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Imafan's Garden. What's in bloom March 2020

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 7:05 pm
by imafan26
I have plants in the landscape and in pots in bloom most of the time. This week the orchid show was cancelled. I do have orchids in bloom. I have o.k. flowers but my culture is not good. I don't routinely spray for pests and I don't do the monthly fungal sprays most people will do to have the best in their collection. I only treat what I need to treat.

Re: Imafan's Garden. What's in bloom March 2020

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 7:41 pm
by applestar
Gorgeous flowers! Sure underscores your Hawaii location. :-()

The bougie is your bonsai? Such a fascinating hobby.

Re: Imafan's Garden. What's in bloom March 2020

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:09 pm
by imafan26
Yes the bougie is actually a plant I had in a pot and escaped. I had to continuously cut the 20+ foot thorny canes. I finally decided to dig it out, and remarkably it did not give me a problem. I dropped the stump in a pot and it did not die. So, it's so hard to kill a plant with a strong will to live. So, I decided to pot it up and turn it into a bonsai. This variety is called Barbara Karst. It came from my dad's neighbor's house when he had to give away the plants he could no longer take care of. I have another one. The one in the ground is equally unruly, and has one stubborn root I have to keep working on. This plant was grown from a cutting and I have had it now 29 years. I even joined the bonsai club. I go there for consultations on how I should train it. I have done other bonsai before, but bougainvillea are not easy to train since they are brittle and prone to rot if they are over watered. They also resent repotting. Of course all orchid, bonsai and hui meetings have been cancelled now.

Re: Imafan's Garden. What's in bloom March 2020

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 3:36 pm
by TomatoNut95
That's gorgeous! Wish I could grow orchids. I'm really shocked the one I still have is alive! :lol: Maybe my sprinkling that cinnamon on those roots helped it some.

As for outdoor flowers, I'm trying not do a too many flowers and just keep it to edibles. I do have ONE verbena plant that grew from a packet of seed I planted. It has a bud on it, I wonder what color it'll be! :) I may do morning glories, I have some seed for Scarlet O' Hara.

@Imafan, have you ever worked with Passion Flower vine? Someone gave me seeds for that and I didn't have room to start it months ago. I've never grown it from seed, is it hard to do? Also my cousin sent me a bunch of wild flower seeds from Illinois which included roses. How do you start wild roses from seed???? Roses are WAAAAAYYY out of my line.

Re: Imafan's Garden. What's in bloom March 2020

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 11:32 pm
by imafan26
Passion vines are easy. They are a vine and they do need a trellis. I have included a U.H. publication. The germination temperatures are included. I doubt the vines are winter hardy. The fruit here are primarily pollinated by carpenter bees. The curly tendrils of the flower are harder for honey bees to navigate, but you will see honey bees on the flowers as well. Here they are stung a lot by fruit flies.

https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepub ... EC-345.pdf

Most of my flowering plants, will flower almost all year long. Some are reliable seasonal bloomers. I try to grow things that do not easily reseed, or they become weeds. Roses do flower most of the year. I actually have to pick a time in December or January to cut them back arbitrarily, because roses bloom at Christmas time. Alyssum does reseed, but the seeds are heavy and as long as I don't weed whack them and spread the cuttings, they will stay more or less close to where they are planted. I do have some that pop up in the grass, but they are easily weed whacked. I have agapanthus, amaryllis, gladiolus (which does produce cormels), hibiscus, gardenia, orchids, geraniums, plumeria, mussaenda glabra, Fire Chief crepe myrtle (sterile, does not produce seed), bromeliads, guzmania, Pink ginger (which does spread), parrot beak heliconia (escaped from the pot and now I will have to kill it) Cuphea (technically it is listed as a Hawaiian invasive plant, but I have grown it for years and it has never caused any problems, blue daze, and dwarf acalypha (firetails or dwarf chenille plant). I keep most of the ornamentals in the front yard and most of the edibles in the back, although it is not exclusive. I have orchids, hibiscus, plumeria, and the rambler roses in the back yard and I have peppers and some of the citrus trees in pots in the inner courtyard.

Tomatoes, papaya, cutting celery and bitter melon are actually weeds in my yard that the birds drop after eating fruit. They also drop chili peppers, but as long as it is not in an awkward place, I keep most of those. The rambler rose and dragon fruit also keep extending out and will root where they touch the ground and I have to cut them back. A prickly proposition!

I did have cleome, and a lignum vitae and I had to take them out because of the problem with them reseeding. Most of the nasty weeds I have are from reseeding plants traveling from the neighbors' yard and prickles that I have brought home on my clothes from the other garden. The murraya koenegii also will reseed so I have to keep up with cutting it when it starts to flower to keep it from spreading in my yard. Sanseveria, ginger, and aloe are the other plants I have to keep pulling out because they will spread by rhizomes and they are not easy to kill. I once had gai choy cabbage litterally growing like weeds in my community plot. I could not even find enough people to give it away.