This is an Easter cactus, Rhipsalidopsis.
It is finally blooming mid-June.
Maybe we should call it an Eid cactus,
since it is neither Easter nor spring right now.
Its blooms are pointy and sweet.
A cactus by any other name…
Flower
Rhipsalidopsis
Author: Flower Roberts
Worth the Wait
I was given a piece of this Epiphyllum three years ago.
It was my first cactus orchid. I have been unsure of how to care for it.
It has grown well but never bloomed..
until today.
Hooray!
I hope I don’t have to wait three more years for another bloom,
but this lovely flower was worth the wait.
Flow
Rain Lilies Right on Time
I know that three days after we have a good rain,
my lovely pink rain lilies will burst into bloom.
Zephyranthus robustus is also called Fairy Lily.
They look like bouquets in the garden.
Magical!
Flower
Daylily Update
The deer battle continues. I have pulled out all the stops.
We have fence. We have Deer Scram.
We have stakes. We have bird netting.
So far so good.
Here are a few survivors.
I cannot let the deer learn to eat my flowers or they will stay in the area and only eat my juicy flowers.
I am being cruel to be kind. I do not believe in interfering with nature.
I do not feed the birds(except hummingbirds) because they stay in one area
and the bird’s of prey learn to hunt there most of the time
and everybody gets lazy and crowded and spreads diseases…
It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature!
FLOW in the KNOW
Froggy Nights
High volumes of frogs with high volume calls are taking the nights by storm.
This has been the froggiest summer yet.
There are frogs on the walls and
frogs in the walls.
Frogs on the windows.
Frogs on the doors.
Frogs on the gutters.
Frogs on the rocks.
Frogs right under our bedroom window. (Mercy!)
It is beginning to feel like an invasion here.
There are frogs everywhere and more on the way.
Somebody Save Me!
Frog Mama Flow
Ants, Beans and Scales
Must I do battle every single day here?
I paused to admire my new little green coffee beans on my coffee tree.
There seemed to be quite a bit of action around the beans.
Ants were busily running back and forth along the branches.
They were tending to their flock of scales. A nasty insect that sucks sap.
There was a busy little food chain with my beans at the bottom.
For the next hour, I sat in the rain with skewers and Q-tips.
Interfering with nature. I killed hundreds of scales. The ants skittered away.
The removal was followed by spritzes of warm Dawn water.
First my buds and now my beans!
My bunnies better not be next!
Oooh Wee Baby!
Warrior Flower
South Seas under Protection
I will put almost anything between the deer and my darling daylilies.
So my garden is beginning to resemble a junk yard.
This ‘South Seas’ bloomed amidst the mess.
I have a new method that has been working well and looks less messy.
I have been hanging a fence ring on a pole around the blooms.
It is high enough so the deer cannot stick their hungry heads down in it.
The grooves on the posts hold the rings in place so that they are not tossed out of the way by the bunch of munchers.
I found one ring thrown in the middle of my driveway by an overzealous eater!
I will be buying more posts today.
‘South Seas’ was worth all the trouble.
Don’t you agree?
Fighting Flower
Hot Chocolate Calla
This plant is an easy-pleaser.
It has thrived wherever I plant it.
I love the blooms and the foliage.
All it needs is enough water to stay vertical.
‘Hot Chocolate’ wins the prize for the best calla.
Flower
Peacock Alley
I have been fighting to protect daylily buds long enough to get a photo of one bloom from each plant.
I actually burst into tears in the garden yesterday.
One of my slow-growing daylilies, ‘Gentle Shepherd’ was decapitated overnight.
Here is a survivor.
‘Peacock Alley’ with sparkling raindrops.
Pointy, pink and pretty.
My flowers are my friends.
The deer are not my enemies.
I am torn between flowers and fawns.
My world is tiny.
My garden is important to me but so is nature.
Flower
