Green Thumb Sunday on Tuesday

OK, I am not ready to share photos yet, but instead of doing a bunch of things I need to be doing, we have been doing something else we need to do. When will the to-do list be finished!?!

Our backyard was a overgrown jungle. I like it this way except that you could no longer walk around the pool and the dogs were having a hard time finding a potty space so...................we spent many hours over the weekend and yesterday working on cutting it back. But, better yet, we had two professional tree trimmers come help with the really big stuff.

I want to finish up before I share photos. The "before" photos are a few posts back and the "during" photos are in my digicam. Still working on the "after" photos. Hopefully we can call it done (or at least as done as it will get for now because I've learned you can work FOREVER in a Florida garden) next weekend and share photos.

It's OK friends and family. You can come over again. You won't be shoved into the pool by plants!

Green Thumb Sunday - Palm Seeds

Once again I mislaid the thingy that charges up my digital camera so I was without images all week. I took these photos in my backyard after I saw a bunchof palm tree seeds in the jacuzzi. I hadn't even noticed the beautiful seed pods hanging above until discovering them on my level - the ground. LOL. Should be some very happy squirrels soon!

Oh - click on the images to make larger so you can actually see the beautiful seeds.

Green Thumb Sunday

Today I decided to take another look at gardening in commercial venues. In an earlier post I photographed entryways. Today, I have chosen a nearby industrial park.

Love the large date palm tree. There is also a nice example of a crepe myrtle behind the palm.

A an old oak next to a parking area in this complex. See the picnic table in the background. I guess workers can come out there for lunch, smoke, etc.

The view from the table. Law requires that when building creates impervious surfaces they must also create a solution for urban runoff/stormwater. Could be a ditch in some cases but around my house it is usually a retention pond. This one is so big and mature with plants that perhaps it is a natural one.

Photos above and below are of the same area - view from the picnic table. I got close but then decided it looked a little gatorish for me alone.

Green Thumb Sunday

Hibiscus in my favorite shade of pink

My one and only tomato in my Topsy Turvy

Spider plant is doing awsome - making lots of little plants

Border is filling in with bromeliads & heliconias

Bromeliad with baby brome

One of the new broms from Green Thumb Festival and this one has been having trouble getting rooted and I've knocked it out of the ground a couple times :(

This is popping up in my brom garden and I can only assume it is a brome

Staghorn ferm suffering a little from the heat

Anthirium blooms look good but the plant is showing a little stress due to heat

Shrimp plant could care less about the heat

Dendrobium bloom in the key lime tree

And another

Remember the pool garden border I cut back a few weeks ago - it's back

Never got these vincas planted but they seem happy anyway!

Green Thumb Sunday

Perhaps someone can help me identify my mystery plant. I bought it from a lady who has a sale from her yard everyyear (cuttings) but they aren't marked. This plant completely disappears each winter and i forget about it and if I do remember that it is there, I wonder if it has died. Then *poof* it shows up again and blooms! The blooms are small, at the apex of the leaves,a nd look like small orange orchids. It's a shade and water lover. Any ideas?

Green Thumb Sunday

I took all these garden photos at night. I wanted to see the changes to my garden after all the rain during my abscence but it was dark and I couldn't see much (except the orchids on the screenporch, of course) so I took photos with my flash and was able to see my plants in the photos. I got all wrapped up in the runaway vines in the dark, LOL.
My Dendrobium (Nobile) is a dependable bloomer each year. And, every year I believe I've killed it because it drops it leaves and looks like a goner for months before I start to see new leaf stalks emerging and followed by blooms on the old stalks. I'm noticing some of the stalks have deteriorated and am considering cutting them off - it seems as if the blooming is on the previous year's cane only.

Encyclia Tampensis is very impressive this year. Look at all those bloom stalks and how loooong they are! The best year ever. I was excited last year because it had 15 stalks, although I broke off 2 of them, but this year is unprecedented even though hubby broke off 1 stalk. I bet they open today.....will update if so :)

Paphiopedilum also called lady slippers. When I bought this 4 or 5 years ago I was told it would have a single bloom. This is the 3rd year it has had multiple blooms. Truth be told, the flower is a bit more impressive on the years with a single bloom - bigger, deeper colors. I love the mottled leaves of this plant so I love it planted in it's tall pot (not a typical orchid pot) even when it is not blooming.

Another Native orchid....some type of Encyclia. First time it has bloomed for me; however, it's a newbie, somewhat. Teeny, cute little blooms.

One of my favs - this dendrobium is a prolific bloomer and beautiful color. My lousy photography doesn't do this plant justice.

When I was gone it rained and rained in the Tampa area and I came back to see that my neighbor's vines had crept through her hibiscus (that hangs over our fence and helps create some shade for my plants) and worked their way across to my Tampensis - one doesn't mess with my Tampensis! Actually, one of the vines is the flame vine that my hubby loves and the other is a weed :(

This is the view from inside the arbor looking toward the backyard. Everything is so filled in and lush even though I was only gone 5 days!

A pretty little photo showing my Tampensis, Phalanopsis, Oncidium, and some bromeliads in the ground.

The turn of the walkway. I had to have something textural there to soften the harshness of the turn of pavers. Who knew you could grow spider plants outside? I've discovered that the babies attach their roots to the ground and reestablish.

The green with white stripe brom on the right is one of my new ones from the green thumb festival. The dark one on the left is part of a mail order I did a year or so ago. It has grown BIG and has one pup (you can see one of the pup's leaves to the left and top of the mama plant).

Despite all the rain, my staghorn had a couple brown leaves. It gets a little more sun after moving it from the lime tree so I believe it needs a tad more water. Hubby didn't water it while I was gone but the rain sustained it.

The new brom border - this was the area I really wanted to see in the dark. They are all alive and well but haven't seen growth yet. I am so impatient, LOL.

The brooms and heliconias in this small border were whimpy before I left because it had been so hot and dry. Things are looking better now. I still need to get that Japanese honeysuckle planted in the ground............

And finally, my topsy turvy tomato. Apparently the rain didn't penetrate. I don't like vegtable gardening anyway, LOL.

Green Thumb Sunday

Here's what's happening in my garden on this beautiful Mother's day.

Only one or two flowers left on this little mini

My new orchid is still blooming despite the change in address

Two new blooming spikes. i finished

Red vanda looking good

Brown vanda looking good too

Hot pink dendrobian just keeps on tickin!

My topsy turvey tomatoes are still alive!

Bouganvilla is crawling across the roof - not good.

Phalanopsis - this one looks like porcelain

This phal is as loaded with blooms as I have ever seen one.

This nobile type dendrobian is getting ready to bloom on the old canes

Looks like we are going to have two bloom spikes on this one

And finally, the real show stopper. I can't wait to see all the blooms on this fella. Can you believe all the spikes? Wow.