Water chestnuts might be easier - I have some starts if you want 'em? I'm growing them in my water garden out front.

You'd get a better return on them at the Farmer's Market in the fall, too.

Rice is a lot of work and the skeeters love to breed in rice fields. I vote for the waterlilies and lotus, the grow by themselves and you can watch them bloom from the bug free indoors.

Oh yeah, there is that beautiful yellow lotus Nelumbo lutea
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/nod...
that is (sort of) a native . . . the flowers are fragrant and it gets to be 6ft tall. Click on some of the images on that link above - spectacular.

So . . maybe start it in the lake in front of the neighbors' house that you don't like so much?? That way it won't obscure your view of the lake, at least for a year or two.

Normally my Max tenuifolia blooms all Summer with single blooms, this Summer the plant looks actually happy, it is blooming a lot better. I had restarted this one a couple of years ago.

I never realized the native lotus they got to be 6'. There is a pond full of them in a nearby wildlife preserve. From the road they are beautiful but I never saw them up close and personal to note the height.
How about water cress or water chestnuts, they would stay low.

Melissa, you will do fine with your Vanda assignment!

It's about time to toss in the towel here. It was raining when I went to bed last night and I woke up several times to pounding rain and thunder. When I got up at 6:00, it was pouring. I drove in heavy rain to the gym, dodging down trees and flooded streets. I came out of the gym to more rain and flooding and it continues as I type this. South Tampa is on the news with major flooding as is Pasco County, just to the north. We are still above water but not by much.

Jim

That's just terrible, Jim. Is the low pressure cell going to become a tropical low or a tropical storm (for y'all, it probably feels like it has already)?

This is crazy weather and it surely will stop soon!

Welcome to life on the Gulf of Mexico.

Only a few that I haven't posted

Ansellia africana (dark form) peeking out from behind Epi radicans


Bc. Lisa Charmichael 'Rasberry Sunset'

Well I can't find the last one yet, so I will post it later.

Both are very pretty, Carol. Good Growing.

Jim

Aha! found the last one. This is Den. polysema. Definately different!

That sure is an interesting and different form, Carol.

I love that orchid. Your picture shows the lip still closed and it is a lighter color than I have seen. This is the picture from OrchidWiz:


Jim

Neat!!!
Carol, they are pretty! I always like the Ansellia africana.

I am caring for a bunch of the Vandas from the MBG, because they don't have enough staff to devote to the daily care and fertilization that Vandas need during the summer.

So here is the before picture of the Vanda Hospital. It took over an hour to hydrate the roots to green.


Here is after I cleaned, trimmed, and re-hooked them.


And here is a lovely bloom of Papilionanda Patricia Low that decided to reward me by opening today after I fertilized with seaweed and Epsom salts.

Thanks to these orchid forums, I figured out a long time ago that Vandas will not succeed in So. Cal. I see them at the shows now and then, with the vendor standing by with a spray bottle. Even those that live right on the beach can't keep them hydrated enough. I suppose if one had nothing better to do, they could try the vase method, but that's not me. I'll just drool over yours.

Very good job with the Vandas, Melissa. Your lovely Papilionanda Patricia Low used to be a Vanda, didn't it?

Jim

Jim, Re. Den. polysema, I think mine is not getting enough sun. Our mornings have been overcast/ cloudy, and there are too many leaves on the roof . Also this is it's first bloom. leaf blowing, and pruning are trying to fit into the agenda here, but it's one of those "chicken or feathers" kind of months.