Daylily Disappointment and Other Things in April Garden

Ever since I learned that we also can grow Day Lily (Hemerocallis ) in South Florida, Day Lily has been on the top of my wish list.

Unfortunately, I have not found any good sources for it locally.  Last June, I found one (Day Lily 'Stella') for sale at HomeDepot and immediately bought it.  It only lasted about three weeks, and disappeared completely after finishing blooming.  I think it might not be the right foliage type for South Florida.  There are three foliage types for Day Lily: Dormant, semi-evergreen, evergreen.  For south regions, Evergreen is the one that will thrive.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw two types of Day Lilies for sale at Lowes.  I asked the store staff and was told that they are "Evergreen".  Imagine how excited I was when I brought these two home!

Daylily (Hemerocallis ) 'Black Eyed Stella'

Daylily (Hemerocallis ) 'Fooled Me' 

They were labeled as Daylily 'Black Eyed Stella'  and Daylily 'Fooled Me'.  After I came home, I did more reading on these two daylilies, and only found they both are dormant foliage type!!!  I also looked back the Day Lily 'Stella'  picture I took last year, and found it is identical to 'Black Eyed Stella'.  How disappointing!  I bought them expecting they will bloom for me year after year, not just for short a couple of weeks!  I returned them immediately.  

My mission to search for right Daylilies shall continue...

On the bright side, my garden has been happily singing the spring song.  It is May already, and I found I have missed posting some beautiful April bloomings.  Here are some of them.

First Matchstick bromeliad bloomed...  Looks so beautiful in the early morning sun.

Aechmea gamosepala
MatchStick Bromeliad

Opening more...

Aechmea gamosepala
MatchStick Bromeliad

Other Neoregelia Bromeliads in the garden are also blooming.  Their flowers are hidden in the center of the leaves.  The blooming usually means it is the time for the mother plant to produce the babies, or pups.  Yay!

April is the month for Jasmine and Gardenia.  The fragrance made the garden walk even more pleasant.

Arabian Jasmine
(Jasminum Sambac 'Maid of Orleans')

I also like to bring them indoor to enjoy more...

Needle flowers or Augusta rivalis has set out so many buds, and looks like May will be their peak time.

Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina' has been flowering on and off since early March.

Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina'
 (Giant Apostle's Iris)

The warm weather also brought early blooming of frangipani (Plumeria).  I checked last year's record, and it did not flower until last September.

Last year's Caladium bulbs have been emerging from the ground one by one, adding different colors into the shady corner.  

What May will bring for the garden?

Something Old, Something New

Have been quite busy recently at work...   Meanwhile my garden has been enjoying the afternoon showers, and putting lots of colors to welcome fall season.  Although Fall in Florida is almost same as the summer, only with cooler mornings and evenings, and shorter days.

Let me show you something that caught my eyes recently... Something old, and something new...

I had purchased two ground orchids after our hard freeze days in January, the pink one has been blooming profoundly for a couple of months now. 

The dark pink one just started their show recently, but with stronger flower spikes and slightly bigger flowers.

 

This yellow one was a recent purchase. The color was so bright that it almost jumped out and shouted to me in the gardening center "Hello, bring me home!". How could I resist it?

I have heard from other Florida gardeners that ground orchids are not cold-hardy, so I will dig them out and bring them indoors if it ever reaches the freezing  point again this coming winter (oh no, please). 

This desert rose (Adenium obesum ) has been a great performer since early spring.   In my experience, this is such a carefree plant in the container.  Drought tolerant, and heat/humidity lover.  As long as you don't over water it, and bring it under the covered patio or indoor during the freezing days, this plant will reward you lots of flowers through the four seasons in Florida climate.

 My friend gave me some desert rose seeds, see what I got out of them!  Looks like more desert roses will reside in my garden!

My first Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) flower!  I planted the seeds in the spring, after a long waiting, finally it opened its first flower this past weekend.  I am counting on them for my winter garden color.

Another one of the garden firsts is on the way...   This frangipani (Plumeria) was started from a cutting early this year, now finally it shows its first bud.  Yay! At least I can see the flowers before it drops all the leaves in the winter.

This Bridal Bouquet (Plumeria pudica) is also a new resident in my garden.  I have seen this blooming beautifully with bountiful snow white flowers in the neighbourhood, and think it would look great in my garden too.  It has three of them in the container, and I planted them in the ground in a tri-angle setting, hoping they can form a nice cluster next year.  For now, I will just enjoy the flowers from this young plant.

Firespike (Odontonema strictum) also bloomed first time in the garden (wow, there seems lots of  "firsts" in the garden recently).  The scarlet flowers rise above the dark green foliage look so stunning.  No wonder it has another common name as "Scarlet Flame".   I am thinking to use this replacing some of boring hedges in my garden.  Butterflies and hummingbirds would love it too!

  

 Vinca (Periwinkle) is always one of my favorites, and blooms almost year around.  I put two of the self seedlings into this swan planter, and one chooses growing around the neck of the swan, and the other trails down.  I thought this looks very pretty especially I did not arrange them in that way on purpose.

Just bought this Rose of Sharon (Althea, Hibiscus syriacus) last week.  This flower seems have distorted, but the skipper doesn't mind it at all.

When the flowers are fully opened...

There are so many to do and enjoy in the garden. With the approaching cooler weather, I wish I can have more time to be in my garden.

Spring Garden Progress

There were lots of rain this past weekend, but I did manage to get a little work done in the garden.

• Divided some bulbine plants, and some Agave desmettiana 'Variegata' pups to pass along to my friend.
• Potted some cuttings of dragon-wing begonia for the same friend.  This begonia should be fairly easy to root from cuttings.  This container of dragon wing begonia is at my front porch.  Really enjoying it every time I pass by.

• Planted some caladium bulbs in one of my containers.  After seeing so many amazing pictures of caladiums (especially at Hoe and Shovel), I decided that I will give it a try for the first time.  I bought a package of 24 mixed caladium bulbs this year.  Since I will be out of the country for a long period of time (3 weeks) this summer, I want to save most of them for the fall garden.  I only planted five in a container this time.  Can not wait for them to pop out of the soil...
• Sowed some seeds of Nasturtium (Jewel, Mixed colors, from Ferry-Morse).  Love the leaf shapes and the flowers.  It would be interesting to see how they will grow.

Here is some spring progress in the garden:

The frangipani cutting is finally shooting out the new leaves.  Still not decided where to put this in my garden...

Angel's Trumpet is growing very fast after I planted the cutting in the ground.  This cutting came from my friend at work, the same friend who brought me the initial bulbine plants and the frangipani cutting.   I have been removing some new growth on the lower part of main trunk to force it to form a small tree instead of a bush like.  We will see how it turns out to be.

Newly purchased bromeliad is about to set the bloom.  Isn't it just gorgeous?!  Love the deep pink color in the center. 

Sedum is now all showing its yellow flowerings.  It really made the garden looking more "Spring".

Sedum Hybrid Florida Friendly Gold

I have been mistaking this Crape Jasmine as "Star Jasmine" until recently FlowerLady at FloweLady's Musings made a post about it to ask for the identification.  Thanks, Flowerlady!

Crape Jasmine

Various Pentas are really in full bloom.  Wondering why I still don't see butterflies visiting them, or maybe I am just not around when they pay the visits??  Envy all those wonderful butterflies shots my fellow gardeners proudly show in their posts!

Pentas

This Purple Verbena is a new addition to my garden.

Purple Verbena

Self seeded mounding buttercup (Turnera ulmifolia) is showing its first flower.  I have been transplanting the seedlings around the garden.

mounding buttercup (Turnera ulmifolia)

Dipladenia pink is really putting on a show, although it never really stopped blooming the whole winter.  This plant is basically care free.  I don't see any pest problem.  Just some water, it gives me non-stopping blooming all year long.  Got to love that!

Dipladenia pink

White Voilas is still hanging on...

Voila

Stock (Matthiola) is about to come to the end.  It is producing lots of seeds to continue the life in another form.  I will try sow these seeds for the fall garden.

Stock (Matthiola)

Now here is something fun for you all.  Can anybody guess what flower it is?