I honestly don't recall - maybe by the end of June...?

Narcissus got zapped by deep freeze a few weeks ago, but some new blooms have formed since then.

Carol I like the Blue Mistflowers. Not a ton of blue flowers out there. I didnt know the butterflies liked them too! I need to add them to my list of things to plant!

Tiffany, I am glad your Narcissus is returning. Do you know what variety it is? Is it fragrant?

Here are a few of my succulents/cacti etc. I am digging through my photos to find them all lol..

Monkey Cactus..

Selenicereus ..Queen of Night

A couple of variegated succulents

Epiphyllum

I will post more as I find them lol

Today pics...

Ember's Wish Salvia..I am surprised this is blooming now..its usually such a whimp. I dug up a clump and shoved it in a pot when we moved. It survived and my beloved Amistad didn't. So I will be buying a new Amistad this spring!

Meyer lemon babies amid sooty leaves.

Variegated Lemon blooming

Inspector Gadget following me around, doing his silly dance..making sure I dont do anything to "his" plants!

I can give you some small Amistads now.

Thank you, that is so sweet but I will be able to get some locally as many of the nurseries carry it here and you wont have to ship it lol.

It has been raining off and on for days here!

I was woke up by booming thunder shaking the house at 5am and I could hear the windchimes on the porch clinking & clanging like crazy so it must have been quite windy too! It has been absolutely pouring ever since. The goats are all hiding in the barns. They are just like cats in that they hate getting wet lol.

Is everyone else having crazy weather this weekend?

Jasmine, they are scented. I don't know what kind they are, whatever kind grows wild around here. Those were moved from an empty lot next door so they would get to bloom.

I've been trying to post some more photos but they don't seem to be loading with the storm. Our rural internet is kinda sketchy anyways, add storms and its horrid lol.

This plant was given to me by Mark , it belong to his late father. It went through hurricanes, cold weather and is still alive.

What a remarkable Rhipsalis!

Although not blooming, I post it because today I noticed that it is growing quite big. Some kinda Tillandsia, could be T. streptophylla.

@SusieQsie_Fla , please tell us whether any of your firespike flowers survived.

Sylvia, what a gorgeous and full lucious specimen that is! Does it ever flower?

Four, is your tillandsia mounted in a tree and di you have to protect it in the winter? It looks real healthy.

It was on a 4' long branch that I leaned upright against the trunk-branch crotch of the thin tree that is visible in the photo. The protection owes to the forest-like microenvironment in that spot.

At the periphery of that narrow strip of ferns and young oaks, a large pot of tender Brugmansia cuttings was fully protected too, even though it is practically in the open. (It occurs to me that although my compost does not become warm, assistance nonetheless may have been provided by non-growing vegetation consisting of a pot of leaves and a large pile of leafless stems and thin branches.)

Nothing blooming, but plenty of buds coming out. Spring plans are to completely redo all the garden beds, take things out, rearrange, put them back or move them. I'm creating a long bromeliad bed along the privacy fence in front of the apartment. I already have a few there, but a friend gave me more, so they'll go in there in the spring. Going to take everything out of the courtyard, pressure clean the porch, patio and walls, and maybe paint the inside walls white to reflect more sun. They're grey now, and starting to peel after 7 years of abuse by me and the plants. LOL It's a rental, but they let me do pretty much what I want with it.

I took a few pictures yesterday when I saw this thread. There are still some flowers in Palm City. I shared the Yes, today, tomorrow and ixora in another thread but I have a few more.

My day bloomers in the Koi pond.

Pretty yellow flowers reaching for the sun.

The shrimp plant is totally shot from the cold but from a distance I still see color. Also, check out the size of this thing!

It is huge!

The orchid that never stops coming back.

My front deck is very sunny.

The Jasmine has baby white flowers all year.

And lastly, not blooming but check out the size of this Staghorn! Based on photo albums of this property we believe that someone stuck a Staghorn on this oak tree around 1980ish.

Crazy pretty.

Do patio plants count?

I am a sucker for purple plants.

>"The Jasmine has baby white flowers all year." ___ Do you often see butterfiles drinking from them?

Everyone's pictures are so pretty! I have a few things coming into bloom now, so I'll post pics soon.

This morning two photos

Salvia coccinea

Passionflower Lady Margaret

I see a lot of butterflies, and tons of critters. I live on 2 acres in the woods and try not to use poison so they are everywhere. I have an abundance of bunnies and squirrels but the squirrels can’t even eat all of these pinecones. This yard is a learning experience for sure.

Joan I love your Waterliles. Do you know what variety they are? I grow some waterlies and lotus in water tubs. I used to have a pond at our old house plus some patio ponds. Our new place has a cypress swamp (I call it lol) and then two other ponds but I wont be keeping koi out there, lord only knows what's out there lol. We are putting a small pond for koi or goldfish in closer to the house. We have it partially dug already.

Wow you guys really have a lot blooming, jasmine, passion flowers, African Violets!

DG, you are gonna have your hands full this spring! I bet it will be nice whens its all finished. The bromeliad bed sounds lovely too.

I have a lot of projects to do here. Most have nothing to do with gardening because we bought a fixer upper on a lot of property- kind of a trade off to get the amt of land we wanted. So we are re-doing and fixing a lot of house stuff. I would rather spend time and energy in the garden instead. I get tired of it and disgusted and so just go out and play with my goats haha.

I went to Lowes garden center yesterday and they had some pretty pink tropical hibiscus out. I couldn't resist getting one!

I have a red version of that ground orchid and it's blooming now too. Seems to thrive on neglect 🙂

I think I have the same type of jasmine and tho it has the best fragrance, IMO, butterflies seem to ignore it.

They do like firebush, tho.

We bought this house in 2019 and the pond had a day blooming lily in lavender and a night bloomer in hot pink that is stunning. I have no idea what varieities they are but the hot pink(magenta really) flowers close around 8 am and the lavender open at that time. The hot pink doesn’t bloom as much in winter. I thought I lost it completely last year but it came right back in the spring.

Make sure you build rock caves big enough for very large koi. The birds randomly find the pond and they need to be able to hide for long periods from predators.

The leaves are a little darker on this night bloomer. If you find this one, get it for sure.

>"jasmine... butterflies seem to ignore it." ___ Thank you, Carol.

>"They do like firebush" ___ Why the mention of it? I can't imagine that yours is blooming now.

I do have a hot pink night bloomer. I cant recall the name if it..it might be Red Cup ir something similar. It is a tough lily. I also have King of Siam & Miami Rose. I had a few more but they havent bloomed since the move so I am not sure if they made it.

I was thinking of putting the deepest part of the pond 5 ft so the tall birds cant stand in there and planned a few ledges that stick out for fish to hide under. Someone gave me an idea of sinking a large pipe so fish could hide inside of there too. I want to kinda make a sort of uneven figure 8 shape (much larger on one side) and have a bridge of some sort across the center..that would give the fish more shade and another hiding spot.

I have seen herons in our cypress swamp area so they would def try to get the fish!

That magenta lily is so pretty!

I thought of firebush because it's near my jasmine.

Miami Rose

King of Siam

Not sure which one this is..its bluer in person

lotus

Red night bloomer

White Super fragrant daybloomer..bees are very attracted to it.

I need a lily with varigated leaves now. Thanks LOL I will start a koi pond thread so we don’t hijack this one.

This one should be closed (is it possible?) for commenting, given that it no longer is January. And a February initiated.

Someone can go ahead and start a Feb Thread and we can just post there. No clue on how to close a thread lol.

Ok, new thread is titled "February: Your flowers that appear this month" https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6346242/february-your-flowers-that-appear-this-month

@carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b >"die out when it gets really hot" ___

First flowers on newly grown small plants :

Photos taken today June 12; really hot. I will report when plants die.

@carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b >"die out when it gets really hot" ___ Hi Carol. Could be a matter of longevity, the heat being incidental.

Oct 31

Blue Mistflower still some in bloom.

A few week ago I uprooted some completely brown, bunched a fistfull together into soil in a pot. The apparently dead guys, unearthed today, have new shoots on underground portion :

Camellia japanica, been extremely mild up north until just now with the arctic airmass. They used to hold off till early March, now they start bloom in December and January. No bueno.

Wow! I am just getting really into Camellias. I took a drive north of us last week, in S AL. (hubby wanted to go to a store in the area)The Camellias were blooming like crazy up there!

Many were japonicas and they had them in full sun situations right in the middle of their front yards with no other trees for shade etc. I was always under the impression they needed afternoon shade. I figured maybe the big box stores would be carrying Camellias but I didnt see much of anything.

I may try a few in full sun. I can always move them.

IDK much about Camellias but there are a few around town I've been admiring for almost 20 years. They bloom @ different times, but the times are the same as they have always been. Some of them are many decades old and so many houses have one in particular that has plain red flowers with a LOT of petals that starts blooming in December & is just now coming to an end. I've seen hummingbirds visiting the blooms many times.

My neighbor next door has one sheared into a lollipop that is in the sun for most of the day except for a few hours when our house casts a shadow on it for an hour or 2. I love that shrub. I can see it from where I am sitting on our couch and there is always a mockingbird living in it. I'm not a fan of sheared shrubs in general, but the super-thick and tight foliage that can be the result can have some benefits.

In Zone 7b NJ, they would normally be peak bloom in March into early April, there would be a smaller, late year occasional bloom (so December). Not this year, this year with started blooming in November but it continued into January and February, and it looks like the peak will now be early March. They never bloom after late April. Mine get some shade from a Japanese maple in the Summer and Fall (these Maples hold their leaves through November here), but full sun most winter (which is not the greatest if your zone is really cold, but I have almost no winter bronzing on mine. Keep in mind, if DEER are an issue, they LOVE to eat these members of the TEA family! All are soil pH, acid-loving if that is a concern.

Japonica and Sasanqua are the most common species. P.S., Sultry, these plants love the winter snow up north, does not harm the blooms at all.

Eastern, white tail (herd of 8) was passing through on this lovely day in early March.

Thanks for the details about camellia.

41 North! Thats a beautiful Camellia too! Oh those deer can be so naughty. Our deer are, as well.. We have dairy goats here so I quit growing any Azaleas and am switching to Camellias. Azaleas are deathly toxic to goats. On the other hand, they adore Camellias which are not toxic to them. So its not surprising to me that the deer would love Camellias too lol. I can lock up my goats. Deer are a different story. They mostly stay out of our front yard and dont come up around the house or livestock pastures due to our Livestock Guardian Dogs. They do roam the wooded areas, ponds, and unfenced pasture areas. The nieghbors have deer blinds up on stilts in their back pastures so the deer have been hiding in our fenced in pond areas (a couple acres). Its swampy there so they can have it lol. I did plant some gingers out there the deer dont care about them. Our goats and pigs love ginger leaves.

I will be planting the Camellias in the front and maybe some in my (soon to be) fenced in side garden area. These areas may get too much sun so I will have to maybe plant a taller tree or shrub that will grow faster and lend afternoon shade. Still thinking about that! Nothing can just be easy lol.

Our soil is on the slightly acid side. I am in the upper FL Panhandle where it is hilly, so we have loamy sand but 2ft down is orange clay. Gardenias and Banana shrubs (Michelia figo/ now Magnolia figo) etc do well here. My hydrangeas err on the blue side. Our water is a neutral pH though. We checked the ponds pH because hubby wants to stock the deepest one with fish.

> "stock the deepest one with fish"

Is the plan that someone /something, besides the fish themselves, benefit from fish in there? Your dinner? The pond? Eagles?

I used to grow azaleas, but deer seem not to find them toxic and did eat them, BUT, they DO avoid my rhododendrons (which are also toxic), and in the same family.

P.S., Sultry, I like the Chinese Shell ginger best, it is variegated and fairly cold hardy.

P.S. 2, Say what you will about the "Eastern White Tailed", but I was amazed to just learn that their range goes from subarctic Canada to 18 degrees out of the equator to PERU, basically one species, even in the Keys, the dwarf Kew deer are just a variant of their more robust kin. That is amazing!

I dont see too many rhododendrons in my area. Azaleas are a dime a dozen so I can enjoy the blooms from most of the neighbors' yards lol.

Shell gingers are very common in FL. I often see the variegated and green forms in all the big box stores here. In N FL, frost can knock them to the ground but they return. I can get flowers on mine if it is protected in winter. I grew this one in the back of my old greenhouse so it would flower since the frost didnt knock it back. The 10 gal pot was just was sunk into the ground where the rhizomes broke through the pot and it spread everywhere lol. I would pull off the plastic of my old gh in spring and just leave some larger plants in place.

Weird about the Rhododendrons not being so prevalent, I thought Azaelas and Rhodies were close kin. But like I said, deer would ignore my rhodies but would eat the azaleas. Once you get off the coastal plain though, rhodies can be BIG (like 25 feet plus in groves), I only see small ones here but just to the west in cooler/higher zones, they are treelike, guessing a species of Rhododendron maximum. Mine will never get that big, but always loved both azaleas and rhododendrons.

P.S., Beautiful ginger, your Shell.

I do love the Alzalea and Rhodendron flowers. I used to have a beautiful red coral colored Alzalea at my old place by the back door. I always figured I'd bring it when I moved but then we got goats lol. I do have a lot of toxic plants to keep track of already..brugmansia, plumeria, etc...

I move those into the gh in the winter and have to keep them in a seperate fenced in garden area away from the other pastures. I have charcoal gel for livestock on hand just in case lol. Its not fun giving it to them.

most of my perennial plants too are toxic so the deer won't eat them., Grow a lot of Cherry Laurel and Hellebores

Deer won't eat them either.