I've also heard the voodoo called "corpse flower" because of the smell. My neighbor has a couple and I can attest to the unique odor of that particular bloom. Hers only bloom for a few days, maybe a week, and then, thank all the gods that ever lived, the smelly old things go away for another year.

Also called carrion flower. I've never experienced them, but I've heard it's BAD!

Just a photo update for my Adenium obesum, more blooms out, thankful it is holding well in spite of the strong winds:

Pretty! I may have to try one of those if I see one at the next show.

Ok, Voodoo or Carrion flower. The bloom is now gone. It's all shriveled up at the top. The pictures were taken 3 day ago and it seems the plant doesn't like sun or heat. I don't think I've ever had a bad smell coming from it. I actually thought it was quite pretty. I'll have to do some research on it now that I know the name. This year I only have one flower. Usually it's 3-5 flowers all right next to each other.
Thanks for helping me identify the mystery of this 20+ year old plant.

Been out with my camera again...can't help it, the morning is so beautiful and I'm so in love with my plants.....it rained last night and everything is so fresh and clean.

I've thought that I do not like the cobalt blue hydrangeas, but set amongst the grasses...WOW! They're so photogenic...

























This is a weed grass, but I love it.......





So happy with my Stipa gigantea.....











Spike Speedwell.....







I really like this wispy little penstemon, it whispers rather than shouting....





These are for the cat people, carolHB can ignore them...LOL...








Just can't say enough about hydrangeas.....







The deer have not bothered my hydrangeas...I'm actually starting to wonder if the constant movement of my grasses could be a deer repellant....

@luckyzl230 there are very good Amorphophallus people here. I grow Giant Yam myself. I will look for their thread for you.

Added: Aroids forum: Amorphophallus and friends

Naturally I do not know how to do the shortcut. Lol



It is large, huge and dangerous to smell.

WOW...the Elephant Yam is super cool!

Laguna Hills Nursery has a voodoo lily which should be blooming right now...they talked about it in their latest newsletter.

Is that the one that gets about 40' high and stinks up the whole neighborhood, or is that at Sherman Gardens?

Looks like the Fireweed is starting in my neighbor's yard. I really appreciate that he just leaves it alone...



I had the one volunteer last year of the Ox-Eye Daisy, didn't know what it was until then, decided to spread some seed...now I know that this is what I see fields full of and alongside the roads...








Oh dear...the first flower of that Impatiens glandulifera...it's do or die time. Those zillion seedlings I showed you from last year, they were from one plant and I see that I have maybe 10 young seedlings out there....but they're so pretty...but how many will I have to weed if I don't pull them now?









I got Snowpeas!

Update on the Patriot blooms:

6/17/16 / whole plant


Scapes on the gladiolus atom: Scapes is the right word, isn't it? I'm having a terrible time getting used to that term.



The front yard is filling in, still a lot of foilage, but the blue pots have white stuff and chinese-forget-me-nots in them (I think - they're all annuals, anyway). Gotta click it.



Just received my Regal Pelargoniums yesterday and got them into 1 gal. pots. I have their eventual containers, but that's too much work until I see how they do. I refuse to call them, or allow anyone to call them g.....ms. I kill those g plants every time I have them. I do believe that "easy to grow" is the kiss of death in my garden. So its pelargoniums for me.

CarolHB, Your yard sure looks better than mine! Love that hosta! I've tried them several times, but they just don't succeed for me.

, probably shouldn't say that, I'm not thankful that your yard isn't looking like you want it to, by any means. I think my hosta is beginner's luck. I bought that other one 'Dream Queen' and its doing nothing, and I don't really like it anyway. Sheesh, I coulda had the blue one. No telling if I'll see the Patriot again in the spring, which doesn't matter. For $7 at HD it can be an annual.

Still not sure I'm "getting it" in the front yard. Altho, its looking better to me now that I've got some light colored stuff in there, and I can't wait to see the annuals. I planted some nigella hispanica 'African Bride' in with the Renegade - the really dark cordyline in the front-front pot. I had received three of them from an email order last fall and they all three died, so I got seed and these are looking better than the others ever did - we live with hope in our hearts.

My next quandary is what to do with the clematis - the vine has now overrun its 5' trellis and is draping back down toward the pot, which is fine, but where do we go from there, I'm wondering. Altho, I'm going to get some wire cubes/cubbies from HD next week to get pots up off the ground - my version of a raised bed, I suppose, and maybe I could twine the vine through and around the cubbies to keep it from rooting in the ground. Must think this through.

Study up on when to prune your type? I can't keep Clematis alive for more than a few years here.

What I understand right now is that since this is a c. ligusticifolia 'Western White Clematis', and I think its aka c. Californica, or something. It blooms in mid-late summer, so should be a spring pruning? Or not, but I'll ask again at the clematis forum and get it straight. I can't find it in the plant db, but it could be there under some different name I suppose - I'll ask about that too. No hurry because who wants to see another pic of a green vine with no blooms?

Virgin's Bower.......
Pruning......
http://treesandshrubs.about.co...

Thanks, Sherry . I've bookmarked that site for future ref.

I just looked at it quickly but did note that it said ALL clematis should be cut back hard the first couple of years......oddly, my friend got a couple at the master gardener's sale a couple of weeks ago and offered one to me, but I already have Sweet Autumn Clematis planted on the back fence that's also covered with mature ivy...they will have to fight it out...and I really had no place to use another, so didn't take it. I love vines, just don't have enough places to plant them. We have one fence adjoining with a neighbor's property and she put it up and wants nothing touching it...yeah, she's a bit OCD...and it's a rental house, she doesn't live there, but....
I sense that she and I will never hit it off....LOL...

Did a quick recon of the yard to get psyched for the day and see which area is today's dig....

I never, ever get tired
of waking to look out the window and see the sun shining through the grasses....I have bragging rights, there are a couple of other people in town who have the Mexican Feather Grass, but none as beautiful as mine...












The hydrangeas are all surprises, they were given to me and I wait in anticipation to see what they develop into...













Peeking Penstemon.....








Salvia rhinosina just starting....





Red Poppy from seedss from piksi in Tx....





This is the year my Lobelia tupas will finally flower!...