Itty-bitty Plumeria
This is the very beginning of my very first Plumeria bloom. I started this plant from a stick about 4 years ago. It has never bloomed before, so we'll see if it does this year!
This is the very beginning of my very first Plumeria bloom. I started this plant from a stick about 4 years ago. It has never bloomed before, so we'll see if it does this year!
As Spring started to show it's face the farm girl in me started to get a little restless. So, I had to try growing a tomato plant. Besides, my Italian Parsley needed a friend! We'll see how it goes. Hopefully we will have some orange tomatoes at some point this summer.
This is a pineapple that Zak and I planted right after we got married. We had eaten a wonderfully sweet and delicious pineapple for dinner one night and decided we had to try to grow another like it. It grew wonderfully, but it never would bloom! It is supposed to take 18 months to produce fruit. Ours only took five years to bloom!
To plant a pineapple you cut the top off and pop it in some water until it starts to root and then you put it in soil.
You might be able to see the little purple flower on the left side of the blossom. Those little purple blooms will be popping out out all over before the fruit starts to grow.
This view is just to give you a little perspective on the size of the pineapple blossom. It is right in the center of the plant.
I keep trimming the blooms off of my basil so it will continue to grow, but it keeps on blooming. So, I had to get a picture. They're pretty little blossoms! My sage is also blooming, but I didn't get a picture of that. Spring is in the air!
You may remember watching Koa in Update Forty Nine help me plant some seeds. This is the "fruit" of our labor. They seem to be doing very well.
The pansies are the smaller flowers at the bottom of the picture. My grandma always had pansies in her garden, so of course, they always bring a smile to my face. I hope ours will actually grow!
Blanketflowers look a lot like daisies. I was looking for Gerber Daisies (my favorite flower) when I was shopping, but I had to settle for Blanketflowers.
You can see here the beginnings of the top of the pineapple--the part you would eventually cut off and plant to grow another pineapple.
Here is geranium I have growing on the lanai. It is my only flowering plant thus far, but it really blooms well when we get some rain. It would probably like to get a drink in between rains once in a while, too.
This just another view of my baby pineapple top. You'd think I was a proud mama or something.
This is my pepper plant that I have had for about a year or so. It seems to be doing really well. We pretty much always have peppers to use!
Is that the cutest little tomato you have ever seen?! I was pleasantly surprised yesterday with the first evidence of fruit in my little garden.
This was the first good shot I was able to get of the tomato blooms. When I had tried before they all came out very out of focus.
I now have two little bud-lings on my Plumeria. This is the one that is farthest along. I think we are still a long way from being a real flower, but I have to stop and closely inspect it every day just to see how things are progressing.
This is my very first bud. It actually came right on schedule. The packet of seeds said they should start to bloom around 30 days after I planted them (or something like that) and right on schedule, the bud showed up!
This is a random Bromiliad that I have but have no idea what it is or how to care for it. Zak got it as a gift for me last year, but it didn't come with one of those little sticks that tell you all about it. Fortunately it continues to grow and it is now "blooming" again!
You can see a few of the buds starting to push ahead to become flowers someday. It's nice to have this right outside the front door so I get to see just how quickly all of this takes place and what all the stages look like.
It's still pretty small in relation to the rest of the plant. Can you believe that that whole plant used to be just the top of a little pineapple?!
It's my first whole Pansy! Isn't it beautiful? Just like I remember them in Grandma's garden!
I have no idea what this plant is. I have had it since Zak's second deployment, so that would be about 4 years. When I got it it was just a tiny little cactus-looking thing and I have no idea why I bought it other than I liked the color. However now I think it is so cool looking, but it is deadly! Whenever I have to move it I always end up with scratches all over my arms and I get all itchy! It's really quite ornery, but I still think it is so cool. It turns very red like that when it gets lots of sunlight, but it turns a boring green when I put it in the shade.
There's my lovely Pansy with the next bloom making an appearance! Soon there will be a whole...pot...full of them. That's not quite as exciting as a garden, but still pretty fun!
These are my Anthuriums. They are also called "Little Boy Flowers". You can decide why. They will grow on a rock with no soil. As long as you keep them well hydrated they will grow very well in the shade. I'm not a huge fan. They come in different shades of red and pink and also white. I like the red ones better, but Anthuriums just are not my most favorite flower. I'm pleased that these ones have survived with very little attention, though.
This is getting very exciting. My very first Plumeria is just about to open. You can see the first petal just starting to open!
I guess I am going to have to come up with a way to guage growth with this or it is just going to look like the same picture over and over from here on out...
Here is a little comparison shot for you. The tomatoe is pretty little, but then it is just a cherry tomato, so this is a good thing.
I'm sure no one cares about this, but I thought while I was at it I would give the same comparison to the Plumeria bud.
This helps a little to be able to tell how big it is getting. I think I will try measuring it next.
Yes, that's right, today I came home to find my poor baby Plumeria dead on the sidewalk!! I think the gardeners were jealous of my beautiful creation and they sabotaged my garden! Well, actually, I think they accidently hit it when they were weed eating or something. I won't sue, but it's not because I'm not distraught!
I don't think I have ever seen Pansies grow quite like this. Their stems are so long that they look like vines. I guess it is because I didn't thin them out enough early enough. I was selfish and wanted to have a whole lot of Pansies, so I couldn't get myself to pluck the little baby plants from their happy soil. Well, it takes some tough love to be a good gardener and I obviously don't have what it takes! I will have to settle for being a mediocre gardener!
My little tree prevails! There will be two new Plumerias before I know it! We can even smell the aroma already! Another great reason to have them right outside the front door!
I was just so excited for them to open that I had to catch every stage of it--which meant photographing at night...
There they are....my very first beautiful Plumerias! It's very exciting! I've waited five years for this. I think I deserve to be a little bit excited even if it is a little bit weird!
