Happy New Year!
Monday, January 21, 2013
This New Year 2013 (already 21 days old!) is extra special as a few of my very old plants that I was growing all this while rewarded me with some really wonderful and good-sized blooms -- such as the Anthurium acropolis below...
Perhaps the cooler temperature and higher moisture in the air have helped some of the plants to perform better. Notice the white flower in the middle of the pot of black Cryptanthus plants below? Normally the flower don't open so widely but this time round it spreaded out wide and nice.
My Hibiscus moscheutos rebloomed! I thought this plant would not even re-grow. Also the fact that mealy bugs are constantly infesting the plant. I am pleasantly surprised although the size of the flower is very much smaller.
As I was looking out to the garden, I saw a bird feeding (you can't see it from the pic below but believe me it is there, hehe...) on nectar of the Russelia equisetiformis 'Flava' flowers. It's fun to watch the yellow chest and belly bird going for those tubular flowers that are yellow too.
As for my blue gloxinia... though the plant/bulb is over three years old by now, it is still going strong! And it is so nice to see a few flowers growing atop the plant all at one time. Usually on a hot day, the earlier flowers would have wilted already.
Cool green blooms of Crossandra infundibuliformis 'Shamrock' are appearing again. They look like flying in the air :-D
See that bloom from the vine below... it is a Allamanda blanchetii blooming for the very first time. I planted the little vine more than a year ago! Anyway, the long wait is perhaps due to the small pot I am was using to grow the vine.
A new plant (newly rooted!), Solandra maxima, is another 'giant in the making'. If all goes well (fingers crossed!), my old Solandra grandiflora will have a 'soul mate' soon, hehe...
This bright and cheerful Dracaena reflexa 'Song of India' though has not grown much, is still gracing this nook in the shade well. Don't it look as wonderful as a bloom?
Happy New Year 2013 to you and family (hope it is not too late!) :-D
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10 comments
Hi Stephanie, my eyes see green when I see your gloxina. Mine is always a tuber with small green leaves. I'm just not good with tubers. Anyway I've too many bigger plants to worry than this one in a tiny pot.
ReplyDeleteSo lovely! I have grown some of those plants as houseplants, they would not like our Winters!
ReplyDeleteLovely plants. My garden has been shamefully neglected last year. Planning to plant more veggies and flowers after CNY! Looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteHappy New year to you too! You have good collection of plants! ;)
ReplyDeleteStephanie, a very happy New Year to you too. A lovely collection doing well. I grow a few cryptanthus "Earth Stars" I call them, they are so beautiful and tough! I admire that you can grow gloxinia so successfully, the result of your green fingers?
ReplyDeleteStephanie, your blue Crossandra is beautiful! I like the black cryptanthes too. My Gloxinia is still sleeping:(
ReplyDeleteit will be Chinese New Year soon too!
ReplyDeleteHappy gardening to you in this new year!
ReplyDeleteHappy Chinese New Year!
ReplyDeleteI am so amazed everytime I visit I learn a new plant names.
I often get those birds in my garden drinking nectar from my Costus ginger plant. They are Sunbirds - Olivebacked Sunbirds.
ReplyDeleteCommon nectar drinking birds like the hummingbirds.