Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day-October 2009

It's October 15th, and you know what that means! It means it's time to see what's blooming on this fine fall day. Go visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see what other gardeners have blooming in their gardens.

It seems that October is a bit of a slow period in my yard. None of my potted plants out front are blooming. Maybe that's because they've been experiencing a severe bout of neglect lately...

Moving along!

Something that actually seems to be thriving on my neglect is this Tillandsia cyanea or Pink Quill. It's a bromeliad (like a pineapple!), and it looks cool now, but it will get even cooler when it starts throwing out dark purple flowers, like you can see here, at Home and Gardening.info. Apparently, these plants really do thrive on exactly the kind of neglect I've been giving them. I guess I must have been taking too good of care of my mine over the past couple years, because this is the first time it's bloomed in a few years. Okay, after doing a little more research at the Bromeliad Society International, it looks like maybe my original plant flowered then started putting all its energy into creating pups (baby plants) that have just now grown big enough to flower themselves.


Speaking of things that haven't bloomed in a few years, my plumeria, which debuted last month after a 5+ year settling-in period is still blooming. Just a few flowers at a time, but I'll take what I can get.

Keeping my plumeria company is my ever-faithful bougainvillea. This is another plant that I don't have to do much to. Hmmm...there seems to be a theme here this month. For those of you not familiar, the blooms are actually the little white things, not the pink parts. The pink parts are called bracts and are specialized leaves which start out green and gradually turn pink, similar to the red parts of a poinsettia. You can see this illustrated a little better in my July post.

Below, is a carry-over from last month, the orchid "Bllra. Peggy Ruth Carpenter 'Jem'."

Another carry-over from last month is Jem's unnamed neighbor, the pretty pink/lavender orchid. This one keeps flopping about in it's pot in a most undignified manner. I've tried to stake it several times, but I can't quite get a good enough hold for the stake, so it just flops about with the orchid. I'll keep working on it. You can't tell in this picture though, can you? She does behave well for photo shoots.

Lest you think all I have are ill-behaved diva orchids, I would like to point out that Den. Pam Tajima (atroviolaceum 'Pygmy' x eximium) is behaving quite well. She just sits quietly in her pot and blooms again and again and again. You may recall that she was part of a group of rogue orchids that sneaked into my car during a shopping trip one day and begged to be taken home with me. Perhaps the embarrassment of this past behavior is what makes her so well-behaved today.

Well, Pam was not the only orchid that sneaked into my car that day. She had two other accomplices, but the gang leader seems to have been Dgmra. Memoria Jay Yamada 'Hawaii,' who is preparing to make his annual showing. You can see why he was the front man of this operation, yes? Well, it takes a lot of work to look that good, and this is what he looks like now.

I'll keep you updated on his progress. As always, thanks for touring my garden with me. In case anyone was wondering, I didn't get any pictures of Buster this time, but he is still doing well. He's had a couple of bouts with pancreatitis over the last month, so he's been taking it easy a lot, but he's still hanging in there and seems to be feeling well now. See you next month!