Boy, I like the sound of that "March"! It certainly is the most hope-filled month of the year: hope that warmer weather is not long off; hope that green grass is coming shortly, hope that shoots of crocus and daffodils will be poking up any minute now. Plus, we have St. Patrick's Day, that announcement of spring and fun, accompanied by Irish whiskey, good Irish cheddar, and cabbage, potatoes and corned beef. Yay, Spring!
Anyway, as promised, here are some Fertilizer Friday photos (http://www.tootsietime.com/) of the flowers I saw in Orlando, Florida on my recent trip (I actually have current photos of real flowers this time!). These are all from my trip to the Harry P. Leu Gardens, which I haven't finished writing the post for yet -- I will tell more about these extensive botanical gardens in a few days when I post about my visit.
 |
| Camellia japonica 'Abundance' |
 |
| Another beautiful camellia from the Harry P. Leu's collection of 240 varieties of camellias. |
 |
| A white one (sorry, no cultivar info) |
 |
| A flower from the fascinating Popcorn Cassia (Senna didymobotrya) that I saw in the Leu's Cottage Garden. The leaves apparently smell like popcorn when rubbed, which I wish I had known while I was at the garden, as my whole family would like to have smelled it. The tree was not labeled and I had quite a time trying to look it up on Google images. |
 |
| A hollyhock or some other sort of Malva (who knows what will grow down in tropical lands?) |
 |
| I had to include some roses -- I'm always so excited to see them blooming in the middle of winter! |
 |
| Some sort of flowering vine, again not labeled.... |
 |
| Two florets from the "Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow" tree (Brunfelsia pauciflora), a tropical tomato relative that has dark purple, pansy-like flowers that fade to lavender-purple on the second day and to white on the third, so that it looks like it has multicolored blooms. Fascinating -- I'll post a photo of what the overall effect of the whole tree looks like on my next post. |
Anyway, I feel better that I was able to post photos of real flowers this time, and somewhat interesting ones. Thanks for reading!
Hello! You might see if you can find some popcorn cassia seeds! I purchased a plant a couple of years ago that had been begun in a small-town greenhouse. It did smell like Popcorn... But it is only an "annual" here in Iowa. It was fun to have as a novelty! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog and for your comment! I've never seen those exotic plants offered as an annual around here, but then, I wasn' t aware it existed before my trip and wasn't looking for it. Perhaps I'll get some seeds -- all I need is another non-hardy plant for my grow light in the basement.... :-) BTW, what small town was that greenhouse in, as we live in the same area? Thanks!
ReplyDelete