Orange Crush

My Orange Crush Daylily has begun to bloom.  My plant has over 50 buds on it right now.  

Aloe in Bloom

Our Aloe started blooming in the Spring and has continued to bloom on a regular basis all year long. This one is the prettiest thus far.

Pampas Grass

Today we cut back our pampas grass and while working with it, hubby and I decided this would be perfect to use as a security measure.  We have two and each one was about 6 feet tall and at least 4 feet in diameter.  If you were to plant these right outside each of your windows, no burglars would be able to get in for fear of being cut and scratched by this plant.  It would also be great to keep teenagers from sneaking out. 

Aloe Vera Flower

Our Aloe Vera plant is flowering.  We have had a plant previously that flowered and made a pretty white bloom.  This one appears to be more of a peach color.

Jalapeno Peppers

I have several jalapeno pepper plants and they seem to be struggling and until today I couldn't figure out why. They continually looked like they were being eaten, but they had no bugs on them, they have been getting plenty water, have lots of blooms, but never any baby jalapeno peppers. Today I was outside checking my garden and was so excited because there was a baby pepper plant about 3/4 of an inch long. Two seconds later - literally - I hear this crunching sound and look over to see Riley eating my baby jalapeno! I scolded her, which I rarely do - hubby is the disciplinarian, and now I am off to Lowe's to get some fencing to go around my plants.

Daylily Plants

I can't wait for my Stella de Oro Daylily plants to bloom. I have 9 plants that are beautiful and when I counted today I have over 100 buds on them getting ready to bloom (I stopped counting at 116). I also have an Orange Crush Daylily plant that isn't ready to bloom and 2 Halcyon Plantain Lily plants that have already had babies. When they bloom they should be a lavender color. I will be sure to post a picture when everything blooms.

Plantain Halcyon Lily

In October/November last year, I was in Lowe's and they had some plants on discount. They looked pretty sad, but they were only a quarter so I decided to by 2 of them. They were called Plantain Halcyon Lily. It was really hard to tell what they were supposed to look like, but for a quarter what did I have to lose. About 3 weeks ago, I checked them and the roots were still good, so I planted them in the ground. Today I noticed that at least one and maybe both of them are going to come back to life. I can't wait to see the lavender colored flowers they make.

No Gardening Today

Today I was going to plant the veggies in my garden, but that will have to wait. The weather is supposed to be close to freezing this weekend and when I got up (actually when the dogs woke me up), it was pouring rain outside. I still have a hanging pepper plant that I might be able to work on; if not, there is plenty I can do inside. I am also going to venture out today to purchase some trellises; I want to plant some mandevilla or something that will climb on them near the house.

Time to Pick Peppers

Today was the day to pick peppers again. We got 14 bell peppers and 2 finger peppers. We still have tons more in various stages of readiness. These pepper plants are amazing. They are very sturdy and take little care. We did notice today that it looked like an animal of some kind had also helped themselves to a few peppers.

The Tomato Plant That Refuses to Die

During the summer I had a beautiful tomato plant that produced a lot of really tasty tomatoes. After it stopped producing fruit, I decided to stop watering it and let it die. I set it to the side of the porch for several weeks and watched it slowly dry up. Just about the time I was going to pull the plant out of the pot to discard it, I noticed some green spots on the plant. I was a little shocked because I had not given this plant water for weeks and it had been really hot during that time. A few days went by and I noticed more green spots, so I pointed it out to hubby. His response was "sometimes I toss the left over dogs water in that pot". Seriously? This plant came back to life with a little bit of left over dogs water? Trust me when I say little bits; my dogs rarely leave any water in the bowl.

After that I decided that if it could survive the hot Texas sun on small amount of left over dogs water from time to time, then perhaps it deserved to live after all. About that time, we started getting some rain so I still never watered the poor thing. After a few more weeks of surviving on left over dogs water and now a little rain, I noticed the plant was putting out blooms. Low and behold, over this past weekend, this little plant now has a small tomato. I cannot believe this poor neglected plant is actually producing more fruit. Clearly this plant is meant to live. Now I will have to start giving it more attention.

Green Thumb

I never really considered myself as having a green thumb, but recently I have been growing things rather well. I have a tomato plant that I intentionally did not water after the growing season and it is perking up and becoming green again; I have several pepper plants that I just tossed under a tree and they now have 8 or 9 Bell Peppers; and I have another pepper plant (possible Finger Peppers) that also has several peppers growing. This weekend I purchased some snow pea seeds and I am going to try growing those.

The plants I have been intentionally taking care of are my Stella de Oro Day Lilies. They are doing great. I would like to add some Orange Crush Day Lilies to my flowers if I can find some.

More Fun in the Yard

This afternoon was really productive. I can home and finished planting the rest of the ground cover around the trees and in the small flower bed. Now I have Irish Moss, Liriope, and Fiery Dianthus as the ground cover. Thanks to Katreader who helped me to identify my flowers as Daylily. We are almost done with the front yard. We just need to put down the edging, put dillo dirt in all of the beds, and put down the red rubber mulch.

After finishing the planting, we went to the back yard and checked on my sweet peppers and cayenne peppers. The cayenne are not doing very well, but the sweet peppers are coming up nicely. After that we enjoy a game of fetch and chase with the dogs. Everyone is worn out and we are working on making a quick supper so we can kick back and watch American Idol.

Marigolds?

These flowers are in my front flower bed and I am not sure what they are; marigolds perhaps? They have a really pretty yellow flower and the blooms only last a day or two. Since we didn't put them in, I drove around our neighborhood to see how many other houses had flowers like these and no one has them. That actually makes me a little happy because I really don't like it when all of the houses look the same; unfortunately, I can't ask anyone what they are.

Do one of you know what kind of flower this is?