Sunday Morning Stroll

Just a few shots from my backyard this morning.

And this just happened :-)

 I used to keep my succulents on this but they were getting way too much water from the orchid run off. So now I have my pretty pots all together!

 Purple everywhere!

 Succulents are now back outside and lined up against the screen porch for protection

 I had them here once before and they did fairly good as long as I don't forget about them

 Each side of walkway. I have a grapevine on the trellises but the caterpillars found it.

 The spider plant started in a pot years ago then the pot cracked and it rooted into the ground. This year I separated it and have it hanging. Has created three aerials since the change!

 My end-of-season sale purchase Vincas. Nice pop of color.

The bromeliad border just finished blooming. I added coleus for color.

Back To The Blog's Gardening Roots

I started this blog with the intent of it being a backyard gardening blog. That is evidenced by a number of other gardening blogs I had linked to 'share". But, because family member far away were reading it and hadn't yet found FaceBook, it turned out to be a life activities blog. I would like to change that now and get back to my gardening roots with sprinkles of foster dogs and life events. So, here's my backyard walk though this morning.

My giant dendrobium? (tags been gone for years) has a  - 6 bloom spike although it's bent from touching ceiling of screen porch 

This one is called the upside down orchid

Bromeliads galore at my house. This one was part of a living bouquet received when Jerry's mother passed in 2014.

Phalaenopsis from the live bouquet when Marge passed.

Peace lily - a potted plant from my step mother's funeral (2006)

I've never figured out what this plant is. tiny blooms directly on the leaves.

This is my deciduous dendrobium that everyone thinks is dead. Even I have thought it was dead a few times but, as you can see, here it comes for 2018!

We haven't done any maintenance on the planters yet and they were looking pretty sad until the rains. Now if it would only stop raining long enough to fresh them up for the season.

I thought the elephant ear were dead this winter but with the rains they have returned!

We used to have grass on this small strip of yard. Then we planted a tree, cut down the tree, planted it (no sprinklers here due to walkway installation), unplanted it and now it remains I dunno what. Usually the ladder is not there. Jerry was using it to trim the palm. So, I went thrifting and painted picture frames to give the area some color at least until we decide what to do with it.

Broom border

Bleeding heart vine on the fence. The gate really - not a great spot.

The weird from cousin Erica. Shocking how heavy that thing is. I think it is made of concrete.

This area of pots held much more delicate plants. Can't wait to get into refreshing them. 

Hopefully someday I will have the whole patio bordered in liriope and oyster plant. 

Green Thumb Sunday

I haven't been in my garden much lately so there were a few surprizes for me when I went out there today :)

My Crinim Lily pup is doing very well. When I moved the mother plant a while ago and this little fella fell off of the main stalk. I planted it under the shade of the lime tree. The first year it wasn't too sure it wanted to survive but now it is growing enough to where I need to consider a long-term spot om the garden (it gets BIG).

Remember this post? This is the same bromeliad and it is blooming! I took another shot of the bloom from a different direction and an update of it's pup. I guess I should have figured out that it was going to bloom because of the emergence of a pup.

Remember my ghost orchid? The one that has no leaves and blooms directly on the roots?

Don't get too excited, it's not blooming but boy has it grown this year! It was a (legal) seedling when I bought it a couple years ago and it should be 3 - 5 years old before it blooms if I recall. I stress legal because it is a protected plant. It does have some strange thing hanging from the center that made me wonder if it was a tiny bloom I missed.....probably just a failed root. I would be very disappointed to learn I missed it's first bloom :(

My staghorn fern had only two leaflets when I bought it. It was growing quite thick but now, with the summer rains and a new spot in the yard, it is so happy it is growing a long leaf.

One of the broms from the Green Thumb Festival, I believe.

Pool garden - out of control AGAIN. Not safe to walk around the pool.

ANd the grand finale.......I was trimming vines last weekend and was ambushed by bees. I forgot all about the trimmers that I abandoned as I ran from the bees. They were still hanging on the vine. LOL