Sweet, I love Curcuma!

My garden tour was a big success. http://forum.crazyorchidlady.c...

It's a flower park!

We were fairly lazy this weekend in Pennsy, watching Turtles moving around in the water, listening to Frogs, taking some walks/ the Helleborines are budding and "watching grass grow" at the edge of the pond.

In other words a very nice weekend

I just go 'ahh' when I see your pictures of Pennsy, Ursula. That sounds like a perfect weekend to me, too. My DH would go nuts, though. Can't sit still.

What's in my garden today is not enough rain! Everybody's had a few good douses of rain recently, except us it seems! ( a clap of thunder sounds as I am typing . . )

White Geiger aka Cordia boissieri blooms off and on all summer, finally has some flowers down low enough that I can get a picture. It can be a large shrub or small tree, but we haven't decided which yet.


Someone gave me a start of this begonia because its name is 'Elaine'. These cannas have gone sort of wild, popping up randomly wherever there is water. Mangoes, MMm.

Thanks.

Elaine, a walk in "Pennsy" is usually somewhere around 2 hours and goes much over rough terrain. Any walk over just an hour is being very lazy....

You have Mangoes?? Yum!! Sometimes I wonder what we are doing in NJ?

Speaking of mangos, I have them too but I'm sure they will ripen while I'm away and the critters will enjoy them.


Crinum lilies are all blooming.


It seems like my Crape Myrtles were a little late this year.


I'll miss my kitchen window view of the lake.


The Florida native Necklace Pod Plant (Sophora tomentosa) Is doing well. I planted three or four of them to mix in with some of the palm trees.


The entrance to the rose garden has been taken over by the cherries jubilee allamanda.


This Epi radicans is very happy hanging under an oak tree.


Check out the giant seed cone on this cycad Lepidozamia peroffskyana.


Finally, I'll leave you with a picture of my new gardening buddy. Everytime I go into the garden, he comes running and is right at my heels until I come into the house. I think the neighbors must be feeding him. He used to have a girlfriend but the gators must have gotten her.


Jim

Jim, the view from your kitchen window is breathtakingly beautiful! And I love, love the entrance to the Rose garden!!
Nice gardening buddy!

We spent some more lazy time in Pennsy this weekend. Sitting at the pond in the evening we heard some strange sounds and that is what we saw appearing in the pond:

It was of course a beautiful balloon drifting over the ridges, there is a Balloon launching pad at the lake in nearby Lackawanna State Park

Need to add July to this thread's title, Ursula. Or maybe just make it 'Summer' ?
Colocasia 'Blue Hawaii' loving the rain; about a dozen plants in this pot, so the leaves are small. Hedychium 'Dr. Moy' smells so good! Fragrance, pretty foliage, beautiful flowers, nice color. I think this is my favorite garden plant. Did not have time to 'groom' this flower head before taking the pic as I was being pursued by a hoarde of mosquitoes.

The battle for mangoes is over. I capitulated and picked all the remaining fruit, as the squirrels had resorted to dirty tricks. Gnawing the unripe fruit while it was still hanging on the tree! Finaly a shot of Peacock Ginger that shows the flower color better. Curcuma with its pretty little purple flower, this one is nearly done.

Heliconia 'Lady Di' is loving all the rain we've had. One flower has what looks to be a seed developing, see the deep blue color on that shiny dark pod? Red daylilies are on their 3rd round of blooms - they love all the rain, too!

Beautiful, Elaine. Squirrels are sure troublesome, aren't they.

Can't find Ginger around here. Must be too dry

Yep, they are heavy drinkers.They have no shame.

Very nice, Elaine. It is a reminder of what I am missing. I assume the critters have harvested my mangos too.

We just sailed through the straits between Denmark and Sweden and are entering the North Sea. Cool and windy. Berlin was very nice but it would take a month to know it.

Jim

I've been chased in from the garden three times this morning by sudden rain showers. It is now really pouring! You are missing a very cool, wet July, Jim. Hope somebody's mowing your lawn, or you may not be able to see the lake when you get back. I'm not complaining, it has been cool enough to be outside a lot more than usual, and other than the black plague, the orchids are loving all the rain! Everybody's got new growth and I'm beginning to think I haven't been watering them enough in previous summers.

A couple of new things - Hedychium greenii. I grew it last year but no blooms until now. Another nice ginger with the lovely fragrance, pretty flowers and this one has foliage with red on the leaf reverses.


Pinstripe ginger has elegantly striped foliage and pretty flowers, but no fragrance,


I grew this white Plumeria Pudica from a cutting, and it does have lovely flowers and interesting foliage. But Imagine! A plumeria with no fragrance! I'm going to roust it out and move it to the front yard this fall where it will look nice and not disappoint my nose. Fortunately, I think I planted it in a sunken pot, so it will be a snap to move.

Pretty. Too bad the Plumeria is not scented.

Well, yes and no. It gives me an excuse to run down to Lowe's where they've had some lovely scented plummies called 'Divine' on sale.

I can just pop the new one right in where the Pudica was growing.

A surprise this week, Costus speciosus that I had completely forgotten about. It came in a trade at least a year ago, and I stuck it in a pot, put it where the sprinkler would hit it, and forgot it. You can see what a tiny pot it is in, but the roots are well into the ground under the pot now.


My nose led me to Hedychium coronarium, the best scent in the garden. H. greenii is making weird little plantlets on the flower heads. and this strange ginger with foliage textured like corduroy has not bloomed yet.



Blue Thunbergia just never stops blooming and Brazilian Red Cloak is starting another bloom cycle, too.



I've never seen the Heliconias doing so well. The orange ones are opportunists that pop up in the shady border under the oak tree at random, and some of them are 6ft. tall this year with flowers the size of my hand. They love water. Red and white ones are smaller variety 'Lady Di'. We haven't had any rain for at least 3 days, it feels like a drought!

Beautiful!
Looking at these pretty Heliconias, I think I am still on vacation.
I didn't realize Thunbergias also come in blue.

Nice show, Elaine.

Here is what I came home to:


In memory, same tree this spring.


Jim

Oh Jim, this is very sad! I really hope it will regrow!