals there.  I hope to use other media platforms to promote my blog further down the line.

If anyone has advice or feedback regarding blogging or whether you think it’s worthwhile to pay extra for the WordPress Premium account, please let me know.

I’d like to end this with some of my favorite asters this week.  These were all grown from seeds. Colors are so pretty and flowers are quite big (2-3 inches wide).

I will conclude with this adorable hibiscus. It is just THE perfect hibiscus. Notice the heart-shaped petals! Amazing!

Baby Succulents

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There are some really cute and adorable succulents growing right now that I wanted to share. It has been hot here in southern California. A lot of my succulents are growing in the half-day shade area and I’ve had to water them at least every 3 days to make sure the leaves don’t get crispy.

Ladyfinger Cactus
Sempervivum Lively Bug and Hens and Chicks Golden Nugget
Sempervivum Mona Lisa
King protea
Sempervivum Suixie from Slovenia
Various Sempervivums

I’m not sure the name of the above succulent but it has the prettiest flowers and petals.

Flowers

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So far the summer here in my neck of the woods have been pleasant.  I know many places across California have had a terrible heatwave over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) but we’ve been getting the high 80s in Orange County.  The temperature have been good to me and my plants.  I am constantly impressed by flowers that keep popping up in my backyard.  In this post are the latest finds this past week.

Heartleaf Four O’clock

These Four O’clocks are great drought tolerant plants.  I hardly watered this plant in our heatwave and it still managed to grow and bloom every day. I love the purple and yellow colors. This was in a container that I inherited from my father-in-law.

Yarrow

I’m really not sure what this flower is but I think that I planted it from seed.  On a plant identifying site, PlantNet, it is suggested that it resembles a yarrow. I think this is prettier than yarrow because of the delicate flower forms within this flower and the baby blue color.  See how there are about three dozen little flowers within this flower? Amazing! Since I am still not sure, we will call this a yarrow.

Kalanchoe

I love the colors of the kalanchoe flowers below.  The yellow is really a very bright and cheery yellow. I forgot to water it a few times and it had some dead leaves and the resident spiders spun webs all around my plants. 

The colors of this kalanchoe are wonderful, these are all my favorite combination of colors. I’ve never seen these colors on a kalanchoe before.

Lemon Aura Sunflower

This adorable sunflower below is only about 14 inches tall but it is such a sweet beauty and perfectly formed.

Anemone

Anemones are so pretty. I planted many anemones late in the spring and so far this adorable white anemone is the only one that popped up and I had it in a pot while the others are in the ground. Strange, I tend to kill things in pots. Sorry, the below picture is a bit blurry. It was the best I had of this one before the petals fell off. I did manage to cut one to put in my vase for work.

This vase has an anemone, yellow alstroemeria, pink and yellow dahlia, and an orange rose in the back

Blackcurrant Swirl Angel’s Trumpet

This Angel’s Trumpet flower below is the prettiest so far this summer. Previous blooms were marred by sunspots but these are just perfect. It only bloomed for a day though. I have it in a pot but it will do better in the ground I’m sure. I have three that grew successfully from seeds and now I am begging friends to take them but no one has room for them.

Rudbeckia Sahara

These reddish looking rudbeckia Sahara was a plant I purchased and the ones below it were ones I grew from seeds.  Maybe the variety is different or the soil environment is different but the colors on these plants are wildly different.  The flowers seemed to be dried and fried, very unhealthy looking. These red ones were advertised to be more orange, yellow, and red colors. I am a little disappointed they didn’t turn out as pretty as the ones I grew from seeds below that.

The two pictures of the rudbeckia Sahara below are the same flower and they were grown from seeds in a pot. The petals became lighter as it aged. I really love the light orange colors in these. They make me smile when I look at them.

Algrostemma Milas

This is my first time growing these Algrostemma Milas.  It is such a cutie!  I love the brushstrokes in the center.  They seem to be tolerant of drought and heat.  So far they are only about 18 inches tall and they are flowering generously.

Purple coneflowers

This purple coneflower is the slowest to grow.  I didn’t know that when I started growing them from seeds. It has been a year now and it finally flowered! It is definitely worth the time waiting because the colors are amazing!  Who would have thought to put purple and orange together on this flower!  It really stands tall and loud in the garden.

I know there is a bit of a blur on these pictures but I can only blame a) on my camera b) on my eyes.  At the time I took the pictures, I had bifocal contact lenses on that made things look kind of clear to me at the time but in reality it is not once I take off the lenses.

Dill Flowers

These dill flowers are the neat, aren’t they?  I love the smell of dill.  I like to pinch off a few leaves to smell once in a while when I’m in the garden.  I am going to leave the dead flowers into the winter, hopefully this will set many more seeds for next year’s growth. 

More Lily Trees

Here are more of my favorite lily trees growing in the garden.  I love their wonderful fragrance.  They are so tall and stately in my garden.  Many of these are about 3-4 feet tall with at least four flowers in bloom. 

That’s all for now! I hope next week I will have more exciting flowers to show you.

Interesting Mix of Flowers

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A few new varieties this week that I haven’t shown before and there are some old favorites as well.

I am what I call a haphazard gardener. I say that because I don’t usually plan where my plants go. I don’t have a garden design plan. I know all the gardening books always suggest gardeners have them but I don’t. I just haphazardly plant them wherever I think I have room for them. Now that is crazy and dangerous so don’t do what I did or you may end up with a beautiful jungle! The worst part of it is I don’t keep track of the names of plants that I grow either. I really should because that would make it easier for me to identify most of my plants. I did try looking up the names of the plants below but a few were in a mix so it is hard to get the exact names. All I can say is just enjoy them for their beautiful colors and forms.

Poppies

The poppies below were grown in a seed starting tray. At some point I had plant labels but it either got lost or the words faded away so it is difficult to know who is who here. This one below is incredibly CUTE with its lavender and white colors. I have never seen one like this before and I really love it.

The bee and its white poppy!

This looks to be the Shirley Double Poppy seeds.

Thai Silk Rose Poppy with its ruffled pink, cream, and orange colors

Four O’clocks

These Four O’clock plants are sprouting everywhere and normally I would oppose such invasions in the garden but these plants produced such beautiful, abundant flowers. Below is one of my favorite colors. I have a bright pink one in my yard too but I didn’t get a chance to get pictures for this post. This was grown from seeds and it has grown so big. The bush below is about 3 feet tall.

Kirigami Ornamental Oregano

This ornamental kirigami oregano is the cutest little thing! I love the different shades of lavender, pink and green. It flowered happily when I had it in the ground a few years ago but after I moved it into a pot it has been kind of lackluster! I was lucky this time to get some nice colors here.

liLY TREES

I love lilies! I’ve had these the year before and they are coming back again this year with double the blooms and height. These have a lovely fragrance.

Nicotiana Lime Green

These are really lovely lime green flowers. It would look great with any groups of flowers in the yard, a nice accent.

Dianthus

Sweet Potato Vine Green

This potato vine is one of the few potato vines that have colors. I love these groundcovers. They have potatoes growing out at the roots but they are not edible.

DAYLILY

Columbine

That’s all for now! I will have some new flowers to share next week!

Vibrant and Unique Blooms

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These past few days there have been an endless amount of flowers appearing in my garden. While some of these flowers are not unique on the internet, they are very unique in my area. I’ve never seen most of these at the local nursery stores before.

My Stokesia Laevis Peachies Pick below just started flowering. It’s strange that this plant is called something “peachies” but has no peach color at all. It’s white and purple mainly. It comes back every year around the beginning of summer.

Another purple beauty is this Liatris Spicata Kobold which dies back at the beginning of fall and makes an appearance at the beginning of spring each year.

This Rudbeckia ‘Sahara’ is supposed to have beautiful shades of burgundy and more orange colors but so far I have seen them in these darker ruby colors. I was hoping to see more salmon colors. The best thing is that it has grown 5 times bigger than the previous year at almost 3 feet tall. I like tall plants to hide all the hard surfaces like fences and walls.

Below is an awesome dahlia and I have no idea which kind it is because I don’t think it resembles anything I ordered. I have had the wrong plants shipped to me several times and I never know the truth until they sprout flowers. It seemed to be getting larger and larger each day. It starts out mostly red, then orange/yellow, and then finally mostly yellow in the end. So far, this is my favorite dahlia.

Another dahlia that I have no idea what it is called since it doesn’t resemble anything I know. It might have been from a mix.

Another gorgeous dahlia in my garden. It might be the Cambridge dahlia. I plopped this one on my desk at work and it cheered the heck out of me. LOVE IT!!!

This Rose of Sharon hibiscus has a great shade of pink that I love. I was trying to buy one shade of purple Rose of Sharon but ended up with 3 – 4 of them in shades of pinks and purples.

The little cutie below is called Five Spots and I am completely in love with it! It’s a small plant and super adorable in a pot. This plant makes me think of God’s creativity and awesomeness.

A must have for your garden is this adenium obesum, or desert rose. I love that it requires very little water and that it has gorgeous reddish pink flowers a few times a year.

In this pot below are some lovely pink impatiens and a beauteous purple and white Blackcurrant Swirl Angel’s Trumpet. I grew these from seeds and they are fast growers.

This multi-orangey colored flower below is a Four O’clock. Strangest name ever but it is super pretty! I didn’t grow this plant but it appeared in my yard a few months ago. I kind of knew what it is so I let it grow. I’m really glad I did because it is a flower I find very appealing in my garden.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fun-filled weekend!