Back to blossoms...

My thumb is better. I can type some without hurting myself.

Back to what is blooming. Make that what WAS blooming.


One very nice plant is this Black Eyed Susan vine, also called a Clock vine here.

The flowers start blooming dark yellow, then fade to cream color. It will bloom from late Summer to frost.







This thing drops seeds too, but I never find any seed pods that have
seeds in them. I think the fairies must get them all.


This is one of my favorites, Bulbine.
This is the yellow, which I prefer, but
it also comes in orange. In Florida, they
call it Bulbinella. We are not so imaginative.

This is a hardy plant that will multiply
like crazy if it is happy where it is living.




And look at this. This is a Firecracker Fern.
I don't know what to compare it to, but it
is a nice unusual plant. It comes with a yellow bloom as well, but it is never as pretty as the red.

One very nice little plant is this, called Brazillian Buttons.




I got it at a Master Gardener plant sale, and it has made itself at home in my garden. It blooms from early spring to frost, and it does spread, via seeds, I think. I don't see great large colonies of it anywhere. This one is not easy to get seeds from either.




I have a couple of other things, like Christmas cactus, shrimps, and aloe vera blooming. Those things will carry on and on and on.....

Hooray! the camera is working...

You notice I didn't say 'fixed'? It might be a temporary thing.....

I missed a few flowers when I made my list, but I got most of them.

These were all blooming on New Year's Day.

Everything looks terrible now, after 2 nights of freezing temps. Some things will rebound, and put on new foliage and bloom again, but most will take a nice little nap now. Some things did not freeze at all, and are out there blooming now. This is one of them.

This is yellow cestrum. It gets quite tall, about 7-8', and puts on these blooms at the end of the branch. It did not freeze at all last year, and I am watching to see what it does this year.

This is asclepsis, Butterfly weed. The red is called "Silky Red", I don't know the variety of the yellow one. Butterfly weed is a good name. The orange, which we have also, is native. This is the host plant for the Monarch butterfly.

We found this little guy out in the front, and carefully protected him from freezing.

This is one of my favorites. It is called 'angelonia', and the cold won't hurt the plant, but makes the flowers look ugly. Then, with a little mild weather, it will start to bloom again.

This one, (below) is called 'flame acanthus', I think. It may be a red trumpet, but I will research that with my friend Jerry, as that is where I got it. In the meantine, isn't it purty?

THIS beauty is called Turk's Cap, or Christmas Bells. It will bloom nicely until the end of spring, or until hot weather gets here.

One charming attribute of most of these flowers is that they are all so easy to propagate. This is one that will grow about anywhere. Just stick it in the ground- It will grow!

This one is breath taking, it is so beautiful! I am really taken with blue flowers anyway, and this one is BLUE! The picture looks lavender, but it is really blue! It is called a Blue Sky Vine, and is pretty aggressive, but I don't care. It could cover up my house, that would be o.k.

I love that it blooms so late. January 1 is pretty late!

I have several more. I will put them in my next post.

The beginning of a collection...

These roses are part of a collection. I think they are all outstanding.







This is rosa 'Nacogdoches', now called 'Grandma's Yellow Rose'. This is going to be the new Texas SuperStar rose. Clear, strong yellow, once established, it needs little or no care. Large blooms, wonderful fragrance, and it blooms all year!














This is 'Belinda's Dream'. This rose possesses most of the characteristics of the yellow rose, plus it is disease resistant. No spraying!
















This is 'Double KnockOut'!
This is the newest Knockout, I think. I know that the old ones are fantastic, blooming like crazy right now. Just gorgeous!

a rose, by any other name....

Oh, wait! This is not a rose....

This is what we call 'bulbine'. The American Horticulture Encyclopedia of Plants calls it 'Bulbinella'. Whatever, it is still a marvelous plant.

It is native to S. Africa and New Zealand. The leaves are kind of thick, like an aloe vera, or a succulent of some sort. It blooms orange or yellow. The orange flowered plant seems to be the tougher of the two, but the yellow grows much taller, and much more elegant.

It seems to like whatever conditions you give it, but it doesn't like real cold weather.

Supposedly, you can grow this from seed, but I have not found seeds yet. Perhaps because I have not looked for seeds. Who would suspect you could harvest seeds from a succulent?

At any rate, you can propagate by division.

Very worthwhile, in my opinion.

The prettiest YELLOW flower....

This is THE prettiest, most vibrant flower in the garden. The prettiest yellow one.......

This is a Native of Texas called Esperanza. I think it was Greg Grant who saw the potential and went to work to put this plant in every nursery in Texas. It blooms like this most of the year.

It grows easily from seed or can be grown from cuttings. It will easily reach a height of 8 feet, blooming profusely for most of the way.

There is also an orange Esperanza, but it doesn't have the flash that the yellow one has. There is just something about this yellow flower that shouts "I'm happy! Be happy!".

And who could look at that flower and not be happy?