Bee enjoying my flowers earlier today

I'm scared of bees 🐝 but I love how they pollinate my plants and I can get seedpods.

When it rains just enough to get the dirt off the shade cloth but not enough to get it off the plants or the floor...




Any summer rain we might get here usually fizzles out pretty quick. But on the up side, the plants under shade cloth are going to get some more light now.

My white moth orchid centre



Steve

ketsui73 said:My white moth orchid centre

• White Moth Orchid (Phalaenopsis amabilis)
• Uploaded by ketsui73

Steve

Cool looking! Aliens are real

GigiPlumeria said: Baja, it takes a lot of patience to grow them from seeds, my earliest bloom was 5 years. I have a few with buds now, mostly first time bloom germinated in 2012. My plumerias 60+ and counting are mostly in pots because they are seedling grown, I have to keep their height somewhat "contained". Also I am in a deed restricted community.

Would love to see your plumeria when it blooms.

Hi Gigi, I am curious to know why you want to grow from seeds ? As per my understanding they are easily grown from cuttings ?

Kaktus said:

Hi Gigi, I am curious to know why you want to grow from seeds ? As per my understanding they are easily grown from cuttings ?

Seeds do not come true to the parent. So when you grow from seeds, especially the expensive rare hybrid, you could get the trait of the parent plant but you have a plumeria that is unique and no one has it except you.

Example: parent plant is
Plumeria (Plumeria rubra 'Ammaron's Curly White')

It's famous seedling is:
Plumeria (Plumeria rubra 'Sariah's Curly Pink')

My seedling nickname Sampaguita's Curly has the curl and scent of both parents but wider and bigger blooms:



Good keeping quality too, these lasted 3 days as lei and smells great!

Plus, when I was growing them, I wanted a lot of them and seeds are the fastest to increase your collection.

GigiPlumeria said:

Cool looking! Aliens are real

Gigi I know what you mean . The shapes do remind me of Ridley Scott's alien in the films 🍿
Steve

Yes!

GigiPlumeria said:
Seeds do not come true to the parent. So when you grow from seeds, especially the expensive rare hybrid, you could get the trait of the parent plant but you have a plumeria that is unique and no one has it except you.

Got it, this is what they did to adeniums, waterlily and gymno miha also, by continuously crossbreeding different varieties...

can not imagine that we have to grow hundreds of plumerias, and wait for 8 years to know the result... salute..

A little froggie has been resting on my desert rose bloom all day long! I didn't have the to shoo it away!


This should be captioned, "a bed of desert rose"!

Introducing "StarryDust", this the bloom of my very own plumeria Plant cutting.



The parent was germinated in 2/2013 from the seed of the pod parent, "Stardust" Plumeria of a famous hybridizer in Thailand. This is a compact plumeria that blooms on short tips. (Note inside of the pot is unglazed clay.)


And as you can see, I don't waste any space. Most of my plumerias pots are used to grow baby succulents. They seem to like each other:

Thank you Tiffany @purpleinopp for the acorn tip!

Looked horrendous on the outside, but the inside is a nice blend of jasper, some other material and chalcedony


This turned out to have moss agate(camera couldnt show it well, but is a transparent chalcedony mass with green inclusions in it). Also the bands are fantastic...




most turned out pretty good...



this jasper one turned out a bit too perforated. oh well, not all of them can

breccia

Nice collections @stefan, did you cut the stone to see the inside?
Quite sometimes ago, I also like to collect some shells, stones, crystals & fossils. But nowadays can not afford the price anymore.

Kaktus said:Nice collections @stefan, did you cut the stone to see the inside?
Quite sometimes ago, I also like to collect some shells, stones, crystals & fossils. But nowadays can not afford the price anymore.

Yes. With a angle grinder and a bottle. Also polished with various wet abrasives for the grinder.

Kaktus said:Nice collections @stefan, did you cut the stone to see the inside?
Quite sometimes ago, I also like to collect some shells, stones, crystals & fossils. But nowadays can not afford the price anymore.

Also, collect most of the stones myself. Rarely buy though, mostly crystals.
Crystals ive found -calcite(vug +cluster)
-garnets(mica schist)
-staurolite
-antigorite
As for what ive found, a lot of jasper, a lot of breccia, a lot of banded calcite(travertine), and some others

Beautiful stones!!

Amazing how beautiful the stones are once polished!