Picture of the Day - Part 4

This is a Drosera rosea -- a pygmy sundew. The plant is about the size of a dime and the flower was a quarter of the size of the plant on a 1" stalk.

Unfortunately, I kept getting a bright picture, so there's not much contrast.

My beautiful Japanese Eggplant flower. This is such a nice plant. Unfortunately, my last eggplant was eaten by a small creature -- I think a mouse. Not enough cayenne pepper. :) But more eggplants are coming.

My cactus bloom is now open. Really beautiful.

Kalpavriksha Great flowers. What is the name of that epi? Jeremy is correct I have 200+ but most are still to young to bloom.

starsplitter do you have a Manuel setting on your camera? if you do try to set the exposure one or 2 marks underexposed or 1 or 2 over. Usually if you bracket the picture one over,one under and one right on you will come out with at least one right. LOL

Sandy

Starsplitter, you have a Gymnocalycium.
My Parodia rudibuenekeri cv Albissimo is blooming.

Barb

We are FINALLY getting rain today.
Took some pictures this morning.

Daylilies

My catalpa tree is blooming.

Gloriosa lily.

Oriental lilies.

My orchid rescued from the bargain bin a couple of years ago.

Great photos of plants that are also some of my favorites, pestee! Bargain rack orchids are great. It always feels like such an accomplishment to pull them back from the brink of death and nurse them along until they are healthy enough to flower. Congratulations on the successful recovery, growth, and blooms!

Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy. I'm relatively new to orchids so It makes me especially happy.

MMM I thought it was too early for the Gloriosa lilies but I'll check mine out now!!

Here is a plumeria....blooming today.

My Gloriosa 'Rothschildiana' are up and approaching flowering size, but no buds yet.

I may have to only enjoy Plumeria vicariously through your photos this season, DutchLady. I think the freezes hit my Plumies so hard that they are going to spend all of this year just trying to get some healthy growth going again. (So, please!, keep posting plumies! )

Jeremy

Another bromeliad flower. Should have cut off that yellow leaf......

My turn! My turn! First plumie of the year.

This is a Tabernaemontana- actually is a little fragrant.....perhaps 'Flora Pleno.'

New Bilbergia.

Where's Pestee? Here's my "bargain" orchid. It was a tough decision at $0. I'm just grateful the *$$^*&*#@#$% squirrels didn't chew this flower spike off!

Fauna and Pestee...what amazing plants! And I love your bargain orchid!

I'm just loving these Brazilian Plumes this year. They got a bit nipped in the cold, but have come back better than ever!

fauna: Here's my bargain orchid! hehe

I was shopping in my local veggie/fruit place and they had a tray full of Phal orchids with no blooms - $9.00. I thought it was a great buy, and put one in my cart. The owner of the store happened to look in my cart and said - "How much was that orchid"?...I told him it was $9.00 and he said - "Take it at 1/2 price for $4.50 because it has no blooms and isn't going to bloom for a while" hahahaha.

2 months later in my kitchen window...

It was nice of him, but I think he should stick to fruit and veggies! LOL

Here is a surprise photo - imagine me, with coleus photos.....

OK I can top that
Yet another plumeria picture LOL

Good bargains on some pretty orchids Kat and Fauna. Especially that $0. Can't beat that.

This is from a new bush I purchased from Ric's nursery in Ft. Pierce. Bit of a drive - but they have the best roses!

I cut this one and brought it in - as the bloom ages the pink spreads from the outer petals to the inner ones. If left on the bush, the sun seems to speed up the process. And they are very fragrant!!!!

This message was edited May 6, 2009 8:00 AM

That's amazing.

Hap

Thank you. Here's a picture of the bush - these are older blooms and the center yellow is gone. Picture is a bit funny - I had a setting wrong on the camera.

ooooooww pretty rose.

OK, I have made a point of not doing roses, but........that is very nice, Diver!

f4f - that is the 'flora pleno' cultivar of T. divaricata. It has fluffy, multiple petals while the non-cultivar has single flat petals. I've seen both for sale in the big box stores. They are typically labeled "Florida Gardenia" though it is not from Florida and not a gardenia! LOL I forgot to check to see if my 'flore pleno' is returning from the severe freezes, but I will do that now that you have reminded me I have one.

diverdown - that is a magnificent rose! Do you happen to know what cultivar or species name it is?

I never argue when a store manager offers me a plant at a lower cost. LOL I got my Nepenthes 'miranda' pitcher plant http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/73797/ in a similar deal as KatG's orchid. I was willing to pay half-price of about $6 for it, but a non-botanically aware clerk standing next to the store manager when he was ringing up the override for the reduced price said, "That plant is dead. I wouldn't pay more than a $1 for it." The manager apparently agreed and I got a great bargain!

Here's a rescue orchid that I've had for a few years. I've never had a Phalaenopsis make this many flowers all at once (most of the blooms are on secondary and tertiary spikes that grew from the original flower stalk - a good reason not to cut off out-of-flower Phalaenopsis spikes). It may have been a shock with really cold air that induced all the flowers. This orchid was hanging near the top of my greenhouse and its buds were blasted by cold air that settled down through the greenhouse fiberglass panels. I didn't think it would make any new buds at all, but look what a little stress and adversity did to it!

Jeremy

Here's the new growth on my Persian Shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/516/ ) It was a bush about 5 ft tall and 4 ft wide last year, but was killed back to the root crown at soil level by the freezes. The new growth has a great, rich royal purple color to it.

Jeremy

$1 for a N. "miranda". I would be in heaven. Were you able to rehab it? I have good luck rehabbing N. ventrata. I don't try D. adalea -- too difficult. VFT are pretty easy to rehab if they aren't rotten.

I got orchids this year after Valentine's Day after they had been kept in the cooler for $3. I was pretty happy. They are doing great.

That rose bloom looks just like my Double Delight and it IS very fragrant and my blooms seem to last for awhile.

Darla

stars...what cooler?

Hap

Yep - it's Double Delight!

They kept their orchids in the cooler where they kept the cut flowers at the front of the store. Just about killed all the orchids.

'Miranda' was very happy to be rescued and recuperated nicely. I've had it for about 5 years now. I have some photos here somewhere. I hang it outside in the patio for the summer and get lots of large pitchers.

I gotta' get a 'Double Delight'! I'm surprised it is a hybrid tea. I thought it might be an old-fashioned type rose.

Starsplitter - the florist was probably only familiar with orchids as corsages, which do go in the cooler to keep them fresh, but you'd think they would be aware that the plant the corsage comes from is a tropical plant wanting warm conditions, not a Dutch bulb. LOL

Speaking of which, here is another NOID lavender Phalaenopsis that I noticed was flowering in a far corner of the greenhouse. I'm excited that my red Vanda is in spike. I am certain it had a name tag at some time in its history, but it is now another NOID. I may be able to go back through my DG posts and see if I mentioned it previously when it was in flower.

Jeremy

And here is one of the Brugs I got from MistressGardner when she moved to a new house and gave away a lot of plants from the previous house. I've finally found the right spot for Brugs - partly shady and close to a hose bib so I can water them frequently. They are growing really well. I kept them mostly intact through the winter with frost cloth covers and twinkle lights. They held most of their leaves even in the low 20s F temperatures.

Jeremy

Gosh! I'm not sure why that last photo is so large. Usually DG automatically resizes the photos when they are uploaded. Very strange.

Jeremy

My plumeria are ROCKING!