Plants blooming today (Continued)

Y'alls plants are lovely.

My Angel Trumpets are full of leaves - beaitiful looking shrubs, but not a bloom to be seen. Most I see have a "trunk" then branches, not many leaves but nice blooms.
Just planted last year & the original bloomed most of the winter - till the last freeze.

Any ideas why I have a "shrub" and not a blooming "tree"??????

Give them time Qwilter, the first year mine was in the ground it never did bloom, lots of healthy leaves though. This year it had its first flush of flowers. I think they need to mature a bit first. Right now there are no flowers on it.

It bloomed profusely last year. The flowers were bigger than the plant.................I WANT flowers!!!!!!

I've had 2 in pots for 3 years....not a bloom yet. I'm assuming they need to come out of the pots, even though I fertilize them.

Oh, I re-read and understand now they bloomed last year. I found this very interesting on Brugs blooming: http://trumpetflowers.com/info/getting-brugmansia-to-bloom.htm

Sunkissed - thanks so much for sharing that link. Who knew I needed a "Y". I'm going to run out & see if I have a "Y" or the odd leaf to tell 1 is coming. And I'll start stipping those small leaves off the bottom stem.

I may need to plan a trip down to see her plants.

Well I went & looked at my Trumpets. I guess the trunks I have are from last year. No new ones for this year & none of the odd shaped leaves. I need to go re-read the article & see which leaves I'm supposed to strip off.

I found it quite interesting, had no idea about the "Y". We learn something new everyday.

love the pics! i especially love the gerbera and caladium GardenGlory, looks like caladium Miss Muffet

i'm currently trying with this brug cutting. i SO wish i took a picture - two houses in my area have absolutely beautiful jungles of very mature pink brugs under their old oak canopies. i really couldn't believe it. one of those yards also includes humongous elephant ears and all sorts of tropical beauties.

anyway my cutting showed nubs within 24 hours, but it's been a week since then and not much more has happened.

Here's a link about trumpets. Hope this helps. http://trumpetflowers.com/info/getting-brugmansia-to-bloom.htm

I didn't see that the link was already up. Need to go to bed. Goodnight ya'll.

This message was edited Jun 12, 2013 11:57 PM

I'm so thrilled when I have pics to post!!!!

I ordered mimi-hibiscus from QVC. They came with a guarantee so figured I'd nothing to lose. Today the pink & red are blooming. The white & yellow are lagging behind. The plants are ~12" tall and the blooms as big as my hand.
3rd pic is my Dwarf Poincetta (sp).

Way too hot to spend more time out there. Will go out again in the AM

Nice pics!!

Those are really pretty. I think since they came from QVC they are the hardy ones as well. Good find.
I love south florida for their royal poincianna tress, just gorgeous. A dwarf one is great because you can bring it in.

Nice buys Q. We're heading to Sanibel Island for a couple weeks and those poincianna trees are all over there, I hope they're still in bloom when we get there...last year we were there the first week of June, so they might be done blooming now. Where did you find the dwarf tree?

My red buttons ginger starting to bloom again.

I got my original DP from Yolie. It died back in winter. All last year I kept pulling up the babies thinking they were the weeds that look almost like them. By the time I caught on to my mistake, it was Winter again.
Now this year, I still have a volunteer that came up where the original was planted. There is 1 out back & I have no idea where it came from. The 1 that is blooming, I got from David.
I'm not sure how they multiply. Maybe Yolie or David can answer that.

This message was edited Jun 14, 2013 9:48 AM

Starting DPs is easy. After the blooms come the seed pods. Let them dry on the shrub and plant the individual seeds in pots, then when they're about a foot tall plant them where you want them to grow. Sometimes a large bird, jay or thrush, will attempt to eat them and drop them in various places when they discover they're not palatable. I find little ones popping up in strange places too, courtesy of the birds If the pods pop and spill the seeds near the base of the mother shrub, you'll end up with a miniature forest of these things. NOT a bad looking picture when they bloom, but they would eventually choke each other out.

So Sunkissed, if you want some seeds, I'll save some for you.

Have an apricot hibiscus blooming today.

Sure I'll take some seeds of the dwarf. Thanks Q.

Here's a few pictures of stuff that's blooming in the garden today. First is my Passiflora caerulea which surprisingly hasn't been devoured by the caterpillars. They got part of it, but the section at the very end has about four buds on it and this flower. Second is my flowering maple (Abutilon spp.) which I saw the hummingbird visit twice today!! I couldn't get a picture of the hummingbird though - they're too fast and I was dead tired by that point. And lastly is my Mom's Bleeding Heart vine. I take care of it, but she likes it so it's "hers", LOL!

Melanie

Nice blooms, I just got some clippings off Bonnie flowering maple at the round-up back in April, it is coming along really well. I used to have that passi, guess it just died out after a few years. I really liked the flowers on it.

While on the road yesterday, I saw the plant I was trying to identify from a visit to Crowley's that I said was similar to Sweet Almond Bush, the Chaste Tree. I come into this thread to see y'all are very familiar with this cool plant. I ran across a huge bush in Brooksville and brought home some cuttings. The blooms reminded me a little of a lilac in smell, but it has been a few years since I have smelled one, LOL. From what I've read, the Chaste Tree actually has 3 different versions, purple, purple/blue and white.

Yesterday I had more passiflora bloom on one day than any in the past.

First is Hibiscus, forget the name, 2nd is passiflora Betty Myles Young, 3rd is passiflora Lady Margaret, 4th is a cuttings I got from a local school (mexican sunflower?) and 5th was saved from a neighbors trash last fall (NOID plumeria).

Be careful with that Chaste Tree. They're considered a Category II invasive species in Florida.

Melanie

Saved from a neighbors trash?!?!?!?! Holy cow! Good save! It is truly amazing what people will throw out now a days! Beautiful!

Tim, there a many people who just trim their plants in the fall and throw the excess away. I picked two large cuttings from a trash barrel loaded with just this plant. I had I known what I was getting, I would have dumped the lot in the back of my vehicle but I wasn't positive, LOL. I think I got 4 or 5 cuttings going from it. You bet I'll be running by the same house in the fall ;-)

Thanks Melanie, I have over a dozen passiflora and other vines, so this plant should be easy compared to them. My big problem is Brazilian Pepper and the natural grape vines, they try to take over my yard every year. I live next to a bike trail and the county came last year and removed all the nuisance stuff in the adjoining woods...............they're all back. Unless you dig em up or poison those plants they just came back. My sister in law next door has golden rain tree that drops thousands of seeds in my yard and she has the coral vines there too! What I'm saying is I'll take a fragrant nuisance over such a pain like the brazilian pepper.

I just bought a abutilon too, had no idea they attracted hummers! Will have to start some cuttings for my MIL, she loves the hummingbirds. The gulf frit caterpillars are amazing how they will find a passiflora anywhere. I had to pick off several off some small cuttings I have growing. If I put them outdoors they find them instantly.

Darren

Darren-plant you gave me is now 4 feet tall and ready to go into the ground. It's beautiful.

Just got home from Cal. trip to son and fam. for a week. We ate kiwi, apricots, strawferries, watermellon, cantalope and grapes every day and they were delicious cause they were fresh picked. He is in Sacremento Valley and its all agricultural.
Rice fields and walnut orchards everywhere.

Would love to grow some apricots here but don't think they would stand our heat. Anyone tried them in central Fl.?

San Fran Botanical Garden was just lovely. 58 acres in middle of city. Aboretum really had a beautiful assortment of plants. I walked until I couldn't hold up any longer. I am proud of myself. I didn't snip off any cuttings but sure was tempted.
So African section out in gardens had some unusual plants. One I saw was crassulaceae aeonium tabuliform which I looked up on DG and some say its a serpervivum and another said no. Don't care about its name just would love to find one. One I saw was as large as a dinner plate. I like different. Aside of them were some deep burgundy colored ones.
I was drooling.
I know we got rain while we were gone cause yard was so high I had to mow and edge today. Also still planting plants from RU in April. I try to find perfect place where they will be happy and live.
Happy Gardening All, Bonnie

Welcome home Bonnie. Sounds like a fantastic trip. California has some pretty nice botanical gardens. Glad your plant is doing so well. Wait til the blooms start coming, it will, it was grown from cuttings.

Sunkissed, there is a dwarf poinciana in my neighborhood and its been blooming about a week. Beautiful plant.

Darron I have the chaste tree and really had no idea it was invasive, certainly not in my garden, it is just starting to bloom. Your passi's are so pretty. I have the Mexican sunflower, had to dig the whole plant up and move it to my front garden early spring, I never knew it could get so big, but it was crowding out some other plants, likes the sun, did very well on the transplant.

Bonnie, I just replied to you on the other FL forum, I'm not sure about the apricots, but have heard that peaches are starting to be grown in Florida as far down as central FL. We had an apricot tree in our backyard in California, my brother and I grew up on that fruit, just sat up in the tree and ate it when we wanted a snack. We lived in S. California and in the summer it could get up to 100° of course no humidity, no rain. So heat wouldn't be the problem but our wet weather could be.

-Sherri

@ RetiredFlorida; I have a nice purple Chaste Tree (Vitex) that's done well. It needs a lot of space and sun, and I keep it trimmed up to be more of a tree than a shrub. It's gorgeous when it blooms and the butterflies love the flowers. It's the second one I've had in 10 years, the first was at another house.

@ Melanie; I've never had any trouble with it spreading at either location, but maybe it's not so invasive in this part of the state. I will keep an eye on it, though!

I looked on the list and it's the single-leaf chaste tree that's invasive. The other one that they sell everywhere seems to be ok but of course keep an eye on anything that can get out of control. My passion vines would go crazy if I didn't have caterpillars pruning them for me. But still, I pull up some suckers that get in the lawn.

Lots of rain here yesterday and boy, did we need it. I just planted (well, Dad did the work) some new plants and even though they're pretty hardy (coreopsis, milkweed) they need water to get established. Other than that, I've been alternating spraying my orchids with fertilizer and fungicide. I've got a black rot problem that I'm determined to be rid of.

I just got back from my weekly volunteer day at MOSI. It sure is hot out there! Lots of butterflies flying around; I netted quite a few species for the flight encounter. Lots flying at my house, too. Here's a Monarch that was enjoying my new Coreopsis "Route 66".

Melanie

Darren, I was watching a show about hummers on our local PBS station about two weeks ago and on the show they had a shot of a hummer visiting an abutilon. Still, I was surprised to see one on mine! And I saw it visit it twice so it definitely liked it enough to return. I'm thinking of getting another one, maybe a darker red, to really reel them in. Plus, they're pretty and grow well in my side yard where it's a little damper than the rest of the yard.

Melanie

Yes.

It is true for me also that the Hummingbirds adore Chaste Tree, and that the trees have not shown any signs of being invasive here in the last 3 years so far at all...

David

Amaryllisgal I'm glad to hear the Chaste Tree does well in your cooler High Springs.

Melanie, good to know. It can get confusing when looking up stuff on plants without the scientific name. I've got two abutilon's and will keep my eye out for more, I'm always on the lookout for plants to attract those hummers. I've had two visits this summer that we know of. Both times it went to my coral porterweed.

Good to know David, I kind of figured with an awesome scent like that it would be great for butterflies. Looks like it was a fantastic roadside find.

I think what delights me the most is nobody can come along and tell me it is a weed, LOL.

Darren

I saw the hummingbird do a fly by again this afternoon. It was checking out one of my bromeliads. The bromeliad is no longer blooming but the inflorescence is still on there and in a way, it looks like a dark pink sage bloom. But for those of you who think hummingbirds and bromeliads don't mix - here's a picture I took last month of one sipping from a bromeliad! It was right after it hit up my red pentas. Surprised the heck out of me - who knew bromeliads had that much nectar?

Melanie

Wow Melanie that is awesome! Just goes to show, if you got the bloomers you'll have the hummers. Do you have many red plants in your yard? Just curious if they need to see the red/pink blooms before they'll stop.

Darren

I plant mostly for butterflies but I think it attracts the hummers, too. I don't have a real strong red or pink presence in my yard other than the pentas I planted. I do use a lot of native plants and I think that helps. One of the plants they really like is porterweed (I have the native, blue kind); I've seen them fight each other for it. I also have firebush which just started blooming so that may be attracting them right now. I've even seen them nectar from passion vine, too! I added some necklace pod this year and have a purple firespike that should be arriving later this week. I think a good variety and using native plants they're used to feeding from helps.

Melanie

I saw my 1st Zebra bf today on the bright red lantana. Last year all I had were the orange butterflies that devour the Passion flowers.

Jean, I'm assuming you saw the Zebra Longwing and not the Zebra Swallowtail. That's good, this has been a good year for them. The last two years I hardly saw any due to the freezes we had. But they seem to have made a recovery. Those orange butterflies are Gulf Fritillaries and like I tell the guests at MOSI, they're about the most common butterfly in this area. But the Zebra Longwings will eat your passion vines, too (although maybe not as bad as the Gulf Frits)!

Melanie

After the freezes, they really were not around much. This is the first year I've seen a few showing up again. I've been so excited to see them back! I also had a few swallow tails around my parsley plants, so things are looking up!~

I have been having many zebra longwings this year. They love my jatropha bushes. This morning there were 7 drawing nectar from them. Nothing has started eating my pipe vine (calico) yet but usually they eat it down to nothing.
Grrat to see the BF returning.

Bonnie