Category: Gardening (Page 3 of 155)

I got home while it was still light out yesterday, so I could go out to the back yard and check on my dianthus. All the flower buds were dried up.

I’m not sure what happened. Maybe they got too cold and got burned? Maybe our sudden burst of warm weather came to quickly? I don’t think it’s a lack of water. The soil was moist.

How disappointing. Hopefully it will set some more buds. It’s early in the season still. There’s time…

I’m experimenting with various plants in my back yard to see what I like and what grows here. One plant is a dianthus called “Duchess of Westminster”. I have only grown annual dianthus plants before. This is a perennial, honest-to-goodness carnation. I got it from my favorite mail-order plant place, Logee’s. They describe it as being a good bloomer, and having a strong fragrance. Nice!

I received it in the spring of last year. I planted it in a pot and gave it a nice, sunny location. It grew a little bit, but didn’t flower. Dang.

But the other day I went out and saw this:

Yay! Blooms! I can’t wait for them to open so I can smell them. Mmm…

My neighbors have a plant in front of their house that looks kind of like a banana tree, but it has flowers on it that look like bird-of-paradise.

They’re giant flowers!

Things are starting to sprout and grow here. I think spring is starting. Even my untended, overgrown flowerbed has things blooming in it. Calla lilies! They’re beautiful, but they reproduce like crazy. It makes them seem like weeds to me.

My Vietnamese Violet must’ve set seed when it bloomed, because there are tiny seedlings in the pot.

I’m curious to see if the flowers on these new plants will be the same color, or different. I wonder how long I’ll have to wait…

The orchids in my bathroom just keep blooming and blooming. All of them are on their second bloom spikes.

But wait! The orchid on the far left, the doritaenopsis is blooming AGAIN!

This is it’s third bloom since I got it last April. Outstanding! I think this bathroom window must be the perfect environment for orchids.