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Welcome To My Garden
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 6:52AM | Share Article While preparing for this post, I have come to realize a few things.
1) I am using the title a year late. Isn't this what the garden blogs are expected to start off with?
2) It's been a few weeks since I stuck to my tagline of "one plant at a time" but what is one more week, right?
3) I have shown you only 33 of my plants! Yes, I counted. My main concern when I started this blog was that I would run out of plants to post about. However, at the rate that I am posting (obviously not often enough) and assuming I don't acquire any new species, I have more than enough blog material for the next 5 to 8 years. Imagine that! That is if I ever end up blogging that long.
4) My posts tend to favor my passions, namely tillandsias and cycads. While I am admittedly not a "flower person" or what Loree of Danger Garden describes as "super flower focused", I do admire flowers. I may have just portrayed myself as having none of my own.
5) Lastly, limiting myself to just "one plant at a time" has prevented me from joining in on Carol's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day which started in February 2007. This post changes that. Today, I plan to share much more than the usual.
A caveat before I welcome you to my garden: this post is loaded with images. If you don't mind that then let's start with the plants in front of the perimeter wall. Most of these plants were already present when we bought our house.
The plumbago are found low and lush, both in front of the wall and in the plant boxes in front of the house.
Around the lantana is where I am sure to always find butterflies.
This plant was already in the property when we bought it. I was told that it is "Shanghai Bloom" but a search on Google of this common name has not helped in its proper ID. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. EDIT: Thanks to Rosie, I now know that this is a Jatropha integerrima 'Compacta'.
Hibiscus sp.
I have both yellow and red Ixora.
My white mandevilla.
My yellow Allamanda. I also have A. violacea but was not able to take a picture of it as it has gotten quite tall and the blooms are above my head.
We call this Doña Aurora, locally. It is an endemic species.
We then proceed inside the wall and look around the front of the house. This is the flower of a spiny bromeliad with NOID.
My Medenilla sp. is blooming for the second year in a row.
My clump of Tillandsia stricta is a colorful sight hanging outside our bedroom window.
Anthurium andreanum.
I don't have a trellis but I'm trying to make a shaded portion from the front wall extending towards the house. I just let this NOID plant grow along guide wires that I put in place. Hopefully, it will be in place by next summer. The next picture shows the plant growing over the front wall. EDIT: My deepest gratitude to Helen for identifying this plant as Tristellateia australasiae (Shower of Golden Climber, Vining Milkweed/Galphimia).
On the west side of the house is space that we are saving up to develop. For now, it is mostly concrete. It is also the ICU area of my plants so there is not as much to see as in the front of the house. This is supposed to be another kind of fire tree but, again, I have NOID. EDIT: I have so many well-meaning online friends who helped with the ID of this plant. Jimmy calls it the Pride of Barbados, locally known as Caballero. Anni calls it Mexican Bird of Paradise. Alex calls it Dwarf Poinciana or Peacock Flower. All of these are the Caesalpinia pulcherrima. Case closed.
The Thunbergia covers the monstrous old water tank and has new flowers regularly.
Heliconia sp.
The tiny flower of my Curcuma alismatifolia. I already featured this plant before. Click here to learn more about it.
Heading to the eastern side of the house, we see mostly tillandsias in bloom. Here is my clump of Tillandsia ionantha 'Apretado'.
Tillandsia cyanea.
Oleander is a beautiful but very poisonous plant.
Tillandsia fasciculata.
Tiny white flowers of my Cryptanthus acaulis.
Another clump of Tillandsia ionantha. I am not sure what form, though.
Last but definitely not least is my Tillandsia capitata "Marron". Isn't she a beauty?
For more blooms from all over the world, check out Carol's May Dreams Gardens where she is graciously hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day August 2011.
For more Macro Monday, check out Lisa's Chaos.
Reader Comments (47)
Good to see you at GBBD! For someone who doesn't have a lot of flowers, you have a LOT of flowers! Great selections. Do any have fragrance? A tropical garden at night with just ONE scented flower is a memory all its own.
BTW: I once worried about running out of plants to post, but since I buy new ones each year, it's a mute point. Just don't get insane like me and look at a plant at a plant nursery and say to yourself.."I wonder how this plant would look on my blog...I mean garden.' Ha ha :-)
David/ Tropical Texana/ Houston
@ David: Ah, but the flowers are a small percentage of my plants. My favorite scent belongs to the Queen of the Night that I featured a few posts back. I have a tiny Tillandsia flower that smells fantastic that I didn't include in this post because it deserves a post of its own.
Hahaha! You made me laugh with your purchase criteria.
@ Loree: I didn't realize how many until I started taking pictures. :-D I'm in love with the "Marron"!!!
With my url having hyphens, your blog isn't recognizing the address...
http://hootin--anni.blogspot.com/2011/08/poeticjustice-lol.html is my Monday Link...stop by if you can.
Congrats! Your caption has been selected and is posted today!
@ Grace: Thanks for visiting my blog. Some forms of Tillandsias are really outrageous. You can check out more in my Facebook gallery here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Plant-Chaser/185051768225631?sk=photos
@ Anni: Thanks for the ID. I've edited your link and will definitely drop by.
@ Laura: Thank you.
@ One: I thought we had to post everything in bloom. Well, they just happen to all be blooming together right now.
I made it? Wonderful! Thank you!
@ 1784: Thank you for the ID. Yes, tillandsias are really interesting plants.
Happy GBBD :)
@ Paul: I'm glad to have been able to join. :-D
@ SR: I only have a couple to a handful of specimens per species.
@ Diana: I think a lot of people are stumped on the "Shanghai bloom". I'll check out the different species of frangipani. Thanks for the heads up.
@ Ewa: Thank you!