Friday, July 12, 2013

Early July at Pink Gardens

I've had shamrocks, or Oxalis, for decades. They were one of my mom's favorite house plants. All of ours have been green, though, some with a tinge of dark red in the veins. I was recently given this beautiful purple variety. The green ones love to be on the porch for the summer, and this purple/pink variety does, too. The green ones have small white flowers and this variety has pink flowers.

A new addition to the cast-iron Victorian planters this year is this variety of Begonia. They're salmon-colored, which goes perfectly with the historic color of the house, just visible on the left.

Another type of begonia I've had for years. Technically an annual, I winter it over in the attic and it comes back every summer. This year I've added that pretty green foliage underneath in the same planter.

Another new addition this year is Celosia, or Cockscomb. I have two varieties, a gold and a dark pink, both in the photo above. They SHOULD get to about four-feet tall, but so far they seem to be in suspended animation, lol. My entire cutting garden looks like it did a month ago. I think we've had way too much rain and too little sun. They're living but not exactly thriving.

I also winter over my geraniums. This pot has both a red and a white geranium planted together. I'd say they're close to ten years old.

Very pale lavender Hosta. The flowerstalks are four-feet tall but they're almost all horizontal this year because of all the heavy rainstorms we've had.

This large honeybee doesn't seem to mind the Hosta not standing upright!

One of my hydrangeas beautifully blooming. This bush changes color as the season progresses. Today most of the mature flowers have turned to this lovely blue-tinged with lavender.

The same hydrangea's younger blooms are almost pale green. You can see the petals at the bottom right just beginning to turn blue.

This view shows the blue slowly starting to turn purple. By fall they'll be dark burgundy.

Showing young and mature blooms on the same plant.

I recently bought this "Wandering Jew" houseplant. It's a form of Tradescanthia. I remember having darker purple ones in the 1970s, but this one with almost aqua and green added to those darker purple stripes, is really striking! I have it outside for the summer and it's more than ten times larger than when I bought it in early June. It's quite something on my porch steps.

I don't have any cultivated morning glories this year. I bought a few beautiful plants but the rabbits have completely eaten and killed them and I'm not going to replace them. This is a wild variety which borders the property. They're "just" white but still pretty. I have no idea why the rabbits don't eat these, which are MUCH more plentiful in the yard, but they only seem to eat the blue ones. Oh well. Last year was a wonderful year for my blue ones, so I'll remember those.

I have approximately seven or eight colors of zinnias this year. Many have been killed by the rabbits and chipmunks, but I have plenty left. They're not growing very quickly, again the weather is at fault, but I'm hoping to have some beautiful bouquets next month and September.

9 comments:

  1. A bong for bees. lol

    It's just lovely having you and your flowers back. Beautiful.

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  2. OOH! fun! Hope Granny stops in soon...she will "swoon" for sure! I also had wandering Jew in the 70's...and boy did it wander :)
    I feel badly that I had posted before, BUT I see it didn't show up! HMMM, interesting.
    Hope all is well with you....we're due for some "good" aren't we?? Indeed we are!
    TAKE CARE friend!

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    1. Hi Mare! There will be more flowers photos to come. I have a backlog of almost 1,000 photos since June to go through! I could sure use some "good" these days. Thanks for stopping by, as always!

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    2. oh, I just saw the first (or second?) comment. I had to change to a "moderated" comment form recently. I was starting to get more than 100 spams every day that I had to manually delete! So it may take time for comments to appear as I have to check my email for notices. Please bear with me!

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  3. Casey, I just love your pretty posey pics today! We, too, have been having trouble with our rabbits and groundhogs eating anything we try to plant. We spent a good amount on 2 Oak Leaf Hydrangeas to fill in a gap in foliage on our property line. The bunnies and groundhogs ate every single bit of green on them! Right down to the ground! Dang!

    Then today our new neighbors came over to ask if they could trim back the hedge on the property line for about 15 feet in front of their shed. WELL! When they were done, they didn't trim. They took out the whole hedge! This was about a 15'x 10' x 20' hedge, and half of it was on OUR property!e We're very sad about this. And that the new neighbors lied to us in our very first contact with them. Sniff.

    I have been very very sick so I'll join in with you and Mare and hope for some good to come right about now! LOL

    xoxox
    Katie

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    1. Hi Katie! Oh, I'm so sorry about your hedge and your new neighbors! That's not the way to start a new neighborly relationship! I hope you're feeling better soon. I hope all of us are feeling better soon! Thanks so much for continuing to stop by this place!

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  4. THE HOSTA MAKES ME MISS THE HOUSE I GREW UP IN. MOM AND DAD HAD THEM ALONG THE WHOLE SIDE OF OUR HOUSE BY THE DRIVEWAY. I ALWAY LOVED THEM WHEN THE FLOWERS WOULD BLOOM. SHE LOVED ALL FLOWERS. DAD WASN'T INTO THE FLOWERS. HE DIDN'T LIKE MOWING AROUND ALL THE FLOWER GARDENS IN THE YARD.HE JUST PUT UP WITH IT. FOR ME,I NEVER COULD GET ENOUGH. I MISS HAVING A PRETTY YARD ALTHOUGH THE FRONT LOOKS GOOD.

    THANKS FOR SHARING ALL THE PRETTY FLOWERS ABOVE.

    GRANNY

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  5. JUST CAME BACK AFTER READING ALL THE COMMENTS.HI MARE, IT'S ALWAY A GOOD DAY WHEN YOU APPEAR HERE. LOVE YA TO PIECES. YOU KNOW ME AND THE LOVE OF PRETTY FLOWERS AND NATURE. THEY MAKE ME FEEL GOOD. I WANT GRAMPS TO PLANT A FLOWER VINE TO CLIMB ON MY BIRDHOUSE POST OUT BY THE BIRDFEEDER AND BIRDBATH. HOW I WISH I HAD A PHONE LIKE YOURS TO TAKE PICTURES AND BE ABLE TO POST THEM TO YOU AND CASEY. MAYBE SOMEDAY.WHEN YOUR ON SS CHECK YOU HAVE TO COUNT PENNIES.IF I WAS OUT AND ABOUT I REALLY WOULD USE THE CAMERA. HUGS TO YOU,CASEY AND PEEKERS.

    GRANNY

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  6. Granny check out Safelink or Assurance wireless in Florida. You might qualify for a free cell phone on the governments safelink program for seniors.

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