First flower ever! Tropical blue, fragrant flowers - Grew these from seed started last June (2016); had them in a 'mud puddle' in my bedroom all winter under a timed light of 12 hours of light a day....transplanted this spring, then transplanted again...Finally got the the first flower - opened yesterday. It's 57 degrees here today!





Now I just have to figure out how to overwinter them. Though I'd be willing to trade some out if anyone is interested. I think I have 10+ plants....

Very pretty! I just brought my tropicals in last weekend because they were all going dormant. I'm not good at overwintering them, though.

I am running late and maybe too late for my suggestion for overwintering. Put them in a sealed box of damp sand. I have had some success with this process. Not all of them survived but most did. I put them in sealed plastic boxes filled with damp (not wet) sand and kept them inside the laundry room.

Need more flowers here.

Sun's just getting up high enough for mine to grow (north side of house). If the critters will just stop swimming in that tub, I may get some blooms this summer.

Took this just the other day.

Our dwarf water lily had it's first bloom of the season open yesterday.

Black Game Cock Iris



Hiding under the leaves

Very nice, Holly. Do you have a thread here that shows pictures of your overall pond? I always like to see other's ponds.

I don't know if I do. I will have to look thru my pictures and start up a thread with pond pics. We have several small ponds and fountains scattered around the gardens.

@MoonShadows I did find a few pic in an old thread Show us your ponds and water features. I should see about putting together a newer thread with my own Water Gardens and some updated pics.

Here is a very old pic of the Birdbath Pond.
The thread "Show us your Ponds and Water Gardens." in Ponds and Water Gardening forum

Thanks for the link, Holly. It must be nice to stroll around your gardens with the different ponds and waterfalls.

Well the gardens and ponds are in a bit of disarray this year. We really have a lot of work here and last summer I had to let things go to seed due to a health issue my DH Ric had early last summer and now it has happened again but earlier in the season. So we are getting a very late start. This year and some catch up work from the year before. In the past we have hosted quite a few Plant Swaps and a few garden tours for the local Garden Club and Hobby Greenhouse Assoc.
Here is an old pic of the small pond area with the cement leaf water fall and the Bird Bath pond in the background.

The work never ends, does it Holly. Same here.

No it never does stop. My son Josh came today to trim all the hedges and bushes. It is a very big job. I went to pick up our Grandson JR now 15 to follow behind his Unc Josh and do all the clean up work. I worked on some of the nearby beds. It was great weather and a very nice time all 3 of us working together.

Well this was a surprise this morning. A couple of years ago I had a Chromatella in the pond but for some reason it eventually struggled and I removed it and put in a tropical lily on that end of the pond. There has been a pot of hardy Wanvisa on the opposite end for a few years. Wanvisa has been blooming well this year and when this bud came up from that pot I expected it to be a Wanvisa flower. It looks like another Chromatella to me. I can only guess that this grew from a seed that somehow germinated in the Wanvisa container. What do you think?

I think it is a beautiful color

, me too.

ardesia said:Well this was a surprise this morning. A couple of years ago I had a Chromatella in the pond but for some reason it eventually struggled and I removed it and put in a tropical lily on that end of the pond. There has been a pot of hardy Wanvisa on the opposite end for a few years. Wanvisa has been blooming well this year and when this bud came up from that pot I expected it to be a Wanvisa flower. It looks like another Chromatella to me. I can only guess that this grew from a seed that somehow germinated in the Wanvisa container. What do you think?

Beautiful!