Walking Iris in bloom

It was almost four years ago when I stumbled along an unusual looking plant at "The Greenhouse" - a local greenhouse that charges too much for their very nice plants.  It reminded me of an Iris, but the leaves were more glossy and thin.  Those features, along with the fact that it was potted in a hanging basket, had me guessing this was probably not a winter hardy plant.  The coolest feature of all was that towards the ends of many of the leaf blades there were new plants forming!

Baby plant forming on my Walking Iris (Neomarica gracilis) back in August 2006, when I purchased the plant.

I handed over the big bucks for this plant and quickly posted pictures of it to different forums online, looking for an ID.  I got one pretty quickly: Neomarica gracilis, commonly called Apostle Plant or Walking Iris.

I learned that the plant flowers from the ends of the leaves and then produces new plants there.  The leaves sag with the weight of the new plant and the new plants take root, hence the name Walking Iris.  Therefore, the plant that I had just bought had finished blooming.

I found an empty hanging basket and placed it next to my plant and buried each of the new plants, leaving them still attached to the mother plant.  A couple of months later I courageously cut the mother leaf free, leaving myself with two pots full of Walking Iris.  It was actually almost indistinguishable which was the "mother plant."  I was proud.

I kept my plants pretty healthy over the last couple of years, but there were a couple of rough times where my plants dried out and I would lose some of them.  Last summer I lost a whole hanging basket and a half - but some hung on!

And for the first time last week, my plants bloomed!

First bloom

I'm so glad to have these blooms, as much for their appearance as for the promise of new plants.  I can start to fill in my hanging basket again.  And hopefully I can keep them all happy until next Spring.

Closer look at the first bloom

The blooms are very attractive, but only lasted one day.  My plant produced three blooms, each a couple of days after the previous.  So conceivably, a fuller plant than mine might have a couple of blooms at a time over a period of a couple of weeks.  I have something to look forward to.  (Please forgive the ending of this post with a trailing preposition.)

My Asarum collection begins

One of my resolutions/goals for 2009 was to start a collection of Asarums, a plant genus that I have admired for a while.  I didn't get any Asarums during 2009, but I did place an order for 6 Asarum plants just 8 days into year 2010.  That order was delayed until the weather was permitting of shipment.

My love of Asarums began a couple of years ago when I saw a Chinese Wild Ginger (Asarum splendens) plant at a local garden center.  I think I bought one or two of them and planted them in our corner garden for the summer.  Even though they were supposed to be winter hardy in my zone, I was a little worried they would die and I would never have another opportunity to buy such a cool little plant.  So I dug mine up and kept them potted in the house over the winter.  I replanted them outside in the Spring the next year and Pippa promptly dug a hole where they were located.  To be fair to Pippa, she sometimes likes to dig nice cool depressions in our flowerbed to lay in, but I think this instance was in search of a mole that had been digging all over our backyard.  In the process, she managed to mangle my Asarums and they didn't survive.

My fears of not being able to find this plant again have been validated each Spring when I have returned to the same garden center to see that the supplier which grew the Asarums is still providing plants to this garden center, but no Asarums!

I found that Asiatica Nursery has tapped into the Asian (primarily Japanese) obsession with these little plants and has a HUGE variety of plants for sale on their website.  Their prices reflect the limited availability, so it took me a little while to save up enough to make my first order.

Here's what I got:

Asarum asperum

Asarum asperum

Detail of Asarum asperum blooms.

New leaves formed on my Asarum asperum just a couple of days after I got them.

Asarum caudigerum

Asarum caudigerum

Detail of somewhat withered Asarum caudigerum bloom.

Asarum maximum (Panda Asarum)

Asarum maximum with nice bloom

Asarum maximum bloom detail

Asarum minamitanianum

Asarum minamitanianum with bloom.

Asarum minamitanianum bloom detail

This one reminds me of the movie Tremors.  If you've seen the movie, you are likely to agree with me! :)

Asarum savatieri var. suntoh (albino form)

Asarum savatieri var. suntoh (albino form).  No blooms on this one.

Asarum takaoi

Asarum takaoi. A very small bloom is withered at the base of the stems.

A Macro View of Spring

After getting a much nicer D-SLR camera, I realized a feature that had been on my more simple point-and-shoot camera.  I am very happy to have the new D-SLR, but I am also happy to know that one type of picture I was always struggling to get with my point-and-shoot is not so hard after all!

There is a macro setting that basically  instructs the camera to use a shorter focal length to focus on a nearby object in the foreground.

I like using this feature to get detailed shots of blooms or different features of plants.  So here's a look at some of the blooms from my last post - only in macro!

Saucer Magnolia Tree (Magnolia x soulangeana)

Saucer Magnolia Tree (Magnolia x soulangeana)

Flowering Almond Bush (Prunus glandulosa)

Flowering Quince Bush (Chaenomeles speciose)

Euphorbia martinii 'Tiny Tim'

Flowering Peach Tree (Prunus persica)

Flowering Peach Tree (Prunus persica)

Dwarf Rhododendron

Our "wild" violets - Wooly Blue Violet (Viola sororia)

Miniature Daffodils - thumb used for size comparison

Signs of Spring

A little over a week ago was the first day of Spring.  This year Spring greeted central Oklahoma with another snow event.  For the first time in my life, I lost count of how many times it snowed on us this Winter!  It was a record breaking year.

The good news to come from the snow is that everything was well watered throughout the cold half of the year.  And now the trees are starting to wake from their slumber.

A blooming fruit tree near our house

Every year I notice new things in the Spring.  This year I noticed many trees in my neighborhood covered in little fuzzy red along the tips of their branches.  The trees were so thoroughly covered that it almost looked like fall colors on the trees.  I thought maybe it was the new leaves coming out of buds on the trees.  On closer inspection, I decided they weren't leaf buds emerging, but tiny blossoms.  These trees are not what I would considering flowering trees.  I'm wondering if these trees always light up red in the Spring or if this only happens after really wet Winters like the one we just had.  I'm thinking this Winter and Spring were special.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of these trees and now they have stopped their show of red.  I'll be watching for this next year.

I pass this Forsythia on my way to work every morning. I like to call it the "Glowing Orb of Gold."

Our quince bush as of a couple of days ago.

Colors that I never miss in the Spring are the yellow Forsythias and pink Quince bushes.  They are some of my favorite colors during the year.  This year our Quince bush bloomed more than a month later than it did last year!  There are many other fruit trees in bloom: cherry, plum, peach and pear.

I pass this beautiful tree on my way to work each morning, as well.  I believe it is a Cherry tree. It is old and large and gorgeous. I couldn't capture it well in the picture. The blooms sort of blend in with the sky color. I'll have to try again next year.

Christie and I spent some time on Saturday just driving around town looking at all of the blooming trees.  It was like looking at Christmas lights.   We drove slowly down the streets, looking down each side street and backtracking whenever one of us announced a good tree worth turning around for.

Our Saucer Magnolia / Tulip Tree (Magnolia x soulangeana)

We didn't realize how many large Saucer Magnolia/Tulip Trees (Magnolia x soulangeana) were in town until this weekend.  There are some surprisingly large ones in our neighborhood that must be very old, since they are relatively slow growing trees.  Many of these trees were in back yards and we only saw their tops over fences because we were looking for them as we drove around town.

My favorite Daffodil is white with a rusty orange center. We have just a couple of these blooming in our corner garden.

Daffodils and Hyacinth have been blooming all over town for a couple of weeks and Tulips are just getting started.  We are excited about the unveiling of our new tulip colors this year.  It won't be long!

Our peach tree

Our multicolored Peach tree is blooming up a storm, as well.  The dual colors of this tree amazes everyone that looks at it.  I have a lot of close up (macro) pictures I will be sharing of many of these blooms over the next week.  Stay tuned!

Blooming in and out

Sorry for my unplanned hiatus over the last couple of weeks.  Life has been very busy!

As Spring approaches. more blooms are appearing - inside my greenhouse and outdoors.  I've gotten a couple of Gerbera daisy plants as gifts over the last 3 years or so.  Usually they were blooming when I received them, but I could never coax another bloom out of them.  For some reason, I've had trouble with them drying out and wilting, only to be revived again when I noticed and gave them a healthy watering.  But I never could keep them happy long enough to bloom - until now!

My first ever "earned" Gerbera daisy bloom

This Gerbera daisy just bloomed last week and still looks great.  Gerbera blooms seem to last quite a while.

The spring Crocus have broken through.

In the corner garden, Daffodil, Tulip and Crocus stems have risen.  Only the purple crocus are blooming so far, but soon they will be joined by the orange crocus and the Daffodils.  It might be closer to May before we see Tulip blooms.

Buds on our Quince bush

Our Quince bush is covered in buds again and will be opening up any day now.  It is a sight to behold.  We'll probably be taking cuttings every couple of days to bring inside and enjoy at our dining table.

New blooms in the greenhouse

Some of my plants have been surprising me with blooms lately.  I figured the lower sun angle would be enough to trigger dormancy in some plants, even in the 65 degree temperatures of the greenhouse.  But none of my plants are going dormant and some of them are blooming for the first time.

Our neighbor across the street (the one who gave me the Begonia cuttings) is letting me overwinter her variegated Bougainvillea in my greenhouse.  It is in a hanging pot along a rod I installed in the top of the greenhouse and has just been hanging in there.  It didn't have a lot of leaves when I took it from her and I haven't seen very many new ones form.  But all of the sudden, it is blooming!  I think I will have to run it over to her house soon (on a warmish day) and show her the blooms.

First blooms from my Bougainvillea plant

I also have a Bougainvillea that was my Mom's.  She gave it to me about three years ago.  It has had moments of rapid growth and lots of new leaves, but always drops its leaves and looks really sad in the winter - until the greenhouse.  It has been pretty happy this winter in the greenhouse and is actually  producing the first blooms that I have seen on it since it has been in my care!

New blooms on my purple shrimp plant (Justicia scheidweileri)

I bought several Shrimp plants last Spring and Summer, most of which were blooming when I bought them and have continued to do so.  One of them, the Purple Shrimp Plant (Justicia scheidweileri), has been particularly difficult, though.  It wilts quicker than another other plant that I grow.  But it also bounces back quickly and is blooming for the first time since it lost its initial blooms.

After forming some small white flowers, which I didn't photograph in time, my Ying Yang Bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris) are now forming pods of new beans.  I hope to get a decent crop from these plants, so that I can keep a bean or two myself and share the others with other local greenhouse owners.

Newest bloom on my yellow Datura

My lime tree and yellow Datura continue to bloom on a regular basis.  I dropped seeds from the Datura parent plant onto the soil under the same plant and some of the have sprouted and are producing new little plants.

Seedlings of my yellow Datura plant

I am anxious to see some of my Hawaiian ginger plants bloom, but that might have to wait until this Summer.  Some of them are quite large now - over 4 foot tall.  I would expect those are pretty close to blooming size.

Bonsai Pruning

Last week I spent two days at the Myriad Botanical Gardens as a volunteer, and it was great.  There's really not a better working environment than to be surrounded by tropical plants all day long.

The first day I spent working with the Education Coordinator, who is also in charge of taking care of the Bonsai trees.  The Myriad Gardens' Bonsai trees are kept in the propagation room, outside of the public view, until there is a special occasion to show them.  This room is packed with hundreds of orchids, which are moved into public view as they come into bloom.  The Bonsai were donated by a grower more than 20 years ago and have been maintained by the same person at the Myriad Gardens since then.

Pruned and wired bonsai tree (Ficus sp.)

Having never really worked with Bonsai before, I was given a 5 minute introduction and a pair of pruners.  I forgot to take my camera the first day I worked, so the only  pictures I have are after my pruning work.

Several bonsai trees after being pruned and wired.  The small-leaf Ficus tree in the center has had two branches anchored with wire to the roots, to create two areas of low growth.

I went to work, hacking away at four different Bonsai trees: three Ficus (two different species) and one small-leaved Schefflera.  We pruned both the growing shoots and the root ball, before repotting them with new soil and replacing them on the growing benches.  I also had the opportunity to work with the growth angles of several branches, wrapping them in wire and reorienting the growth or weighing the branches down by anchoring wire to the base.

Wired branches to redirect growth

Before the trees were donated to the Myriad, some of them had been neglected due to the owner's poor health.  Some of the trunks had been wrapped in wire that was not removed soon enough and left scars in the trunks.  Although the trunks have been healing, the scars are still apparent after 20 years.

A branch anchored to the roots for lower growth.  Scars are apparent on the main trunk on the right side of the image.

It will be exciting to see how full these trees become as a result of my pruning and to see how they respond to the wiring.  Unfortunately, this May the gardens will be closing its doors for a year, to go about extensive reconstruction.  Many of the plants (including most or all of the Bonsai) will be sold in a plant sale this Spring.  This might give me the opportunity to buy one of the trees I have been working on.  But the prices might be a little prohibitive, too.