In the garden

July 25, 2013 by KTgreen

Lots of rain this year. Some of the plants are thriving, others are about finished. My yard is particularly happy with all the rain. Also very high since it’s too wet to mow!

In the Garden, Thyme — There’s not much left of my vegetable and herb garden. Too hot. But this thyme plant is loving the weather.

In the Garden, Daylily — Daylilies are just about done.

In the Garden, Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillar — As I mentioned last week, the Eastern Swallowtail butterfly has been busy on the parsley. Here’s a caterpillar that I found.

In the garden, Dipladenia and Mandevilla — Pink dipladenia and white mandevilla love the sun and the trellis.

In the Garden

July 18, 2013 by KTgreen

Some updates on previous “In the Garden” posts….

Back in June, I posted about trying to start two different types of hydrangeas, a pink hydrangea and a shooting start hydrangea. In addition, I attempted rooting sunpatiens, dragon wing begonia, pentas and a geranium.

So far it looks like the pink hydrangea, the geranium, and the dragon wing begonia rooted. The rest were failures. This was the second time I attempted to root the shooting star hydrangea with no success. Michelle suggested that it might be a hybrid created so it won’t propagate. Makes sense to me!

In the Garden, hydrangea — This hydrangea doesn’t look good but give it a few months it will be a thriving plant.

In the Garden, geranium — The geranium is doing very well.

In the Garden, dragonwing begonia — Those are dragonwing begonias. I will leave these in pots but intend to just stick broken off stems directly into dirt now. These guys root easily.

In another post I mentioned that my favorite plants are given to me by friends and neighbors or ones that I’ve rooted but the Carolina Bluebells that Yvonne gave me hadn’t survived the winter. But they did, they just took awhile to come back. Forgot to tell Yvonne about their revival and she showed up with two more plants. Yeah! She also told me that they aren’t really Carolina Bluebells, that’s just what her daddy called them. What!!! They are actually creeping bellflower. So I did a little research and found out that it’s a really bad invasive plant that can’t be eradicated–which is exactly what I wanted! The place I have them planted needs ground cover and it’s surrounded by concrete so I don’t thing the bellflowers will get away! (Hope I don’t regret those words!)

In the Garden, creeping bellflower — Creeping Bellflower

Last week I posted a picture of an Eastern Swallowtail. As I suspected she was busy in the parsley and I went out to check for caterpillars today. I didn’t find any but most of the parsley has been stripped of its leaves so they were there!

In the Garden, Eastern Swallowtail — Eastern Swallowtail on parsley.

The Gulf Fritillary caterpillars have almost completely striped the Passion Flower Vine. Okay with me, that vine will take over if given a chance. Plus I only planted it because I knew it was a host plant!

In the Garden, Gulf Fritillary on coleus — Gulf Fritillary on coleus.

In My Garden

July 11, 2013 by KTgreen

It’s hot hot hot here. Some of my flowers are getting tired and a few have decided to just give up. I’ve already moved most of the pots to shadier spots even though they might be designated “sun-lovers”. About now, all the plants appreciate some shade. But there are still some bright spots in my garden.

In My Garden — A new bloom! Blood Lily. My neighbor gave me this a few years ago and said to bury it in its pot. The flower doesn’t last long but is pretty while it’s here.