An orchid in flower!
I have had this orchid tied to the branch of my lychee tree, and occasionally remember to water it, and suddenly this morning I glanced at at it to find that it has a lovely spray of orchids. This is such a very delicate orchid in colour and in the fragility of the petals - they seem almost translucent.
My favourite heleconia the pink and orange one is flowering again - in fact two flowers now - one still a slender bud. It is a spreading one so I will have to be vigilant to stop them spreading all over the garden. You get clumping and spreading heleconias, and sometimes just have to put up with the spreading type in order to get one you like.
At the end of my path into the center of the garden is a beehive ginger, and these are the developing flowers - they shoot up out of the ground next to the branches. They are very long lived, start out like this and slowly develop more unfolding petals. These are not actually the flowers - the flowers then eventually grow out of the pockets.
Here is a picture of a very hard to photograph asparagus - you supposedly get very slender stalks like this the first year and they start to get bigger and more prolific every year after that. So far the stalks have just been snacks for the gardener, not enough for a meal, besides which I am supposed to leave a percentage to form fronds to feed next years crop. All a learning experience, though, and others say that because they didn't harvest at all that their plant stopped bearing! I have spread seaweed around as mulch - supposedly they like that!
I do enjoy pottering around my little garden and growing what I can, but also enjoy tropical gardening on a grand scale from a visitors vantage point. See my other blog for a trip we took to the Cairns botanical gardens for some truly beautiful flowers.
http://explorethetropics.blogspot.com/
My favourite heleconia the pink and orange one is flowering again - in fact two flowers now - one still a slender bud. It is a spreading one so I will have to be vigilant to stop them spreading all over the garden. You get clumping and spreading heleconias, and sometimes just have to put up with the spreading type in order to get one you like.
At the end of my path into the center of the garden is a beehive ginger, and these are the developing flowers - they shoot up out of the ground next to the branches. They are very long lived, start out like this and slowly develop more unfolding petals. These are not actually the flowers - the flowers then eventually grow out of the pockets.
Here is a picture of a very hard to photograph asparagus - you supposedly get very slender stalks like this the first year and they start to get bigger and more prolific every year after that. So far the stalks have just been snacks for the gardener, not enough for a meal, besides which I am supposed to leave a percentage to form fronds to feed next years crop. All a learning experience, though, and others say that because they didn't harvest at all that their plant stopped bearing! I have spread seaweed around as mulch - supposedly they like that!
I do enjoy pottering around my little garden and growing what I can, but also enjoy tropical gardening on a grand scale from a visitors vantage point. See my other blog for a trip we took to the Cairns botanical gardens for some truly beautiful flowers.
http://explorethetropics.blogspot.com/
The picture of orchids looks awesome. The best way to get better with your camera is to walk around and practice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Flowers but was even more impressed by the beehive ginger - never seen it before.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. My daughter keeps saying well, Mom you are not going to get better pictures when you have a camera that is over 10 years old! so I am saving up for a new camera, and yes walking around practicing all the time as well! I just adore all these tropical flowers, I am not sure Sue if the beehive that I have will eventually fill out like the one at the botanical gardens.
ReplyDelete