So, anybody care to guess what the heck these are? I've been growing this huge vining plant for 3 years. It bloomed last year, and I found two dead flowers on the ground but never saw them. So finally I have several big, fat buds - the biggest bud is nearly 8in. long - and one flower open. I'm puzzled because I thought I'd seen them hanging downwards like big yellow bells on the one at Selby.



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Ok, I'll ruin the quiz for you, it's known by the common name Golden Chalice. We'll see about the "golden" part in a few days. If it blooms for 2 days once a year, it's outa here!

Solandra maxima. Here they are called cup of gold vine.

I saw them all the time throughout the Caribbean..I think they bloom a lot more than just 2 days a year.

Anything that has the word vine attached to it is on my short list to pull up and throw away. You simply can't control them here.

Jim

Well, yeah I think the 7 or 8 buds on there will keep it technically blooming longer than a couple of days.

I'm pretty sure I planted it where it doesn't get enough sunlight so I might undertake to move it when it's finished with flowers. It's draped along the side of my pool cage so it may have been a bad idea in the first place to plant it there. They grow aerial roots along the stems, so it's looking for a nice big, sturdy tree branch to grab onto. I have lots of those.

This vine does get big, eventually but it's been amazingly slow to get going in my garden. I think if I can encourage it up one of my oak trees, it will be happy and so will I.

They will go a bit crazy in full sun.

I'm with Jim on vines, they take so much work to keep them under control. I thought I had eradicated all the passifloras but darn if I didn't find some yesterday. I was yanking on a downed branch and it seemed to be stuck on something, when I looked closer it was a passi holding it tight. .:angry:

A fairly large branch hit my grapefruit tree knocking off about a dozen fruits. Still pretty green and small but I decided to cut one and eat it. Pretty darn good for being unripe.

Mmm, looks wonderful actually. "Gather ye roses as ye may" right? There are bound to be some little rewards coming your way for all your hardships. Even if it's a bit more sun on your garden from the broken and blown down branches, it will change the scene for a while.

I can't walk by these huge Chalice flowers, sorry for the repeats but they're changing color and everything . They even have floofy edges like an orchid, and stripes inside. I'm liking them better




The vine is still a manageable size, so I think I'd better move it this fall, before it gets much bigger.

Elaine, they are gorgeous! I know I have seen them years ago on our travels. Somehow I think in Thailand at a Restaurant garden. I remember liking them then very much too.

Some things in the backyard
Jim can propably ID this one

NOID Double Hibiscus

Adenium obesum, thanx for your help, Ursula. It worked

Huernia thuretii is just exploding with blooms this year

Love that hibiscus, it must like it there, it is huge.
Looks like you have a gazillion seeds on that cycad. Use caution with them, they are highly toxic to kids and dogs. Even the squirrels appear to know not to touch them.

I love your mix of plants!!
Pretty Huernia!!

Thanx. Well aware of the cycad seeds. Interesting that with all the critters we have around here, including our small dogs, no one touches them. But we clean them up anyway

Looks like genus Cycus, the same one that sagos are in. Does it get scale? It looks like an entire flush of fronds have been removed.

Thanks for the tour.

Jim

Thanx.
It does not get scale, Jim. There is a row of fronds below the bottom one that have been removed. They were pretty dead. Looks like this most of the time

That is so strange, it looks like it has a top knot. I have been growing cycads for 40 years but have never seen one do that.

Here are a few closer looks



Getting dark here and the flash went off



Most of those dead leaves are fom a magnolia tree above

Really neat tour of your garden, Ted. You have lots of interesting plants.

My husband calls our garden 'our little botanical preserve' because I always want to grow one of everything. I've been slowing down on other plants since the orchids came on the scene, though.