Thanks Jo for the info. If I ever run across one and it's affordable, I simply MUSt have one. I've grown Pinocchio before and it was relatively easy. Is the Ho Chi Minh? Lee

We have been getting daily rains and it is wonderful.
Note the Lily 'trellis" for the Morning Glories. LOL.

Yes, Kevin51.

Thanks. Lee.

Lee, neat pics in your yard. They are all very different from here so I can't help with ID. We need Ursula for wild orchid ID. She knows them well! Can you get a clearer pic in the future or is it already gone by? The purple flower looks a bit like ruelia but I don't recognize the foliage.

Janice so pretty and what a great trellis! Miss the tons of lilies I used to have before the red lily beetles arrived. Only a skeleton crew now! I have a lontana in a pot this year. Is yours in the ground?? I especially like your spider daylilies. Mine have just started. So happy.

Kathy,thanks and the Lantana is in the trough planters along the deck railing. So sorry about the red beetles.

We went from rainy season to monsoon season. It was raining when I went to bed last night and it has yet to let up. On the way back from the gym this morning there were cars pulling off of the road because they couldn't see.

Jim

Boo, I'm sorry but I went out to try to get a better pic. of the white-spike flowers but they were just as blurry if not more so. I went to Wiki and saw a clear pic. of Spiranthes and I'd almost bet that's what it is due to the structure of each flower. I've put a red, construction flag near it to keep it from being mowed down.
Indeed, the flowers are in a spiral formation. The only thing missing is that they do not have an odor. Oh, how I wish I had a better camera. Start putting out alms boxes there to help this pauper get a better camera.
I'd call Mississippi State University's School of Botany but they'd probably just blow me off but I'm tempted to write them an e-mail and attach the pic. of the flowers. If I'm wrong in what I think it is, then I'm just wrong and I'll have learned a lesson. Better than calling there, I'd LOVE for a botanist to come out and have a look.
BTW, thanks for your compliments on the yard. As you can tell, it's certainly not a formal one as it wouldn't fit our style. I will be happy when the figs get ripe as I like eating them as is or making a compote which I can freeze. Making it is as simple as eating pie.
Would you be so kind as to ask Ursula to take a look at the white flower and see what she thinks?
Thanks, Lee

Sure, Lee. Ah, what I'd give for a fresh fig.......

You may have anything you wish since I have issued you an invitation to come down WITH your camera and pro pic results. I'll even peel them for you.
Lee

A handsome offer!!!!

Boo, these are the best I can come up with:
Might somebody please help I.D. the white flower. Is it a Spiranthes or not? I apologize for the poor resolution but I've only a Kodak EasyShare camera.




For you, Boo.

You know I'm serious. I'll even peel your grapes.
Lee

I'd say Spiranthes for sure!!

Boo, are you serious. I mean REALLY SERIOUS? Do let me here back asap as now I'm shaking with excitement. L.

Oh, now that is different. Lee, you got a much better picture! This is definitely Spiranthes, congrats!!
Perhaps Spiranthes lacera or vernalis ?
Here are a lot of pictures, perhaps you might take a look and compare?
http://botany.csdl.tamu.edu/FL...

Oh Ursula, your confirming their being Spiranthes has made my night (I'm writing this at 12:30a.m.). I can hardly believe I have Spiranthes PLUS Cyps. In the morning, I'm going to go around with other little construction flags and put by the others I see. I'd guess by just glancing around the yard Fri. morning there are at least ten more.
This feels better than when I was a kid and waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve.
I'll get pics of the others and post. Now remember to remind Boo to start setting up the Alms boxes for me in order to get a good camera like the ones you, she, and many of the others have.
Off now to the link you were kind enough to provide and again thanks Ursula.
Lee
P.S. And please allow me to puff up my chest a little with pride. I know I had nothing to do with their being there any more than I did with the Cyps but I'm very happy and feeling a sense of contentment. Do you think I'm being too prideful? If so, my mother wouldn't have approved.

I would be thrilled to have cyps and spiranthes growing in my yard!
Oh wait a minute, I do! But I had to plant them there!

I'm sure I told you that for yrs. I'd seen the Cyps blooming and thought they were daffodils from an old homestead and never bothered looking until one day I wanted a bouquet of daffodils and was so taken aback with sheer ecstasy, I thought I'd faint when I realized what they were.
I called someone I knew who writes a nature column in the Tupelo, MS paper and told her about them and one of the first things she said was to not let ANYBODY know of their location as thievery might occur. She also told me the same thing about the ginseng.
So, each yr. now, Owen and I count the Cyps and each yr. there is one or two new ones popping up. They are growing right on the bank of the spring which is covered in some kind of moss. Something like carpet moss. I don't know one thing about the names of mosses.
When they bloomed thhis yr. I was in the hosp for surgery so I didn't get any pics. Will next yr. though.

Finding Orchids growing in your yard or just discovering them while taking a walk nearby is a total thrill!!
When we stumbled (truly !) onto our first Spiranthes cernua at our place in Pennsy and then found the first Cyp acaule, we jumped for joy. Heh, we still jump when we discover something new and track the stands year after year throughout the seasons!