Yesterday this accomodating butterfly just sat and posed and posed and posed. He is pretty tattered and had nearby competition from a huge preying mantis, but he won my shot of the day in the garden award. I just made that up. I have been very lax here, but the garden has totally gotten away from me.
To harvest tiny tomatoes and fiery peppers, I had to blindly reaching into huge walls of morning glories and feel around. Even finding my radicchio was a real challenge the other day. And good luck with the cukes...they are so intertwined with the dwarf fig that I have trouble spotting them, but at least they are up off the ground.
I know I should get out the morning glories especially before they go to seed again, but it is so hard as they are so beautiful, climbing and twining their way up the sunflowers and everything else in sight. Perhaps tomorrow morning I will try to photograph them with all the other competing plants. A real jungle.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Blooming Sanseveria
Usually at this time of summer, my houseplants are in need of some cleaning, trimming and general refreshment, but this plant suddenly decided to put on a show.
I have never seen a bloom on these good old standby houseplants which are usually tucked into dark spaces and are good for scrubbing air! This one is by a slider on the east side of the sun room so maybe that is why it decided to bloom like this. First tall tall spikes shot up, and then these very delicate flowers opened. It really is quite striking and rivals the nearby hoyas which are also blooming right now.
This one worries me a bit...makes me think of century plants whose bloom signals an end to the plant. We will see.
Other surprises in the garden...with the recent cool weather, the lawn in the new yard has been rejuvenated although I have had to water it. I am so conflicted about keeping a lawn, but the dogs just love it so, and it is so soothing on the eye on hot sunny days.
The acorns are starting to fall, joining all the ones split open by the squirrels...they are good sized and very noisy as they hit my metal roof. Some leaf clusters are dropping too, and that process will accelerate as we get into autumn...I expect that they will all be down before I leave for Panama at the end of November.
All the roses in both yards that rebloom are doing their thing, and the ice bergs in particular are very welcome in the evenings. The morning glories are glorious every morning...they have swamped the vegetable garden which wasn't doing much anyway. Weird weather this year...all the questions at the fair were about why people weren't getting their squash or tomatoes as in previous years. My stock answers were the cooler than usual night, and the higher than usual humidity in places near the water.
Two things gardener's can't control so maybe that helped them feel better.
I have never seen a bloom on these good old standby houseplants which are usually tucked into dark spaces and are good for scrubbing air! This one is by a slider on the east side of the sun room so maybe that is why it decided to bloom like this. First tall tall spikes shot up, and then these very delicate flowers opened. It really is quite striking and rivals the nearby hoyas which are also blooming right now.
This one worries me a bit...makes me think of century plants whose bloom signals an end to the plant. We will see.
Other surprises in the garden...with the recent cool weather, the lawn in the new yard has been rejuvenated although I have had to water it. I am so conflicted about keeping a lawn, but the dogs just love it so, and it is so soothing on the eye on hot sunny days.
The acorns are starting to fall, joining all the ones split open by the squirrels...they are good sized and very noisy as they hit my metal roof. Some leaf clusters are dropping too, and that process will accelerate as we get into autumn...I expect that they will all be down before I leave for Panama at the end of November.
All the roses in both yards that rebloom are doing their thing, and the ice bergs in particular are very welcome in the evenings. The morning glories are glorious every morning...they have swamped the vegetable garden which wasn't doing much anyway. Weird weather this year...all the questions at the fair were about why people weren't getting their squash or tomatoes as in previous years. My stock answers were the cooler than usual night, and the higher than usual humidity in places near the water.
Two things gardener's can't control so maybe that helped them feel better.
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