Odds and Ends around the garden

[MikeW]

Inca Sun brugmansia ( received by way of Jerry ), Lions' Tail ( being South African, had to have one ) and some long awaited epi blooms.

Cheers,
Mike

[MikeW]

Cup of Gold vine, and a ginger I got at a plant swap at Mikey's

[Sean]

It all looks wonderful! I really like the ginger and the Cup of Gold vine. The Brug isnt too shabby either.

Cheers,
Sean

[MikeW]

Plumeria, abutilon and a daylily.

[MikeW]

The beginnings of a jungle, my repainted fountain, and Inca / Peruvian lilies.

[Sean]

That Lion head spitter looks so much better terracotta colour than the old green, It's quite spiffy looking now.

Cheers,
Sean

[MikeW]

Thanks Sean - a little shiny yet, but by the end of summer it should have a good patina.

cheers,

Mike

[greenthumbnails]

I like the ginger plant.  Do you have to bring your Plumeria indoors for the winter?

[MikeW]

We never (normally) get cold enough to have to. I have eighteen of them scattered around the garden, mostly planted in the ground, so couldn't anyway. Last winter, despite some heavy hail one night, was fairly mild, and some of the plumeria did not even lose their leaves.

We did have a bad frost, and dip below 32 a number of years back, and I had all my tropical plants draped with every spare sheet and towel I could muster. The bougainvillea took most of the damage that year, but everything bounced back.

Cheers,

Mike

[Mikey]

Mike: I am GREEN with envy.  If I'm not mistaken, that ginger is actually a Heliconia and if it came from me then it likely is Heliconia mathiasiae.  I only have two kinds of Heliconia and one blooms every year, H.schneeana, and its flower doesn't look at all like that.   The other Heliconia was sold to me as H. mathiasiae and it has NEVER bloomed for me, thus I don't know what the flower looks like....until now.  In fact, the last I checked very few people here in SoCal have been successful in getting H. mathiasiae to flower because we lack the heat and humidity.  Congratulations my friend! 

[MikeW]

It was that plant meet and swap at your home some years ago now Mike. Everybody brought something and then we each took a turn picking out something. I came away with heapings of ginger - which I planted together - one of the few spaces I have that offers some shade. All of it was shell ginger - which puts on an awesome show each year, but one plant at the end looked a little different, and had never bloomed til now - so I assumed it to be a type of ginger too. If it is the 'impossible to make bloom' heliconia, then the credit is divided between dumb luck and benign neglect.
Anyway, this is how the bloom started.

[Kat]

Cool plants & lion spitter.

[Indiana Karen]

Lots of neat plants. 

[Sean]

That's great news Mikey!

So that's two heliconia's that you have got to bloom for you Mike. You must be doing something right.

Cheers,
Sean

[Kittyzee]

All of your plants are lovely, but that plumeria is spectacular!  Does it smell really good?  It seems to be in a lot of body lotions these days.  I love the look of your garden with the white washed walls, it looks very mediterranean! 

[Almaden]

Yes, the Plumeria is awesome. Its flowers give you perfume. They're all over places in Hawaii & Florida but I'm unable to grow them in Northern CA. Good job, Mike.