March Foliage Follow Up: Monstrous Monstera

A few years back, in the summer of 2009, I was working part-time at a local garden center when a fun surprise came in our tropical order from Florida: 8 inch pots of variegated monstera deliciosa! In the 3-1/2 years I've had this plant, it's grown to the point that I'm not sure where I'm going to overwinter it next year.

Mind you, I KNEW how big these guys eventually would get. There are a couple in the rainforest biome at the garden center, and at least one of them has climbed up into the 2nd story canopy. Still, I couldn't resist. In the photo below, I included the couch arm and 3ft wide bookshelf as a reference... and then realized that two of the biggest leaves were cut out of the picture on the right!

On the smaller end of the foliage scale, one of my favorite succulents is Drunkard's Dream, hatiora salicornioides. At certain times of the year, its segments look like beer bottles, and it also shows off sweet little yellow flowers. Mine seems to be more upright than most, but there's still a lot of foliage spilling over the side of my broken birdbath. And it looks cool when backlit:

Last but not least, here's the real reason that I couldn't resist buying oncidium mendenhall 'Hildos' at the orchid sale:  It has cool leaves that are mottled with deep red!

And, like most colorful foliage, they look awesome backlit, too:

And those are the foliage highlights from around these parts today. To see more foliage from around the blogosphere, check out the comments on Pam's March Foliage Follow-Up post!

March GBBD 2012: Orchids and Snowdrops Edition

Since I've been more than challenged in terms of posting ANYTHING this year, I hope that you'll forgive me for this uncharacteristically brief Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post.  At least it's a post--and on the 15th, even!

First, An orchid I picked up at the botanical garden's post-show plant sale: Oncidium Mendenhall 'Hildos':

I like that these flowers seem otherworldly, but the foliage is the real reason I bought it. And it doesn't hurt that it looks like a botanical transformer badass in close ups:

Another orchid from the same sale, this is Miltassia Charles M Fitch 'Izumi' which came with two blooming stalks and a third stalk full of promising buds:

My third and last purchase from the show was an orchid that I've killed once already, but couldn't resist trying again. This is the last fading bloom on the "Coconut Pie Orchid," Maxillaria tenuifolia:

Other indoor blooms include Steve's poinsettia (a gift from his old office complex about 4 years ago), which I affectionately refer to as Charlie Brown:

I zoomed way in to make it look good...
but this IS the Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree of old poinsettias!

And this crazy purple heart, which has been blooming intermittently in a dark corner of the bathroom:

Outside, I can see the hellebores again now that the snow is gone. This one, with its dark petals and light, sanded-looking edges, is my current fave:

While I'm not a fan of white flowers, this one gets extra props for being in bloom in early January. The long bloom time and snowy winter is the reason for the wear and tear you can see in on the flowers in the background:

And my lone little clump of snowdrops, which live under the peach tree. I left the pits from last summer's fallen fruit in the picture so you could get a size comparison:

And that's all I've got to show off this month in terms of blooms.  For more of what's blooming around the country - and even around the world - check out Carol's post at May Dreams Gardens!  

(And check back tomorrow, too.  I managed to get a Foliage Follow Up post into the queue this month, too!)

Who's Confused: Me... or Bengal Orange?

This will be the second winter that I brought 'Bengal Orange' bougainvillea into the house. Last year, I put it on a prominent spot on the plant bench... and it quickly dropped all of its leaves and looked like a cluster of dead sticks attached to a trellis. Its "play dead" act lasted until June, when it grudgingly put out new leaves after a couple of weeks outside. In spite of its sunny summer spot, though, it never did bloom.

Since it looked so uninspiring last year, this year it got tucked into a corner where it would be mostly hidden behind a large-leaf hoya on a stand, and a dark leaf rubber tree. It promptly dropped all of its leaves as expected. Imagine my surprise when it decided to throw out (tiny) leaves a month ago... and then started to bloom!

Granted, I'm using the term "bloom" lightly here. With bougainvillea, the brightly colored "flowers" are actually the bracts around the flowers, not the flowers themselves. But they do add a nice touch of color, and were a big surprise since this plant didn't bloom at all this summer.

I'm guessing that the south-facing window next to its current winter home has helped to encourage it to re-leaf and bloom, but I'm a little worried about it now. I don't want to have it go through another leaf drop and really get stressed, to the point where I lose it! It's used to having a cool, dry season in its native home, so I hope that bodes well for me being able to keep it in leaf and happy until spring.

Fingers crossed!

Stragglers & Grasses: GBBD November 2012

Since we've finally had a couple of frosts here, the garden is mostly finished for the year.  All that I have blooming outside for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day are a few stragglers (an echinops seedling, 'Red Rocks' penstemon, and a few stalks of 'Acapulco' agastache):

Some grasses, like this miscanthus:

And a couple of lamium, like this patch of 'Purple Dragon':

Inside, the 'Blue Daze' convolvulus in a container of 'Bengal Tiger' bougainvillea decided to throw out another flush of blooms:

And one Thanksgiving cactus has decided not to wait for the holiday to put on a show:

I doubt that I will find any blooms inside in December, so this is probably it for the outside garden this season.  To find out what's blooming around the world this month, check out Carol's November Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post!

Fading Fall Flowers: GBBD October 2012

Amidst the fading fall flowers this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, the freshness of this blue globe thistle seems a little out of place. That this seedling even bloomed at all this year is a tribute to the long growing season.

All of my other flower pictures show either slightly bedraggled blooms, like this dahlia...

...or vivid flowers against the fading foliage of fall:

From top to bottom, this post featured:  'Fresh Look Red' celosia, echinops ritro, 'Lady in Red' salvia seedling, blue angelonia and an unnamed lantana, verbena bonariensis, variegated sedum, chocolate eupatorium, caryopteris, and 'Hameln' pennisetum.

Also in bloom in my yard today:  Alpine strawberries, various coleus, wax begonias, 'Victoria Blue' salvia, 'Black and Blue' salvia, pineapple sage, hardy plumbago, various peppers, 'The Blues' little bluestem, 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth, various pink Japanese anemones, various miscanthus, and 'Purple Dragon' lamium.

To see what's blooming around the world in various gardens today, visit Carol's October Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post!