Formosa Lily

BY SKEETER

  The Beach Planter continues to grow here in my GEORGIA GARDENS. Click HERE to see a follow up and link to its beginnings.

 A bargain find Flamingo has landed.

 These bargain found Frogs call the planter home as well.

 This photo was snapped on June 4 with the Formosa Lily about the same height as the Palm...

 This photo was snapped July 22 with Formosa Buds showing as well as a Sweet Gum Sapling in the middle of the Palm.

 This photo was snapped on Aug 2 while the Saint held up the top heavy plant. Ha, the sapling returned in the Palm as I have failed to pull the root but rather snapped it off.

 These beauties came to my garden by sneaking into a gift of Canna Bulbs passed along to me by sweet Lola! 

 I do believe this Formosa Lily is about ready to be divided.

 We stabilized Lily to the stake so it does not fall to the ground.

 She is full of Pollen.

 And holding onto raindrops with our plentiful Summer rains.

I cannot Thank Lola enough for this FORMOSA LILY, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Rose

"Rose"

By Lola

Tuberose that is. My first encounter with this lovely plant was in N.C. I saw the plant in bloom and it smelled fantastic. The smell is like a gardenia. I purchased the plant and later brought it back to Florida and planted it in the ground. It died back that winter but came back the next spring and bloomed. Sadly it did not appear after the next winter.
Last year I purchased the bulbs of the double tuberose (Polianthes Tuberosa 'The Pearl'). I also purchased the single Mexican tuberose, (Rajanigandha, Sedap Malam) . Researching this one I learned the Aztecs used it's oil to flavor chocolate.

This is the picture of the single Mexican Tuberose As you can see it's got two flower stalks.
This is the picture of the double tuberose, The Pearl. They didn't bloom last year but have done so this year. They started forming flower stalks around the first of July. As time passed the stalks got longer. Then they started with the blooms.
This bloom is the result of the Mexican Tuberose being broken off.
See how the flower looks as we've brought it closer!!!

This is the double tuberose before it starts to open. A cluster of "pods" as I call them
A closeup of the "pods"
I have one sitting by the front door and one by the garage door so no matter which way we enter there is that lovely smell.

So as long as they bloom we will have a very pleasant smell.......

In the Garden

Backyard Corner Garden

Posted by Lola

This area was a flower garden some years ago. With all the things going on at the time I could no longer maintain it. The grass grew and it just became part of the lawn.

But now with more time I began to play with the idea of making it a garden again.
So slowly I began to make that happen. I transplanted a flowering almond from another area. I planted a canna on each side of the flowering almond. If you look very closely you can see them.
I found a red crepe myrtle for pennies at the local big box store. That is it in the edging circle. I wanted this garden to be larger so I placed the newspaper down and spread the leaves that I had raked up from the trimming of the azaleas on top of the paper. This is helping to enrich the soil as well as marking the garden area.
Notice my other version of the tipsy pots. I used colored pots. They seem to hold moisture better than the original terra cotta pots. I used complimenting flowers in each pot. This is what I mentioned Skeeter.
While working on this garden to help it look more like a garden I have placed pots of flowers around. Notice the gourds growing up the fence under the window box.
This is something new that I'm trying this year. It's a potato bag. You put soil in the bag then plant your potatoes. As the potatoes grow you add more soil until the plants are done. We'll see how well it works.
This is one of the cannas that was planted beside the flowering almond. I believe it's" Bengal Tiger". If someone knows for sure I would appreciate the information.
It will take some time for this garden to be complete {update later} but in the meantime it will be a garden in progress-------

In the Garden.

Flag Pole Garden

Posted by: Lola

A couple years ago I had a problem that needed to be solved. My lovely azaleas had begun to die. Actually about 4 in total have met their demise. This area needed some help. I first put in a flag pole. Then I tried planting flowers but that didn't work. The soil was not ready. So I began to remove the grass and add amendments to the soil. These are some of the plants that I began to add to this garden.

The second picture shows how it looked in 2008 at Halloween. Not very pretty I must say.

This picture shows the Flag Pole that was added and also the bird bath for our feathered friends. At this point the garden was taking on the shape that I had envisioned. I planted some Iris, Canna Lillies and Snow Bells along with the Day lilies and glads that were already there.
After I had gotten to this point I started to add some mulch as I finished the garden. You can see the "hole" that was created from the azaleas dieing out. I took advantage of this situation to place an article, that a friend had given me, into that "hole". You can see the article in the second picture.

It is a flower pot holder that looks like a chariot. So I tucked it into the "hole" that was created. It helped to cover the bare spot that would have looked strange otherwise. Notice the "stands" I mentioned in another post!!!
This angle is looking South. You can see the front and backside of the garden. Not finished with the mulch yet. These Castle Rocks help keep the soil in the bed. If it rains a lot like it has this Spring, I would have lost a lot of this rich soil had the rocks not been there.
This is looking toward the point where I stood to take the picture above. This is the front part of the garden. See the pretty Iris"Royal Thunder" that is in bloom!!! Poor little Gnome sitting on the rock with his hand up to his ear trying to hear what is being said. lol
This is a view from the back side of the garden after all the mulch has been applied. I think it turned out pretty good.
This picture is looking straight on to the garden with azaleas beyond.
Other plants can be added as permitted. I do have a couple in mind.

And as all gardeners know work is never over.........

In the Garden.

Projects

Not too long ago I saw a picture of a craft that I liked very much. And since I have limited space I thought this the perfect solution. I purchased the items needed (Re bar, Terra Cotta Pots & soil) and got to work. In the first picture you can see how I got started.The next picture shows how I proceeded with my project.
Here they are all put together. Not finished yet.
A different angle. This shows my blueberry in the half whiskey barrel. It has blueberries on it. Yuummmm!
Here I've added some more pots for a collage.
This picture shows the completed project. The bottom 3 pots have Strawberry plants and the 2 top pots have alyssum planted. The alyssum is just coming up. That's my snail sprinkler tucked in there. The little rock I purchased on my trip that says "Welcome".

So I am hoping for a fruitful white topped tower....

In the Garden.

Lola

Spring is Here

Spring Is Here

I've noticed all around my neighborhood flowers are starting to bloom, even though there aren't a lot of different kinds.


But as you can see from the picture, the azaleas are the stars of the show. I inherited this with the house. They are way over my head!

This is looking from the back towards the front. Strangely the ones that got more sun had more blooms and bloomed first.
This is looking at the front of the row of my azaleas.
If you look closely you can see another space forming.........

In The Garden

Lola

Winter Goodness...Citrus, Here in the Deep South

Here in the deep south (Florida), winter is the best time to enjoy the fresh products that nature provides.

Lemons are a favorite fruit down here. There they are on the tree at left. I took these pictures so you could see different distances as we approached the tree. This tree grows at a friend's house.

The next Picture is the fruit that I picked off this tree. I didn't even make a dent in the amount of fruit that was growing on that tree.

There are many delicious uses for lemons. Some favorite ones include: fresh squeezed lemonade, pies and zest.

Zest is the skin of the lemon that has been grated from the lemon. When grating the skin, you must be careful not to get into the white part that is just under the colored part as it is bitter.

And just look how sunny and delicious the freshly picked lemons look! The next picture shows how the lemons look after they have been scrubbed and washed. I used a Dobie pad to do this task.




In the next picture you can see a few different citrus fruits. Also you can see the difference in sizes between the different fruits.


From left to right from the top left is: grapefruit, orange, tangerine, and lemon. Grapefruit grows the same way as the oranges and lemons.

These next trees have a lot of oranges on them . The bright orange color will draw your attention to them. There are quite a few trees in my area.
But further south a lot of the groves were destroyed due to a virus that invaded the trees.

There is also another citrus fruit called Kumquat Fruit. It's a very small, oval fruit usually between 1 and 2 inches long and has a leathery orange or yellow skin. They are generally in season from late autumn to mid-winter. The skin is much sweeter than the inside so most of the time only the skin is eaten.

No matter where you are, there is always something------

In the Garden.
Lola

Adventure in the Garden

The other day the young'un and I went on a small adventure of sorts. A local church next to the post office had some pretty yellow flowers planted near the front. I was thinking how they were almost the color of the fire hydrant. Seems as though there is a lot of yellow.

As we progressed on our adventure we passed Camp Blanding; which was once a thriving military base. Now it's a training base for the National Guard. Notice the color of yellow at the gate.




No yellow here, but if you look closely you can see an airplane. There is also a tank and other vehicles.

There is no yellow here either, but pretty flowers on the shrub that has been trimmed. I think it is a hibiscus. I don't understand why anyone would want to trim such a lovely shrub.



Further on into our journey we crossed the St. Johns River. Young'un ran an errand and we started back. You guessed it, crossed the St. Johns River (which is 16,300' long) again. lol. In the distance you can see Jacksonville Naval Air Station (NAS). To the right of that you can see Plalatka on a clear day.




The next morning I decided I would visit an old friend. Before I left I took the picture of my side yard where the Rose Garden is located. The first rose (Black Cherry) is a very dark red. The second rose pictured (Lovestruck) is pink. As I got closer to them I noticed that the blooms looked different. They seemed to sparkle. I suddenly realized it 'dew still on the roses'. I immediately thought of the song.



"In the Garden"
I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses and the voice I hear...


Lola