Archive for the 'Flowers' Category
We have three orchids that are growing indoors in pots. Initially, my partner was feeding our orchids with a 20-20-20 water soluble orchid fertilizer every 7-14 days. He would add about a tablespoon of the fertilizer to a water bath in our kitchen sink and soak the pots in it for 5-10 minutes. The orchids were growing slowing and generating flowers.
About 4 months ago, I learned that the 20-20-20 fertilizer tends to stimulate new growth and that an orchid bloom fertilizer will be more likely to simulate flower production. So I purchased an orchid 6-30-30 water soluble orchid bloom fertilizer. I started adding half a tablespoon of the 20-20-20 fertilizer and about half a tablespoon of the 6-30-30 bloom fertilizer to the water bath before soaking the orchids for about 15-30 minutes. I am now fertilizing/watering them every 2 weeks.
Since I started giving our orchids the bloom formula and soaking them for a longer time, our orchids have been generating many more flowers. Our white orchid in the above picture started growing a new stem of flowers off of a flower stem that has been blooming since March. It now has over 20 flowers open at once. The first flowers on this stem that opened in March (see my April 11 post) are still open and show no signs of wilting yet.
July 05 2009 | Orchids | No Comments »
The cannas I planted in our yard a few years ago are flowering again. We are growing red, yellow, and orange cannas. It’s nice to have perennial flowers like cannas in the garden that don’t need to be replanted every year.
Our cannas have grown back year after year with relatively little care. Cannas need watering every few days during our dry season, when I water them with our automatic micro-spray watering system. They also need to be cut to the ground in the fall after bloom. Although, I haven’t ever fertilized them.
Cannas tend to multiply over time by producing new rhizomes. Although, our cannas haven’t spread very fast, and they haven’t been invasive. One can dig up the rhizomes and separate them every few years. The yellow spotted cannas in the first picture above were given to us by a friend who had too many of them.
In our climate where the soil never freezes, I leave our canna rhizomes in the ground over the winter. They survive our occasional frosts and dips into the 20s F without any damage. However, I have been told that in climates that have much colder winters, the top several inches of soil freezes. In these climates, cannas need to be dug up and stored inside in the winter or planted next to a building where they won’t freeze.
June 28 2009 | Cannas | No Comments »
A few years ago, we had a large Charles Grimaldi brugmansia growing in our yard. Every few months, it was full of hundreds of fragrant yellow flowers. Then, in January 2007, we had a hard freeze. The temperature fell into the 20s F for several nights, and our brugmansia died to the ground. Here’s what it used to look like: 7/14/08 Brugmansia post.
Some of the roots survived, but it didn’t grow back right away. Several months later, the roots started to generate a few new shoots. After surviving yet another freezing night in the 20s last January, those shoots have now grown to about four feet tall and are blooming for the first time. It’s great to have it back again. When the sun goes down, we open our kitchen window, and we can smell the flowers inside our house. The flowers have a very unique tropical fragrance. This time I won’t let it grow too large, so that it will be easier to cover during freezing weather.
June 21 2009 | Brugmansia | No Comments »
The hydrangeas in our yard are blooming this month. I have always loved hydrangeas, especially the ones that have blue flowers. For the past few years, we have attempted to get our pink bigleaf hydrangeas to turn blue by feeding them aluminum sulfate. We have not been successful. But after a few applications of the aluminum sulfate this spring, the hydrangea in the first picture now has deep purple flowers. Last year, it had pink flowers.
We did not apply aluminum sulfate to two of our hydrangeas. Their flowers were lavender colored last year. This year, their flowers are a light pink color. It seems that without the aluminum, blue or lavender bigleaf hydrangea flowers tend to fade to pink over the years.
We also have three oakleaf hydrangeas. The second picture shows our oldest oakleaf hydrangea with its white flowers. I like oakleaf hydrangeas. They don’t need as much water as the bigleaf varieties, and they usually don’t wilt in hot weather. The flowers of the oakleaves are not as spectacular as the bigleaves, but the oakleaves do have beautiful leaves that often turn red in the fall before falling off. Also, oakleaf hydrangeas attract lots of honey bees.
June 21 2009 | Hydrangeas | No Comments »
I took these pictures in our yard yesterday. In the first picture, our orange tropicanas are just starting to bloom, and a red gladiola is blooming behind them. The second picture shows one of our hydrangeas just beginning to open.
June 08 2009 | Cannas and Gladiolas and Hydrangeas | 1 Comment »
Our pole beans have now completely covered the 5-foot tall wire fence I erected for them last March. I love this fence structure, because it is strong enough to support the weight of the beans. I made the fence using two wooden posts and a steel wire frame that is used for supporting concrete in construction. But perhaps I should have made it taller. The vines are already 8-9 feet long.
This photograph is a pink climbing rose called America that I planted as a bare root a few years ago. I love this climbing rose. I have planted several climbing roses including Cecil Brunner and Blaze, but this one is my favorite. It has done really well in our yard. It produces lots of beautiful pink flowers, and it has not gotten any black spot or mildew diseases. It grows a moderate amount, but it’s not too vigorous like Cecil Brunner. I got so tried of pruning the numerous long thorny vines of Cecil Brunner, that today I pruned two of ours to the ground, and I plan on uprooting them next weekend.
May 31 2009 | Beans and Roses | No Comments »
The star jasmine growing up one of our side fences is in full bloom right now. The fragrance of its white star-shaped flowers is exquisite. The flowers have a wonderful sweet smell that pervades the air. We often open the windows near the jasmine fence so we can smell the fragrance from inside the house. The jasmine growing along this fence has 2-inch thick trunks that must be decades old.
Jasmine is a great plant to grow along a fence. However, once jasmine gets established, it grows very fast, like ivy. When we replaced this fence 3 years ago, I cut about 2/3 of the vines off to make way for the new fence. Within two years, it had grown back completely.
Jasmine really needs to be pruned severely every year to keep it in check. Our Jasmine grows quickly up the branches of our nearby cherry tree. After a few years without pruning, it almost completely covered the tree with vines, blocking out most of the light to the tree’s leaves. Now, I cut off most its new growth each fall.
May 31 2009 | Jasmine | No Comments »
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