god/goddess ask

olwen: what is your favorite flower?

My favorite flower, huh? Well... It's probably between magnolias, flowering cacti and various wildflowers. All of which we have here in Florida. Magnolias are especially sentimental to me, because of how prominent they are in my area. The sweet, subtle scent of the magnolia tree is one to be sought after.

(these images do not belong to me.)

Morning Glories

The Morning Glories are both thriving and diving lately.

     Literally, how can it be that half if these plants seem to be doing fine and the other half are just totally failing. I originally planted two different varieties of Morning Glories, blue and white. Could be be that the blue Morning Glories are just heartier than the white variety?

     My blue Morning Glories are making blooms every day! So why are they so much tougher than the white variety? I have no idea. They are literally overtaking my white MG's.

     These are the white Morning Glories... You can see how little and piddly they are compared to the blue Morning Glories. It seems that they just got a really angry case of mites or something. I sprayed some homemade bug spray on them and they seem to be making a come back a little bit. They are now making some new buds plus new leaf sprouts!

Look at all of the new growth on my cactus! It's growing so fast! I hope that it doesn't frost over to violently and that it doesn't kill off all of my vines... The potted plants I can save, but I can't really do anything for the plants in the ground.

'Wildflowers'

My hometown is bursting with fall wildflowers...

     Normally it would be starting to get to that time of year when it snows anywhere else... But not here. No, the town literally has hundreds of flowers speckled throughout. So what better way to show my appreciation for nature than to bring it inside.

     During a bike ride I dawned a small cardboard box on the back of my bike and peddled off to find some of these delicate beauties.  

     And boy did I find some! I love flowers... I might have found my next drawing inspiration, thank goodness! I manged to collect some Black Eyed Susans, some Goldenrod and some other species of flowers that I can't identify. I believe the red ones are a breed of rose, the purple ones are just wildflowers. Probably weeds. I don't know what the pretty pink ones are, but I figured that I'd share and maybe those of you reading this would know that they are.

I am a Mother...

...the mother of a brand new flower!

     Early, early one morning while I was taking a gander at my plants I noticed something amazing... My Morning Glories made their first bloom! 

     I am so overjoyed that I have some flowers! I didn't think that they would even bloom this season... I assumed that I had planted them to late in the year for them to bloom, but nature happily proved me wrong.

(Sorry these are so dark, it was very overcast that day.)

     Upon closer inspection I noticed that there were not just the few small blooms, there were many small buds getting ready to burst open for me.

     I also have some more news as far as my plants go. Last week, during a bike ride with Shelly I was keeping my eyes peeled for a certain plant species... A Mimosa tree! Mimosa trees are usually pretty fickle when caring for them, but in my hometown they grow rampantly throughout. I have always loved these plants for their bright green fern leaves and for their fragrant, fluffy spring flower blooms.

Mimosa trees are also great for practicing the art of Bonsai, which is great because Joshua has been telling me for ages that he wishes so much that we could own a bonsai tree. 

     So, whilst our bike ride I found a Mimosa tree that was dropping seed pods, I gathered a few of the thoroughly dried pods, plopped them in my basket and whisked them away to my home. I potted the seeds... They haven't sprouted yet, but Mimosa trees are naturally very fast growing plants, so I know that before too long, I'll have a beautiful plantling.

My flora collection...

It may be fall in other states...

     But here in Florida, it seems that summer is still in full swing. With temperatures still in the 90's and upper 80's the neighborhood is still buzzing with succulent green foliage, butterflies and hummingbirds. It looks like we're in for another warm holiday time this year.

     Lucky for me, warm weather means healthy plants obviously, so all of mine have been doing great! I even managed to procure a few new plants including some kind of spider plant, a cactus, an unknown plant and some Moss Rose that I planted from seedlings that are maturing at a slower rate than I expected. 

      My Morning Glories are also still growing at an alarming rate! The vines have already reached to the top of the patio and are growing wildly about. I'll be so glad when they become well and sparse and I have a nice natural privacy shield.

     Here are some pictures of my newest additions... My Dad told me that the cactus is a Prickly Pear and I found it out at the state forest! It was growing among many other cacti so naturally I couldn't help but gently remove it from the soil and carry it home. The other two plants are actually a funny story, I got them from an Arby's restaurant. They had hundreds of each plant in very long planters, so I didn't think that they would miss a few cuttings... So I snipped a few off and put them in a chicken tender box. After I got the plants home I plopped them all in some water cups over night and then transplanted them the next day. All of the plants seem to be doing great and show no signs of wilting! I haven't done any research to find out what any of these plants species are and it doesn't really matter to me, but if you recognize them I would love to hear from you, the readers!

     Something has been eating at a few of the leaves on my Morning Glory vines, but only a few so I don't think that it is much to worry about... As you can see my little Moss Rose is so tiny and delicate but I think with the right amount of sun and care I can coax them into budding some flowers this season!

And yes, those are my knobby knees in the background...

Day 12: Lifestyle!

My Patio is slowly but surely coming to life...

     I never did get any lattice. I had no idea how expensive some pieces of uniformly placed compacted wood could be. I guess when you're just starting out some things will just have to be done without... But I did however find a solution to this... I decided that as a much cheaper alternative I would use durable nylon string as opposed to the wood and it seems to be holding up very well! I went to our local Ace Hardware last week with Josh and procured a roll of nylon string and using the string, a staple gun, some scissors and some patience I formed a square grid across the front and right side of my patio!

     I'm not going to take a picture of the whole grid yet, I want it to be a surprise. I want to wait until my newly transplanted morning glories have grown impressively upon the grid before a reveal the full affect. I'm going to have to get something to protect the small plantlings from our apartment's landscapers which consist of a group of teenage boys wielding weed whackers that will have no sympathy for the baby plants... So there's that.

     I have also trip splitting a very attractive plant that we have growing in the front of our apartment, which species is unknown to me... Maybe if if I can get it to successfully take root one of you will know what it is? Assuming I have viewers... Anyway though, the Morning Glories are doing fine with the transplant. I was very careful not to disturb the root ball as well as not to over water. However, I do have one little plant that is not doing so hot. A few weeks ago a strong wind knocked the main vine over and caused it to be damaged... I'm not sure if it will make it, but I have hope.

     When I went to Ace, I also got this wonderful gadget in hopes of attracting some hovering little beauties. I love hummingbirds... I have seen them outside, so I know they are there, I just hope they like the homemade sugar water that I have placed for them. I also got a much needed watering bucket so that I don't have to keep watering my plants with a plastic tupperware bowl... Talk about rigged.