Dragon's Orchid Garden

I was so glad to have the work week over.  Upon arriving home, I went straight to change into shorts and put my hair up, grab a beer and head out to the back patio to commune with my husband and with nature.  We sat chatting for a bit when Wayne mentioned that the heat and humidity seemed to make the air smell a bit musty.  Hmm...yes, it did.  In fact, it smelled a bit like something was rotting somewhere.  We talked a while more and Wayne went into the house to start dinner.  I sat in my rocker, checking out NPR news on my ipod.  It wasn't long before the aroma of something rotting caused me to start breathing through my mouth instead of my nose. I put the ipod down and walked around to the back of the house where the voodoo lilies are starting to come up.  There, I saw the origin of that fetid stink.  An Amorphophallus bloom!  The flies were all over it. We have a fan on the patio to move the air about and it was moving the perfume...

Today was a perfect autumn day for central Florida. It wasn't so humid that you felt slapped in the face by a warm wet blanket when you stepped outside. The sun didn't scorch. Tonight, it may even dip into the 60's. Wayne and I spent some time fertilizing, pruning, repotting. We repotted a Madagascar Palm that was becoming top heavy in a too small pot. That took a heavy old blanket, thick leather welder's gloves and a trowel to loosen the roots. I also repotted an Amazon Lily that Tom from work traded me for a Voodoo Lily. I can't wait to see it bloom. Several orchids are blooming now. With something like 130 of them, several are always blooming! From orchids O. Sharry Baby has the aroma of chocolate covered cherries. From orchids V. Golmaco's blue magic has large blue flowers that last for weeks. From orchids C. Chocolate drop 'Volcano Queen' with its waxy shiny red petals is really stunning. From Garden Madagascar Palm in its new pot. From...

I am ready for some autumn.  There was a tiny bit of coolness to the morning a couple of days ago, but it's right back into the 90's today.  Orchids blooming now include a Vanda Wayne rescued at a yard sale a couple of years ago, and a big white Phalaeonopsis . From orchids From orchids There are also flowers blooming on the morning glory and the cardinal vine, both of which were grown from seed packets I found when I cleaned out a kitchen junk drawer.  The packets were dated 1996, so I'm pleased and surprised that they grew at all.  The Dutchman's Pipe Vine continues to amaze us with it's spectacular blooms and the beautiful coleus that a neighbor gave me is blooming, too. From Garden From Garden From Garden From Garden From Garden From Garden From Garden

Yeah, it's Friday.  I'm working tomorrow.  Our library is open 7 days a week, so some Saturdays and Sundays are work days for me.  But tomorrow, I work with two of my favorite people, Michelle and Annamae, so it will be a good day.  I decree it. It's mid-summer in central Florida, and it's been rainy (even more than usual).  That means rampant growth of not just the stuff we want to grow, but the weeds and the fungi and the algae.  Pulling weeds for most people is a chore.  For me, it's therapeutic.  Algae takes a pressure washer and that's the hubby's job.  He likes it, and takes it to the max by pressure washing anything that's not moving.  Watch out, Caliope! Orchids in bloom right now include these beauties... From orchids From orchids From orchids From orchids All of them have captions with their names, which you can see if you click on the picture. The names just go to show that you can't judge the color they will ...

This afternoon, Wayne and I headed out to the USF Botanical Gardens for the last few hours of the annual Butterfly and Herb Fair. We scored a six pack of assorted flowering butterfly plants to fill a planter Wayne made out of the bottom of an old compressor tank. We found a Tibouchina to replace the one we lost in the freeze, and an amorphophallus bulbifer . Since the voodoo lily bloom, I've wanted more of these. This one will eventually have a jack-in-the-pulpit type bloom. After the hot and sweaty work of planting our finds, we sat on the patio with a cold beverage to enjoy the view.  Here are a few pictures of what's blooming now.  Clicking on them will give you descriptions and bigger pictures. From orchids From orchids From orchids From orchids

Every year about this time the Voodoo Lilies begin to grow.  They were here when we bought our house in 1992, and have since been moved to another part of the garden.  In 1992, there was no garden, just dirt and sand and these odd tubers. I've since found information about them in several books.  We are gradually making our little backyard into our vision of a tropical paradise.  In this vision, strange flowers, night bloomers, odd shapes and weird inflorescences abound.  Voodoo lilies, also popularly called devil's tongue, corpse flowers or arum, are related to Jack-in-the-pulpit and Amorphophallus titanium (Titan Arum). The Titan Arum first flowered in the western hemisphere at the New York Botanical Gardens in August 1937.  According to Bizarre Plants by William A. Emboden, "Visitors other than scientists and reporter-photographers were so numerous that they had to file by the greenhouse and view the the 'beast' through the glass panes.  Had they...