Archive for the 'Flowers' Category
We bought this orchid plant last fall. It had several blooms on two flowering stems. It looked great at the time, like most orchids do when they are sold to consumers. But after a few weeks the flowers began to fade, and the flowering stems eventually stopped generating new flowers.
My partner then decided that he was going to get this orchid to bloom again. He first repotted it in a larger container with tree bark. Then, he began to fertilize it regularly. Every week, he fills our kitchen sink with water and a dash of orchid fertilizer, and soaks the orchid container in the water bath for several minutes.
After a few months, the orchid began to grow a new leaf. I was amazed, because I have not been able to get an orchid to grow a new leaf, let alone a new set of flowers. It has now produced several new leaves.
A few months ago the orchid began to sprout a new stem. The stem has taken months to grow and generate buds. The buds on the new stem just began to open a few days ago. They look amazing.
September 28 2008 | Orchids | Comments Off on Orchid Blooming Again
This photo is a picture of cockscomb plants (Celosia) that are growing in container in our yard. Earlier this year, a friend sent us a pack of tiny cockscomb seeds that she harvested from her cockscomb plants last year. We planted them back in April, and they are now blooming.
These cockscombs have unusually shaped red flowers and reddish leaves. Our plants only reached about 18 inches tall, probably because they are growing in a small container. But they have the potential to grow up to about 3 feet tall.
We have been told that cockscombs can easily self-propagate and may soon be popping up all over the yard. That’s part of the reason I decided to grow them in a container. I think I can control where the seeds fall more easily this way.
September 22 2008 | Cockscomb | Comments Off on Cockscomb Flowers
Princess flowers (also known as Tibouchina) are very attractive perennial shrubs. They produce beautiful purple flowers from late summer into autumn, and they have attractive fuzzy green leaves. Princess flowers are an attractive front yard plant, because their flowers are so eye-catching.
Unfortunately, princess flowers are also frost sensitive. I planted a few princess flowers a couple of years ago. During a severe freeze 18 months ago when the temperature here fell into the mid-20s (F), they all died to the ground. The plant in this picture is the only one I didn’t pull up after that. It’s growing back now and blooming for the first time since the freeze.
I have noticed that a lot of people in the Bay Area have planted princess flowers next to their houses. The ones planted next to buildings seem to have fared the freezing weather better. Perhaps, warmth from a nearby building helped to keep the plants from freezing.
Princess flower seems relatively easy to grow otherwise. It prefers regular watering, but it seems to be somewhat drought tolerant when established.
I have read that princess flowers prefer full sun. Although, I have seen them flourish in partly shady locations in other peoples’ yards.
Princess flower shrubs usually grow very quickly. As they grow, their branches grow long, lose their leaves, and don’t produce any more flowers. Over time princess flower shrubs can develop too many leafless and flowerless branches, making them look spindly and unattractive.
They really need to be pruned often to keep them looking good. After pruning, the shrub develops new growth quickly at the cuts and starts to fill out again with green leaves and eventually flowers.
September 16 2008 | Princess Flower | Comments Off on Princess Flower
This is another photograph that I took today. It’s a picture of a cape plumbago bush in our yard. It is full of light blue flowers right now. It started blooming in July.
This plant is amazing, because it grows and thrives with so little water. I rarely water this plant, and it hasn’t rained here since February! Yet, it grows and blooms anyway. Maybe it gets some hydration from nearby plants that I do water.
Cape plumbago grows fast and needs regular trimming. It’s an incredibly resilient plant. I transplanted it once and didn’t get enough of its roots. After that transplant, it wilted and died back to the ground. But it regenerated a few months later.
Cape plumbago is frost sensitive. This bush died back again during freezing weather in January 2007. I thought it was dead then. But only a few months after the freeze, it started to grow back yet again.
September 06 2008 | Plumbago | Comments Off on Cape Plumbago
I have not had any luck growing begonias in the ground. Snails always devour nearly every portion of the plant. I have the same problem with dahlias. Snails consume the leaves so quickly as they grow above the ground that the tuber does not have a chance to develop a stem.
A few months ago, I purchased the above-pictured full-grown begonia from a nursery and planted it in a hanging container. I figured the snails were unlikely to get to it here. So far, I have not noticed any holes in the leaves. It continues to bloom and look great.
August 31 2008 | Begonia | Comments Off on Red Begonia
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