Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day-December 2010

Wow, happy Last GBBD of 2010, everyone!  I am super excited because this is the first time that I've been able to show you this:  (Please let me know if you are having trouble viewing the photos-I had to link to them differently than I usually do, so it looks OK to me, but I don't know if it will look OK to everyone else.  Thanks!)

Pink Quill (Tillandsia cyanea)

Usually it is either just preparing to bloom or has just finished blooming when GBBD rolls around, but this year, I got it!

Next, as if it knew Christmas is right around the corner:

Bleeding Heart (Clerodendrum thomsonae)

The rest of this is probably going to be a little minimalistic since I have to run in less than 30 minutes to get to an appointment, and I'm still drinking my coffee and haven't showered yet.  TMI?  Sorry.  

Shrimp plant (sorry, that's all I have right now)

Mexican Pointsettia (Euphorbia leucocephala)

I noticed several of these little guys on the Euphorbia this morning.

Bouganvillea

African Daisy (Osteospermum)

Scallion-I know this one's not quite blooming yet, but it looked so cute, I thought I should take its picture.

Sweet Alyssum

White spilder lily (Crinum asiaticum)-I almost missed this one today because at first I didn't see it hiding in this mess:

Can you see it?  It's tucked away right in the middle. 

Variegated Hau (Hibiscus tiliaceus) behind a red Euphorbia-that creamy yellow flower will turn a dusky burnt orange color and fall off the tree by the end of the day.  

That's it for today, kids!  I've got to run-need to leave in less than 10 minutes.  Thanks for touring my garden with me.  Please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see what else is blooming today!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day-December 2009

Well, it has been one year since I first participated in Carol's beloved Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day! I figured this would be a good time to do a "Then and Now" post. You can go back and see what my Euphorbia Leucocephala looked like one year ago today, or you can just wait because you know I'll post it for you here now, right?

December 15, 2008

December 15, 2009

For one thing, they appear to have become much brighter and clearer. This could be because I was actually outside today and not shooting through my dirty window on a rainy day. Also, last year they were collapsing under the weight of all the rain that we'd had. This year hasn't been quite as monsoon-y yet, so they are holding up a little better.

Oaky, so that wasn't very exciting, but now I will show you our front yard last year:

December 8, 2008

And this year:

December 15, 2009

That's much more exciting, no? No? OK, how about more dramatic? And didn't Mocha do a good job of helping me stage today's picture to try to match last year's picture? See those little plants that are just nubbins on top of our wall in last year's picture? I told you a little bit more about them back in June. Here is a closer view from today. They are all about 6-8 feet tall now.

OK, that's really all I have for "then" and "now" pictures, so I guess I will resume my normal GBBD activities and just show you what's blooming in my yard.

This is a closer-up picture of my white bushes from the very beginning of this post. The north side is completely white like you see here, but the south side still has a lot of green left on it. Since we had had some light rain earlier this morning, I was having fun playing with all the water droplets that were left in the garden.

When I was taking this picture of my Thai basil, I noticed my Sweet Alyssum in the background all decorated with dew drops, like a little Christmas tree .

Potted miniature rose.

Red ginger (Alpinia purpurata). You can see some good pictures of other members of the Zingiberaceae family here. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge. If you click on the red ginger picture, you will see that the actual flower is a delicate little white thing that pokes its head up out of the red bracts, similar to the way the white flowers pop out of my orange shrimp plant (Pachystachys lutea), below.

Another flower with similar blooming habits is this Pink Quill (Tillandsia cyanea). In October, it was all pink, but now you can just see the tips of the purple flowers starting to form in between each of the pink sections. Hopefully by next month I'll have a more impressive display!

My cousin received this mum as a potted plant, and she passed it along to me when she went on vacation. I repotted it, and after a couple of worrisome months, it has made a nice recovery.

And, finally, on to my trusted and true orchids:

Here are some buds on Den. Pam Tajima (atroviolaceum 'Pygmy' x eximium) (a.k.a. "Pam") preparing to take over for some of the older blooms that are beginning to fade.


Inside, are some blooms that I cut off of Nameless Bob, Pam's outdoor companion.

Since my last post in October,Dgmra. Memoria Jay Yamada 'Hawaii' has bloomed, dropped its flowers and put on a new set of blooms, which you see here.

That's all for today, folks! As always, thanks for visiting, and please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see what other blooms can be found outside today.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day-December

Carol over at May Dreams Gardens hosts Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, a day in which all the bloggers in the world come together to show what's happening in their gardens. Okay, maybe not ALL the bloggers in the world, but quite a few! Anyway, I've seen a few of these posts over at My Bit of Earth, and thought, Hey, I like gardening and taking pictures-I could do that! Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is supposed to be the 15th of every month, but...um...I'm running on Hawaiian time?

Anyway, here's what's going on in my garden. Sorry it's not a great shot, but it was raining cats and dogs-you can see my poor bushes are pretty weighted down from all the rain. I can't tell you what they are; the only name I've ever seen is Mexican poinsettia, but if you do a Google search for this, you don't get the right plant. They do change color in the winter, like your standard Christmas poinsettias, but the leaves are very fine. This is one of my favorite plants. I love the winter white, and when it is in its white phase it also gives off a very subtle almond smell. (They really do look much prettier when they are all upright and fluffy and not thisclose to snapping in half).

For comparison, here is a picture of the same bushes exactly one month earlier. It is from a different angle, but you can see how much they've changed in that short time!



Here is a closer-up shot of the leaves. (Sorry about the Basset butt-he was busy exploring!) If anybody can tell me what the actual name of this is, that would be great! **Edited 8/11/09-I finally found out what this is! It is Euphorbia leucocephala.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my garden!