Posts Tagged ‘flower’

I didn’t know that tomato plants flowered at all, but apparently so:

They’re a sort of strange shade of yellow, but I guess that’s par for the course.

Now to defend them against the slugs and caterpillars. This is third time I’m trying this experiment, and the ‘pilars have gotten them both times before. Diligence will hopefully pay off with lots of gazpacho this summer.

After this winter’s gawdawful freeze, pretty much everything died. Things I didn’t think would ever be killed, even by flamethrower gave it up. Even the bananas haven’t come back up yet, which is shocking.

But guess what has come back with a vengeance? The absolute last thing I’d have guessed.

The freaking roses. They’re blooming all over the freaking place. I haven’t been able to keep them alive, at all, ever, but there they are.

The dead stick that had been Ebb Tide is blooming:

The Lady Banks went crazy:

St. Joseph’s coat is busting out:

For the first time, even Zepherine Drouhin put on a show:

And even Double Delight is living up to its name:

I’ve been at a total loss to explain this. I have watered, fed, pruned, and watched for blackspot with a level of paranoia that I didn’t have when Alison was learning to ride a bike. For naught. They die. Until they were subjected to true abuse…and then they thrive. Honestly? How contrary is that?

Roses are referred to as female, and women are generally contrary by nature. Maybe that’s the only answer there is.

Or maybe they were trying to lull me into a false sense of security, all the better to break my heart later. Which, in the end, might not be unrelated to the woman-thing either.

I’ve been working on repopulating the garden, and and of course the hibiscus are what draw my attention first and foremost. This one is Creole Lady, and has been blooming pretty steadily for the last few weeks, making me very happy:

She actually lasts 2-3 days, her colors changing. The pinkish fringe becomes orange and the center gets darker. IMHO it’s prettiest when it first opens, but any hibiscus is better than no hibiscus, right?

I was playing in the garden, so naturally Bianca arrives to show me what a real Creole lady looks like…

I just love their backs, so crazy.

And when we finally get some Fuschia, I’ll know we’re really out of the cold.

For just a few weeks in spring, these pink magnolias are everywhere. Despite being about a third of the summer magnolia blooms they’re even more impressive in their way- with no leaves to hide amongst, they really pop.

For me, winter in New Orleans is bookended by Camellias. First, as things cool off, there are the white ones. They’re like popcorn- they explode out of nowhere, powerful fuzzy blooms that fall apart almost as soon as they’re out. Around Christmas, the red ones come out and they’re pretty mellow, they bloom and hang around for awhile adding a little more color to the holiday season.

But at the end of the winter my favorite comes out- the Desire Camellia. Organized petals spiral around the center bud in shades of pink. Unfortunately they start to brown fairly quickly, and every year I tell myself I have to get out and take pictures, and then suddenly it’s too late.

Well, not this year:

I got Purple Goddess from a wonderful hibiscus company when it was shutting down- he’d intended to keep her, but his wife just didn’t like the blooms.

And I have to say, it doesn’t ever come in nearly as dark as the breeder said it would, nor does it bloom very often, so when I noticed just at dinnertime that it had actually flowered, I plucked it and put it on the table, even though it hadn’t opened fully. (It’s been ungodly hot, so I’m happy to get any blooms right now- in a month we’ll have color galore. Right now…eh.)

All of which led to getting a little arty with a flashlight, and the effect is pretty cool…even if you can’t really see the flower for itself. Above is the best idea of what it actually looks like- it’s a mid-range purple with a reddish eye.

Another Dupont Cajun variety- and no, I don’t have stock in them- we have an overabundance since they’re the supplier the local chapter of the American Hibiscus Society’s chosen to use for their annual sales.

Low AHS price + gorgeous blooms = another hibiscus in the backyard.

And this one’s a doozy- it’s huge and practically florescent- what’s not to love?

Lantana is technically a weed. A pretty weed, okay, but a weed. I first saw it years ago growing in the sidewalk cracks in Mississippi, and when I brought a photo of it to our local nursery, I seriously thought the owner was going to spit on me. I was oh-so-thrilled to get be on the receiving end of a 5 minute lecture on the subject.

But it was effective, apparently, because now I’m compelled to point out that Lantana’s a weed whenever the subject comes up.

Regardless, despite the fact that it grows all on its own through street cracks where it gets mashed and stepped on every day, I cannot grow the stuff. I’ve killed off any number of sacrificial lambs.

This was last year’s:

Pink and yellow together in lots of tiny tiny blooms. This one was kind of cruel- see how nice and big that sucker looks? Looks like a winner, right? A survivor?

Yeah. Not so much. The front of the house, the back, any sun/shade combo you can think of. In pots, in the ground. All of these in my hands = dead lantana. On one side I have a neighbor who has one that just started growing on its own, and she’s shaped it into a gorgeous lollipop-looking bush. On the other side I have somebody whose boyfriend keeps running their wild lantana over with the lawnmower, and it just keeps coming back.

Seriously, this is true.

So I’ve decided that I’m not taking care of it any more. I’m not being nice to it, and I’m considering backing the car over this one a few times. Maybe then it’ll live for a while. If not, at least I know where I can get more- the local speech giving nursery? It’s caved, and I’m perfectly welcome to go buy my evil weed there.

This was actually taken a couple of months ago and I’ve just gotten around to uploading it. There aren’t many blooms at the moment- we’re in the middle of a god-awful streak of sky high temps with near-drought conditions, so I can’t blame them for not wanting to be bothered. Every time I step outside I lose any motivation I might’ve started out with, so I can completely relate.