FlowerLady's Musings: March 2012

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Exchanged vine for Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Rose Flake'

Good morning Folks,

Here it is Thursday already. Our weather has been perfect, although the heat and humidity are increasing, but it is still bearable to be outside.

Thank you Eli and Nell for posting what you thought the two unknown to me plants were. The vine was a honeysuckle, and after researching and reading I decided to take it back. It was the Japanese honeysuckle which is a #1 for invasive plants here in zone 10 s.e. FL. I did NOT need anything that was going to be invasive, and this one is a vigorous grower, plus birds eat and drop the seeds elsewhere, causing it to take over everywhere, and the environmental people don’t want anyone to grow it. I was really disappointed because that scent was so wonderful!!!

I hoped the place would let me exchange it for another plant and they did. I saw a beautiful hibiscus and it came home with me. It is Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Rose Flake'. I found out what it was by googling variegated hibiscus. I think the first on the list was to BernieH’s blog and I was thrilled because she and I grow a lot of the same things. Her gardens are wonderful and lush. You can read about this plant on her blog in this post Roseflake and Snowflake. You can also read about it here at Birkdale.

I really am thrilled with all of these plants and I hope to root cuttings from all of them.

Now, the next one that I didn’t know is Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum or Chinese Fringe Flower. It can be grown as a small tree. I haven’t figured out yet how I will grow it. I may repot it for now, I’m still thinking about it.

You can read about it here at Grower Jim's and at Nell’s. I just found another bit about these beauties by Grumpy Gardener. One of the workers at the garden center said these bloom all year. I didn’t think to ask how big these get, but I am hoping this is the dwarf variety.

I planted the shrimp plant in my shed’s garden. I repotted the white thunbergia erecta into a large pot. I’ll be working the next three days so the other plants will stay in their pots for now.

Thanks again for your responses.

Happy Spring Gardening ~ FlowerLady

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Birthday plants–Fla gardeners I need id’s please

Good afternoon everyone ~ Thank you all for your kind bday wishes. I am having a lovely day so far. I decided against getting another rose bush for now, and instead went to a place that has plants, pavers, garden stuff, dirt, mulch. We’ve passed it several times now and they’ve had a big banner * out all plants $5 *. So, since it’s my bday and also the first day of spring, I wanted to go check this place out. I had some tip $ from my job so used that. This ought to do me for buying plants for some time, especially since I’ll probably be able to propagate all of them from cuttings.

Before I left, DH washed my car, so I sat in the Caravan’s garden enjoying the beautiful day, the blooms and scents, the birds singing and the gentle breezes while he lovingly did the work. I gave him a big kiss when he was done and thanked him, then took off. He’s not crazy about shopping at all, so it was a solo jaunt for me.

I wanted color and scent, and ended up buying 6 plants. Two of them I don’t know what they are. I’ll post their pictures first hoping one of the Florida gardeners will be able to help me, we are down here in s.e. FL, zone 10. This place did NOT know the names of all of their plants. These two happened to not have a name tag on a specimen plant up by the office. The guy inside said he thought this first one was an alamanda. Nah!

This is a sweet scented flowering woody vine.

The purple leaves caught my eyes on this little shrub, then I saw the sweet looking flowers and was hooked. They did say this has flowers all year. I haven’t a clue what it is and have not seen this before.

This Allamanda or Mandevilla caught my eye with its vibrant wonderful color.

An azalea whose colors I love. Now I have two different kinds, George Tabor and this one, whatever it is.

Shrimp plant with thunbergia erecta in the background.

Thunbergia erecta, or King’s Mantle ‘Alba’. I have this in purple already.

I am quite pleased and look forward to propagating from all of these.

Hope you all are enjoying this first day of spring. It is feeling like summer down here, although not as humid or hot as it will get.

Happy Spring Gardening ~ FlowerLady

Monday, March 19, 2012

63 years young on the first day of spring

Good evening Friends ~ Hope you all had a good beginning to this week. It was beautiful down here where the tropics begin. We really appreciate these gorgeous days we are having before the summer’s heat and humidity settle in.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring and 63 years ago a little baby girl was born prematurely by about a month. It is hard to believe that that baby is now a senior. Her body knows it, but in her heart and mind she still feels much younger.

Today she was thinking about gardening, crafting, etc. About how we as humans, always want more and more. With all the eye candy that is out there, all the hype about what we should have, what we should wear, who we should be, it is easy to become discouraged. Wanting more is a disease. Contentment is what I desire.

** A poet once wrote: “As a rule, man’s a fool. When it’s hot, he wants it cool. And when it’s cool, he wants it hot. Always wanting what is not.” **

How much time and energy is wasted by wanting more and not being content with what we have been blessed with?

***

I got way behind with my Take A Stitch Tuesday, TAST, stitches and was feeling burdened and discouraged. Yesterday I sat down and finished the little piece I had started with the Cretan stitch. It was a bear, then came the Herringbone and the Chevron stitch all equally bearish. I work part time, garden, craft, cook from scratch, and this was all becoming too much for me to keep up with. I was all excited, and then got deflated. I felt better after finishing up my piece, and now have week 11 and 12 to do next. I really couldn’t get the hang of the Cretan, Herringbone and Chevron stiches, and it shows in the piece. I may or may not use these stitches in my needlework projects, time will tell. The other stitches were couching, detached chain and chain, and the running stitch.

Yesterday DH went to HD and while he was out he found ‘curbside’ a couple of coffee table frames. When I saw the one and the iron pieces that were part of it I thought of them being added to the caravan. The colors are perfect. There are 6 of these and DH is already working on an idea for them, which I’ll post about later.

The other day we were looking for something and I found these two candle holders packed away from when we had our little antique/collectible shop. Don’t even know how long we’ve had them or where we got them, probably from the flea market we frequented many years ago. One had a chipped leaf, but the chip was resting in the candle holder. DH fixed it. I found these online and they are English Staffordshire fine bone china, worth around $20. They are resting in my scullery window area now. Definitely FlowerLady pieces. Smile

Yesterday I worked outside for about three hours and it felt so good. There are so many things in bloom and filling the air with their scents right now. There are at least 4 jasmines, basket flower, roses, begonias, a bush penta called Panaman Rose, that is sweetly scented after sunset.

Below are some pictures taken in the last couple of days. Can you see the real sweet little surprise in the picture below? I couldn’t believe it. The red flowers in the foreground are the firecracker plant blooms. A real hardy and easy plant to grown. Looking through the gate you’ll see amaryllis blooms, also a reed orchid.

Basil blooms.

Cape honeysuckle and Golden dewdrop, caravan in the background.

Confederate jasmine is just starting to bloom I look forward to this every year.

Night blooming jasmine.

Cape honeysuckle.

Spicy Jatropha.

La Marne roses

Caldwell’s Pink or Pink Pet.

Climbing Maman Cochet.

I am planning on fixing Chicken Cordon Bleu for my bday dinner. We’ll start off with margaritas, and vegetable crackers with cream cheese and topped with anchovies and capers. For side dishes I’m not sure of yet. For dessert, we bought Neopolitans from a bakery that makes these wonderful delights. I’ll take pictures tomorrow.

I’m getting sleepy now, having a hard time keeping my eyes open, so I’ll close this post.

Have a great week.

FlowerLady

***

“Do not spoil what you have

by desiring what you have not.”

Ann Brashares, Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood