So excited these lil guys are back. I love taking pictures of them.

Hard to see in this picture but this dragon fly kept hovering over some water in a bucket and dipping it's tail end in and out. Do dragon flies lay their eggs in the water?

My rangoon creeper in full bloom. It browned up during the freeze and was trimmed back to main stems in March.

closeuo of rangoon

Ranggon Creeper seeding from last fall from above plant

Budgielover said:Hard to see in this picture but this dragon fly kept hovering over some water in a bucket and dipping it's tail end in and out. Do dragon flies lay their eggs in the water?

Yes, Ma'am. That is exactly what she was doing. That Rangoon creeper is beautiful.

pot of alocasia macrorrhorizis variegata that I thought died in the freeze.

Thanks Arlene. I'll be sure I don't dump it for awhile

Well, can you believe it's mid July already? This year sure is flying ... it seems like it was just yesterday that I was complaining about our freezing winter temperature's ... now I'm wishing for a little cooler weather! We've been having mid 90's and humidity to match lately!

I just got back from two weeks in California (nephew's wedding) and I sure loved the low 70's and NO humidity out there!!! I experienced my first ever (and hopefully only!) Earthquake during my visit in the San Diego area. It scared the beejeebies outta me! It was a 5.9 and local's were saying that was nothing! I was on the third floor of a department store with a friend and her daughter and the whole building rocked and rolled, we got down the the first floor as quick as we could and outside the building! Local folks were telling us the quake they had earlier in the year (7.8) was really scary and this one was nothing! I will take Hurricane's any day, at least we have enough warning to prepare for them!

Thought I'd share a few pic's I took while in San Diego. Kangaroo Paw, Royal Trumpet Vine and a Hummingbird that would take a bath in the fountain at the rental house we stayed in. I fell in love with this plant called "Kangaroo Paws", it also has the common name of"Cat's Paw". It was planted at my nephew's townhouse and also at the rental house where we stayed. I would see Hummingbirds around it every day! The Royal Trumpet Vine was really gorgeous too ... and the patio of the rental speaks for itself.

Beautiful Lin.

Lin, gorgeous!!!

Thank you! I was so amazed at all the plants blooming in San Diego. I thought we had such gorgeous plants here in Florida but everything seemed so much larger, thicker and more vibrant in color than what I see here in Florida. I guess the San Diego area doesn't get any real cold weather like here in central Fla. The Bougainvillea's were so huge and planted everywhere ... growing as trees, hedges, espaliered on the sides of buildings, along fences. I love the Jacaranda trees too, and hoped to get a few seed pods that I saw hanging from trees everywhere but they were too high up to reach ... I should have borrowed a ladder from someone.

A few more pic's from my trip to California:

I have been to San Diego twice & yes the flowers are beautiful there!! I think thier average temps are somewhere around the low 70s. No really cold weather there, just very expensive to stay there!

Rene: When my husband was in the Navy he had to go to school in San Diego, our apartment was on Coronado but we were only there for three months and never really got to see much of the area. California is very expensive compared to what we are used to here on the east coast, from gas to the price of houses! I loved the weather but not the traffic, and experiencing the earthquake rattled me a bit! I didn't drive while out there, my nephew or his fiance, or other family and friends did all the driving. There's no way I could drive on those freeways. When my nephew picked us up at the airport his mom put me in the front seat ... it made me a nervous wreck. The speed limit was 60 mph, he was going 80 ... and so many cars were flying by us!! I'm not even a calm back seat passenger at speeds like that!

My nephew tells me the temp's there are generally mild but sometimes during the summer they have heat waves for short periods with temp's even getting up to 90º ... not so bad when there's no humidity!

I have just found this forum, very interesting, but do you plant your Amarylis outside, I used to grow them in pots in UK, but the idea of putting them in the garden looks good.

Madeleine, I plant all mine in the ground. I have a lot, too many to put in pots!
When i get a new bulb, I pot it up until it gets established & blooms then it goes in the ground. It doesn't get cold enough here to freeze the bulbs. They do great for me.

Amarys go right into the ground & stay there all the time. No worrys Madeleine---plant 'em!

Thanks girls - now I have to persuade himself that I really do need some amarylis otherwise I will have to have a hissy fit!

Had a couple of lovely visitors today. A pair of Giant Swallowtails.