A Morning Walk Around the Garden in Winter

 

 

I love to take my morning walks around the garden to see what’s new and if any new flower is opening to greet me today.  The weather this morning is spotty, nice pockets of sun interspersed with light downpours, typical of East Hawaii in winter. It reminds me of this favorite song that asks “Have you ever seen the rain…. coming down on a bright sunny day?”  Yes, here it could be raining in one block and just down the road sunny beautiful skies all at once.

 

A new miniature ginger blossom just starting to unfold

 

 

Anyway as I’m walking around the front yard I see one of my favorites greeting me this morning. It is a tropical rhododendron vireya called Aravir, sweetly scented like perfume with jasmine undertones.

 

 

Take a look at one of these hibiscus flowers coming out in full bloom, the stems are literally fifteen foot tall, I think its time for major trimming again which in this garden never seems to end – things just grow too quickly.

 

 

A close up detail.

 

 

Here’s a real charmer in my side yard, it’s a lemon yellow anthurium, quite unique don’t you think? I just captured some morning rain still dripping down the front petal.

 

Here’s a wild patch of purple anthuriums, coleus and the pesky sword ferns that are real weeds here and pop everywhere to my chagrin. The purple turns into white when they get older and in the ground can last up to a month’s time frame.

 

in a quite corner of the front yard is this hot fuschia bromeliad surrounded by pink geraniums and coleus and that pesky sword fern again.

 

 

This hibiscus plant in the front yard is so hardy, I keep cutting it back severely every month and it stills sends out branches now over six feet tall, sometimes things grow just to quickly out here in the garden, lots of maintenance to do even during winter time.

 

This patch of New Zealand impatiens I keep taking cuttings to start off new plants, and it showers me with even more flowers, I love this plant.

 

 

One of my mini cymbidiums on my back patio, this is my third set of blooms this year from this sweet plant.

 

Our native hibiscus is a beautiful white with a hot red column and anthers, its perfect.

 

This hot pink medinilla has been blooming for over three months now and the beautiful berries will turn a deep purple color on these same cascades lasting another month or so.

 

 

In my front entry is this sweet vireya and lightly perfumed in the morning, I just had a nice flush of flowers and this is the last grouping to bloom from this miniature.

This is my contribution to Garden Bloom Day, to see other wonderful gardens blooming today go to http://www.maydreamsgardens.com

The Hot, The Loud and the Proud #4

Show us your tropicals and exotics, your hot mediterranean colors and wild combinations, amazing discoveries and unusual variations. Or how about something exciting you just saw, a crazy garden,  amazing garden art or design, an inspiring visit or hike?

This meme is open to all (you do not have to live in an exotic location to participate)  and will be on the last day of each month…so mark your calendars and lets do something fun on the hot, the loud and the proud meme. I’ll have the link available early, east coast time (USA) to catch you early birds and even earlier for those of you in other countries.

Can you believe that this is in a beautiful conservatory in Washington DC?   We are at the home, museum and gardens at Hillwood, one of Majorie Merriweather Post's homes, which is now a museum. This well cared for estate is maintained by a horde of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about preserving the past and glory of this home. Post, the sole heir to the cereal Post company became on of the wealthiest and most influencial women in America during the early to mid 1900's and shared her home and gardens to many philanthropic functions and eventually endowed this place as a museum to house all her treasures.

Below is shot of the entire greenhouse behind this beautiful rose garden, can you see how large the greenhouse is alone, it practically houses thousands of exotic plants especially thousands of orchids.

This is just one of the side galleries that lead to many more galleries of exotic plants from around the globe.

We will start this tour from the greenhouse to coincide with our Hot meme theme, I had a wonderful time having the entire place to myself this morning since most of the garden tours had not yet started and I had ample time to visit and talk to the greenhouse volunteers busily preparing for the visits that day.

Even though they had some plants blooming, it was one of those in between times when they were just getting the orchids trimmed out and fertilized for the next flush of blooms. All the exotics, orchids and other cutting flowers are grown specifically to decorate all the various interior rooms of the home which are intact with all the furnishings and personal collections of the owner including a fine collection of French and Russian period pieces that were her main passions and intent of preserving this home as a museum for her collections.

Mrs Post always insisted on fresh flowers grown in her gardens to decorate her home and when she endowed this originally to the Smithsonian Museum, she insisted that the gardens be well maintained and the flowers continued to be grown to fill all the interior rooms with color. That didn't work to well with the Smithsonian, which only allocated three full time employees to care for the properties. It literally takes an entire village and slew of volunteers to maintain the home and gardens, you really see the beauty and pride from all the volunteers efforts in showing the home, the museum treasures and finally the extensive gardens.

I talked to a few of the volunteers and it looks like their dedication really shows especially when you are in a green house when the temperature in the morning was already soaring to past 90 degrees and the same for the humidity.   Ah to suffer for beauty, I think I would do the same if I get to work or even volunteer in an amazing place like this.

Here's the piece de resistance, once you enter the greenhouse, you see this drammatic showcase centered in the central domed pavilion, quite spectacular!

Another angled view showing the beautiful bromeliads growing from the branches and orchids below.

I'll continue the tour of the gardens in the next upcoming post, but please do enjoy my fellow bloggers posts below to see more of the Hot, the Loud and the Proud.

Whats growing in the garden today....

I usually like to walk in the garden every morning after the morning rain here in orchid land....usually just to squish all the slugs and snails that come out in droves after the morning rain. Its also the best time to check out whats blooming and what fruits are almost ready to pick. Its amazing that only after living here for a year, I'm already starting to harvest my own fruits and vegetables including oranges, limes, pineapple, papaya (almost ready), okra, peppers, spinach, eggplant and a slew of herbs.

Of course I'm also spending a lot of time just eradicating weeds, weeds and more weeds. You know, it seems like you blink the the weed becomes a shrub, you blink again and then its a tree. I've been putting my lawn mower to use with the weekly mowing and helps with all the mulch I'm starting to collect and spread to other areas of the garden that are nutrient deficient. Even though everything is green I also have to spread fertilizers regularly since the cindered soil leeches nutrients very quickly and makes some plants look quite anemic and susceptible to diseases. Unfortunately its usually the plants (weeds) that you don't take care of that tend to outgrow everything else.

At least I'm successful with some of the plants I've featured below.

The papayas are almost ready to be picked...unless I decide to make green papaya salad instead.

The tangerines are tangy and sweet depending on how soon I get out to pick them.

Even the weeds are growing strong around the lion.


Here's a hybrid New Guinea Impatient with variegated leaves, I'm going crazy over all the amazing varieties available and how easy they are to propagate.

I love tropicals, this anthurium is over a foot long with amazing colorations....

What new surprises are coming out today?

This Buddha is starting to get overwhelmed by a patch of coleus that started at 4inches and is now over four foot tall and overtaking the rest of the garden bed.