California Gardening: Spring Round Up, 2013, 2 by SingingWolf

SingingWolf wrote:
Hi Everyone!

It's been a busy week for us. FIL's 80th B.day is today. I have a few minutes before we need to go to the party. :-)
Sylvia, it really is called a Crinum. It's a plant from Africa. It will over time, develop a stalk. It has clusters of flowers that look like Naked Lady Amaryllis. It tends to bloom in my part of the world in late July or early August. It seems that you are able to propagate them better than me. Yay! : - )
Sami, have you considered verticle gardening? A great topic for discussion during the RU. It's a lot easier on our aging knees.
Glad to hear your computer has been given a thorough check-up. : - )
Please tell your DH, since it appears we'll be having a small crowd, we'll be having everything up here by the house.
Although, a hayride to Grandmother Oak tree can easily be arranged. : - ) She likes company.

Dee, wow, what a nice presentation! How did your plant sale go? I hope you were able to sell as much as you wanted to and hopefully I can load you up with some other plants that you don't currently have that are easy to propagate. Say, it would be the answer to some prayers if you could bring Sami one of those Rosemary plants. I think mine are too big for her space. More on that at the RU. I'm not familiar with the other plants you mentioned but am always game to try new stuff. I really need some hollyhocks. I really, really do. I was planning on going and looking for seed, because I'm hoping to encourage more butterflys to hang out here. It's one of their food sources when they are caterpillars. I am still hoping to find some milkweed too. Sigh. I see another trip up your way in my future Dee. I just love visiting the Butterfly Grove. : - )

Speaking of which, my caterpillars spun their chyrsalis', all except one. I think all of them have hatched out now. It happened so fast! I released most of them yesterday, and put the rest of them out in the gh for the weekend. I did get a couple of photos of them when they first started coming out of their pavilion. Next time, I'll have more food for them to lay their eggs on. I think they hatched out earlier than I expected because of the warm days we were having. Well, I still have one caterpillar left to watch develop and grow. I guess all the other eggs/little cats were older than this one. A friend said that watching my butterflies emerge was a lot like kindergarten. I'm hoping she meant full of wonder, and possibilities. : - )

First photo is of Grandmother Oak. Second is of one of the Painted Lady Butterflys. I tried to pull up a photo of the Crinum, but couldn't. I'm pretty sure I posted photos of it on a past RU thread. Seems like I must have done it the year Sylvia got her Crinum from me. Danged if I can remember what year that was. Maybe she will.

Time to get ready for FIL's party.

WIB~
SW