I am so jealous, I have plants growing for spring, but only a couple of anything in bloom... it is starting to drive me crazy!!!

Beautiful as always, Silvia!

That is one massive ground orchid! Very nice!

Thank you Suncoastflowers, the 2 is Queens Wreath, here are some more pictures....

New Guinea vine, it starts like these and I am training it on the trellis.

Queens Wreath

I have 2 clivias that were gardener's gifts and they are both blooming this year

A begonia

Surprise? the white one that reseeded.

SMC, be patient, your time will come when your flowers are in bloom.

Thank you Writersblock, you are always nice and polite.

Thank you Oldmangroot, I divide the orchid before I left because it was even more packed and now they are both blooming.:)

Silvia

Flowers from the trip to the half of the world

The botanical garden

Orchids

The most beautiful roses that I have ever seen!

Silvia

Very lovely Silvia, I am in love with the New Guinea vine flowers ♥

I want a Queen's Wreath but I'm afraid it will freeze here in the Winter.

Gorgeous, Silvia! I just put my clivias outside and watered them for the first time. They probably won't bloom this year, because I had nowhere safe to put them outside for most of the winter, so they didn't get enough cold. I'm going to sell them this year, because there just isn't a good way to take care of them here. I brought them back from having snails almost kill my gorgeous big plant, and now only have 4 plants, two which are old enough to bloom.

Bradisha, I also love the New Guinea vine, out of all my plants it is the easiest one to care for, no thorns, or sap, insects or disease, it looks good all year round but better when it flowers, the show just started, it will be covered with blooms soon!

Rita, Queens Wreath is hardy from zone 8 to 11, even if it freezes it should come from the roots, if you have a big space like pergola it looks gorgeous! My space is smaller and sometimes I trim it drastically but to my surprise it flowered after that.

Silvia

D, I have some pictures for you....I was talking to the person that was working in the botanical gardens and I asked him about some plants that he was putting around like mulch and he explained that he is the one that does the bonsai there and volunteers and take the plants from the lake and put them as mulch, so everything gets recycled.

The bonsai

A lot of angel trumpets, different colors

My favorite flowers

And the fruits at the market, I ate 1 of each!

Silvia

Hi Silvia,

Your gardens are beautiful!!! After the last good rain our Queen's Wreath bloomed also. Ours flanks both sides the garden's gate.

Craig

Hi Craig, thank you! I have 2 Queens on each side of the fence, this way they hold together and don't lean on the fence.

I visited the crater in a small village and from the top it looked like this.

After just a second it looked like this

Silvia

More plants in my garden, I am taking an inventory before I go to the Leu Gardens sale this weekend.:)

Red bud

I got this last year at the Leu

A cane begonia in full sun getting tall

Silvia

Silvia, thank you so much for the pictures! Yes, recycling everything is right up my alley. I have so many lovely earthworms this year and the soil is improving so much just from piling up leaves and cuttings and kitchen scraps since I got here.

Nature has everything we need for beautiful gardens. You just have to copy what she does.

D, I always like when the gardeners recycle, in my last trip everywhere that I looked there were signs "save the earth".

Some of the market pictures

medicinal herbs

there were so many varieties of potatoes, they even peeled them for you, the taste was amazing!

Flowers

So many orchids, so little time to see them all.:)

Silvia

What is the name of the botanical garden and the city with the market? I didn't see any identification for this beautiful area.

Jadegarden, it was meant as a quiz for the gardeners, remember I said the trip to the half of the world?

The President's Palace had flowers everywhere, the most beautiful roses that I have ever seen!

Silvia

The flowers inventory at my house continues...

Indoor blooms, all my violets are blooming!

At the porch

Outside a pretty color hibiscus

A variegated nasturtium

My care free rose is blooming next to a peach that has little fruit already.:)

Silvia

All I see with your one picture is this

SMC, Never saw those yucca tulips, is that paper blooms? lol.

I am still waiting for your future bulb blooms. the minute that you don't expect it, they will show up. To be a gardener is a practice in patience.:)

When I was talking to the young man that was putting the mulch around the botanical gardens in Quito, he told me me that every morning he volunteers to pick up the plants from the lake for the mulch and after he does bonsai. I told him " you must be very patient" he smiled and he said "yes"!

Silvia

Silvia, your garden is looking beautiful as always! Thanks for sharing with us. Love that Tecomanthe. I need to find one some day. Queen's wreath is looking beautiful also. Thanks for the tour to Ecuador's botanical garden!

Silvia - you do a wonderful job with flowers. My garden is more colored leaves than flowers because of all the shade. The pictures of your garden are quite refreshing after coming in from the jungle.

The photos from Quito are spectacular. My one trip to Ecuador was to Guayaquil on our way to the Galapagos. I'm putting Quito onto the bucket list after seeing your photos. By the way, that flowered Yucca you saw is the same one I brought from NJ 19 years ago and planted next to the driveway. It blooms several times a year and the lawn maintenance guys that work in the neighborhood are always begging me for the blooms.

Silvia, you are so blessed to be able to see all these wonderful places, and I feel so blessed that you post picture of places I will never see.

Silvia, I am speechless !! Your array of plants, etc is truly fantastic ! My new girlfriend here has already set up two long Shepherd's Hooks with two hooks on ea,..one for hanging a pot of red and white flowers, the other for hanging a hummingbird thing-a-ma-jig,..just outside my lanai. She says it'll take a few months to attract them, but after that special on PBS TV last night, I can't wait. She's also renting a roto tiller today to plow up grass for a huge butterfly garden. My head is spinning,..quite a thrill for a grouchy old grizzly bear from New York City ! lol !

Silvia, inmy area the yacca tulips are made of egg cartons.

Yes, that's what how all the yucca tulips I've ever seen are done--by cutting up the individual bumps from egg cartons and then disfiguring the yucca by sticking them on the spikes.

Silvia, I still think my non-GW friend who always wants me to send him links to your posts is right--you should have your own TV show!

Anna, thank you! it is so nice to hear from gardening friends, it makes everything worthwhile!

Ricky, thank you! your garden is beautiful in a professional and classy way, mine is in full sun.

One week is not enough to see Ecuador, the beaches, the Amazon, the mountains, the Galapagos. We were in Quito one week and it flew between the museums, the churches, the Old Town, the artisan markets, the parks, the botanical gardens, the zoo and the food!

When you wake up in Quito is like the mountains are hugging you...

D, thank you, it is my pleasure to share my experiences with all of you, this way it gets to be double the fun.

Jofus, thank you!I am so glad that you liked the pictures and congrats on the new girlfriend! I guess that she has big plans for you and the butterfly garden.) good for you!

Bea, that is interesting, I don't think that I've seen them before.:)

Writersblock, thank you very much! you are so kind. It is so rewarding to know that someone likes my posts.

Yesterday I had a very zucchini harvest day and made Ottolenghi's zucchini meatballs, brandy zucchini bread, zucchini fritters and I still have more to make zucchini pickles....

Pictures are coming for all of you to enjoy.

Silvia

Time to see the churches, most churches are inside made of gold, this one is called Basilica and it has a gothic style with gargoyles made of native animals.

This park La Carolina is huge! people go there with the family to exercise to run, play games, sports. The botanical garden is there and the reptiles. They asked us if we want to assist to a class about the native snakes and pet the boas and you know what I said, no! I said I got my own, the black ones and I don't pet! lol

This cactus has halucinogen properties more so than the mushrooms, it is used in ceremonies. This was in the equatorial line, interesting fact is that there everyone weighs 1 kilo less due to the gravity.

Back to some views of the botanical gardens.

Roses everywhere

Silvia

Great pics

Thank you Glenn

More pictures from the botanical gardens

Bromeliads, carnivores plants and orchids...

Pretty colors!

The dry garden

Silvia