In Bloom

Currently in bloom

ORCHIDS

Kirchara Tropical Jewel ‘Hihimanu’ - This little guy almost escaped being noticed due to being small and surrounded by so many other larger Catts.

Blc. Lake Murray 'Mendenhall' - I always get "ohhs and ahhs" when I show this one off. It is a really nice, large sized Cattleya.

Diacattleya Chantilly Lace

Encyclia microtos - Showy spray of small golden flowers. Nice sized spray for such a small plant.

Brassavola cuculata. This one is always one of my favorites. I took the pollen from this and crossed it with the Myrmetonia Firefly below. Likewise I took the pollen from the Myrmetonia Firefly and crossed it with this. This turned yellow and fell off after about 2 weeks, but the one below is doing well. Interrestingly, the same growth has put out a new bud....but I'm NOT complaining.

Myrmetonia Firefly. The flowers are small (not tiny), but they are on a somewhat tall spike with lots of blooms. The Broughtonia sanguinea color and the Schomburgkia spike and "curled" petals come through on this brightly colored specimen. Used this to make a cross on August 01, 2010 with the Brassavola cuculata that was in bloom (see above for description). I thought it might be fun to do for a quirky little hybrid.

Phalaenopsis Matou Fred 'Golden Stripe' (I had to include a shot of the variegated foliage with the flowers...pretty cool plant the year round!)

Bulbophyllum 'Wilbur Chang'

Doritanopsis Queen Beer 'Red Sky'

Psychopsis Mendenhall (on the same old spike that flowered when I bought this in late 2008)

Encyclia NOID - I bought this plant along with several other Encyclia hybrids and species in about 1983. After years of abuse and mealy bugs, a little Bayer Advanced All in One Rose and Flower Care and a winter in the greenhouse has seen a major imporvement. It put out two flower spikes [hasn't bloomed since late 90's]. Wish I had not lost the tag (or all the other Encyclias I bought at the same time).

In Bud or Spike!

Laelia anceps - starting to spike so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

NON-ORCHIDS

Red Passionflower - I'm averaging about 2 or 3 flowers per week. Flowers open in the AM and close late in the afternoon. This is pretty cool in the dead of winter.

Tropical Hibiscus (variegated foliage) - Flowers are appearing off and on, but regularly.

Blood Orange tree (in bloom) - This year I've got 4 that seem to be holding at this point. They are about as big around as my thumb at this point (June, 2010). I've moved the tree outside in mid April and it seems much happier outside. I hope the fruit holds this year. I had five or six earlier, but the count was reduced to four when a storm blew through. Here are three of the four.

Clematis hybrid. The flowers are all but gone, but I forgot to post these before they faded. These are on my mailbox post.

Clematis hybrid. Another Clematis that I neglected to post. There are growing up a lattice on my deck.

Guava tree - I never photographed it when blooming, but it had lots of blooms and right now I've got a lot of little green guavas that have set and are growing just fine. Hopefully I can more than one or two like in past years. This tree loves the greenhouse!!!! For what it's worth, I grew this from seed I got on a trip to Hawaii in 1986 (from an ABC store for us tourists) and did a sort of bonsai on this tree for several years . Around 2005, I potted it in a larger pot and let it grow to a fuller size. It always suffered inside my house during the winter so it never did too well.

Brugmansia hybrid - It had a huge flush of flowers and I moved it outside two weeks ago. It has put out more buds and I hope it will continue to bloom. When growing this thing drinks water like you wouldn't believe. The flowers are huge trumpets. The plants can get huge, but I keep mine between five and five and 1/2 feet tall. I have to open up both doors of the greenhouse to get it in or out.

Yard Plants and Flowers

Two different Heucherella hybrids (Heucherella = Tiarella (Foam Flower) x Heuchera (Coral Bells). The tiny white blooms have all faded, but the foliage is the star here.

Italian Arum - this little guy is super hardy. The patterned leaves remain through the winter. It is followed by the flower and the flower eventually fades, but leaves behind a spike of red berries on a club (best description I can come up with to describe it). The berries are long lasting. I planted 3 in my front yard and they bloomed. I decided they were getting too much sun so I moved them to the backyard. Something has come and scattered the berries all over the place. On a bank behind my property there are about 8 groups of these growing under a row of pine trees.

Potentilla hybrid that I got from Home Depot. I like the color of the flowers, but the plant is sort of boring.

July 31, 2010 - I got a very big surprise today. I discovered that a lotus tuber that I bought late last spring has put up a flower spike! This is my first lotus and I've got it growing in a half wiskey barrel with a liner. It's growing quickly so we will see how soon it will bloom. The variety of lotus that I have is Nelumbo nucifera 'Chawan Basu' (if I understand the genus and species of this plant). The flowers should be 4 to 6 inches across. There are also horsetail and the carnivorous water plant Utricularia inflata (a floating plant with no true leaves).

It started opening yesterday (August 7, 2010). Here is a little preview.

And now today (August 8, 2010):

Lotus 'Chawan Basu'

The above is over 2 days. I noticed that it started closing up after photo #1 as the plant got more sun and the day wore on. I think I prefer the more pink color of the flower as it started opening.

Now there are more and more plants and flowers blooming or budding (including my cannas, daylilies & butterfly bushes) and my hardy Lantana is starting to come out so flowers (outside the greenhouse) will be coming soon as well.