Thanks Marcia,he's a doll!
Jungles growing,temps will be close to 100* mark all next week,the growth will really grow now!
Were not in Kansas anymore!!!! Toto!
Yep...sure will! Hot here too! Love it!!
Mexican yellow bird of paradise in flower,with lots of buds coming on now,already approaching the 7ft tall.after dying back to 3to 4 ft from this hard winter.
Look how red and long the stamens are on it this year,very pretty,just wished it was fragrant!!
Standing in front of the fountain looking towards the driveway!
Standing in front of the driveway looking back towards the fountain area.
Standing on the sidewalk in front of the porch,looking towards the driveway and street meet.
Finally getting some flowers on the bow tie vine.
Xanthosoma are really starting to get big!
Toto is tooo cute. Is that a greenman your arch??
My baby jungle : )
Your jungle looks to be growing quite well also!!
Thats my shaman for good luck when you under him!!!
aahhhh very cool! Since your answer I have been returning my garden clippings to the ground makes sense to me!!
Just the way nature intended it too!!!!
Over the years my soil is where you can run your fingers thru most of it,by returning everything organic right back to where it grew!!
Bubba - a gecko is a type of lizard. There are well over 1,000 types of geckos - some are very, very pretty. Some have some really nasty characteristics like spewing a stinky mass at their predators. All have really cool feet that allow them to climb up slick walls and walk across ceilings and other Cirque du Soleil type stuff. Ever see the GEICO commercials? That little cutie pie was a gecko. They are considered good luck probably because they eat insects and most of them have no bad habits so are pretty good house critters. By eating the insects that carry disease, the geckos probably kept some folks from getting sick while others, sans geckos did. Hense the "good luck".
Here are my too boys carrying on a conversation with a gecko on the wall above the window.
Here is a close up of the underside of a gecko, with a pretty good view of the feet.
The picture is wonderful, Sherrie. We have only seen geckos the last three years, not so coincedently when became organic. The gentleman that USED TO exterminate for us says he is always amazed at the people that call and want him to get rid of the geckos. The ones I have seen are no bigger than 1 inch. Hoping they will get larger.
How's it going, doll.
PK
Your pictures are wonderful Don! Love that yellow BOP!
Thanks Marcia,just wished it had fragrance to go along with it's beauty.
Chrisiti,would you please catch me about a dozen or so,and send me some to put around my pond area!!!!LOL
I've probably seen less than a dozen, Don. They can really run and get away before I get a good look. I have frogs around my pond but haven't seen a gecko there...yet. I keep hoping.
Christi
Here's my EE Island
Grey stripped one is Alocasia Argentea
I'm working on the jagged edge one.
This message was edited Jul 24, 2008 4:12 PM
The other end of the Island
Wow Randy I like that!!!!
Can you name them for me?
Is one a bip,and the other a sarin?
Randy - very cool! Why do you call it your EE island? Most of what I saw isn't taro...
Yokwe,
Shari
I call it Ear Island really...up, down...it's an ear shaped leaf- It sounded better than,
AlloCallo,Taro Island, Allocasia, Collocasia Island...cool shapes and color leaf Island...Yeah..none of those rolled of my tounge quiet like EE or Ear Island..
the stripped grey one is zebrina..or something like that..
there are some philodendrum in there too.
I need to look at tags on them, as I don't know the names right off hand..On the the walkway side there are Hilo Beauties
I'm not sure what the serated one is...it is different than other serated ones I have, in the very arrow head shape. I've not seen any others like that one recently. The other I have is more rounded, and one that I see more often.
And here is a rare palm tree....called the junk palm tree..
When items of decoration and lighting wear out I save the parts..and end up with something like this. I made it this morning, for the plant swap I'm hosting next weekend at the house...Put rope lighting up through the base, the wicker balls were from another decoration..I stuffed them with led white lights..and the leaves are left over fake plants I use to have in the import store -..
Cool tree!!
Send it to me after the party ; }
Then make another one and send it here. LOL
LOL>..
Don, Toto is adorable! Love all of the garden pictures everyone!
Randy, love your tree! Very creative as always!
Thats a real Houston native palm alright!!!!LOL
You got that right! Totally original!
sigh....some people have ALL the talent.
Hello, everyone.
RJH, that palm tree is quite unusual. If I ever get around to take that tissue culture course I have been wanting to do for years now, I would love for you to send me a wee snip of that one so I can propagate it.
Now that the house is slowly metamorphising into a home, I am looking to start gardening again. Beds have to be dug, plants have to be begged, borrowed but never stolen. I can get back into the swing of things at last.
In other news, I had a bad day last Wednesday. I woke before the crack of dawn as usual. I went into the kitchen and made coffee. While that was dripping, I went for a shower. Meanwhile, the coffee pot had not been inserted correctly into the coffee maker. The coffee and the grounds ended up everywhere on the counter but narry a drop in the pot. I hate major cleanups first thing in the morning.
Then, later on in the day, I dropped my digital camera on the ceramic tiles. It bounced 3 times and looked unscathed. Well think again. When I turned it on, I found out it no longer focused. I sent it back to Olympus for an estimate. I love that camera and if it would cost just about the same amount to replace it as to fix it, I'd rather they give it the grand maintenance package. Then, when it returns, it would be business as usual.
A bit later on in the day, I found out that my Visa card was missing. I quickly called Visa and found out that it hadn't been used. We tried to find it at home without any luck. I cancelled the card. They'll issue me another one. Thirty minutes after declaring it lost, I realized that I had left it at the italian restaurant where we dined a few nights before. Interesting piece of info here: once cancelled, a card can not be reinstated. Another card with another number must be issued.
We were speaking of geckos a bit earlier. Yesterday, I brought in one of my phalaneopsis orchids that is blooming. I put it on the window's ledge in the guest bathroom: it looked nice. This morning as I was shaving, I saw a little lizard watching me from the top of one of the fuschia blooms. I mean the little lizards no harm so I brought the orchid outside and shooed it away. Big lizards are another story. I chase them with my long-handled shovel. Anything bigger than a curly tail is fair game to me.
I wish to upload a new image of my gardening progress, just to provide a bit of eye candy but there is no digital camera to be found around here these days. Here is an old one.
Take care, all.
Sylvain.
Lovely pics everyone! Toto looks so sweet Don, I guess he just begged to come home with you!
Randy your tree is great, how very inventive you are. The garden looks tip top as usual!
Shari, great picture of the gecko, you really can see his little feet clearly. They look just like our house gecko's which usually are around more in the evenings. Do you also have day gecko's? We have some that change color to match the background they are on - climbing the palm trees that grow out of the middle of the lanai they are brown but they turn the most beautiful green when they are hunting amongst the foliage...
Sylvain, sorry you had such a bad day! Believe me, I know what that can be like!
We too have lots of "gecko's". All sizes! I saw an itty bitty baby the other day on the Mexican Fan Palm.
I have also seen a Texas sized grasshopper. He has got to be 4" long, with an odd looking flat head. I keep a look out for him when I go out in the garden, but he blends in with everything! Any one else seen the little monsters? He seems to like my peach hibiscus and angel trumpets!
Don hope Toto is doing well! He is just adorable! Hope everyone is doing OK!
Oh Sylvain! Days like that, you just want to go back to bed and start over! You poor thing!
Toto, and Junk Palms, geckos and bird poop...EE's and grasshoppers... so glad to have you all to chat with...keeps life interesting! Ha Ha!
Heard from Chrissy in OZ this am...had written to see how she was doing, she is going great guns with her brugs and said to say "G'day" to all. Hopefully she will drop by herself to say howdy one of these days.
Yep Jen, we get the chameleon type here too, and quite a few daylight lil dudes, but those are mostly the "racers" - a different type of lizard.
Aloha and Yokwe to all!
Shari
Shari, you must be Psychic, I was just thinking about Chrissy earlier today! Are you feeling better -- over the "crud"? I sure hope so.
Jeanne thanks, yep I am all better. Doing just fine. Hopefully we will be able to say the same about Christi, Carol, you and everyone else real soon. Our gazebo rusted through its supports, so all free time is now being spent on getting the right sizes of PVC, getting the right tools, measuring, cutting filling with sand ...yadda yadda yadda . Had forgotten how blistery that sun can be without a little shade! Couple more days and I will be back on the lanai with my "breller drinks". Would that all of lifes little problems were so easily fixed!
My patio canopy is doing the same. PVC, huh? great idea! I may have to get more details from you later, when it cools off some. It will have to be replaced next year if it makes it that long! A good strong wind and it may just go over!
The canvas top and sides are still in good condition....it's just the frame that has rusted terribly. I will keep the PVC in mind!