Flowers Garden Plants

Flower-planting folks develop a love and hate relationship with Stella Doro. Sure, it needs a degree of coaxing to bloom, especially in the blisteringly hot weather, but it's still pretty to look at. The yellow blooms, however, die off and leave nothing but the green when the summer-fall season is over. Flower planters confess there are far better perennials out there than the Stella Doro. They'd suggest Mary Todd or Hyperion. This is such a huge injustice on Stella.

At some point, I have begun to love this perennial. It did cause me some migraine, though. I had to deadhead the old stems to give way to new ones. They are supposed to be ever-blooming daylilies so I presumed they would really bloom more often than not. Stella Doro has been advertised a great deal on most flower magazines, and I was impressed with how it looked - a golden yellow lily that could brighten a garden when in full bloom. But the process of deadheading is always a tedious one.

If you've developed a hate relationship with Stella Doro, fine with me. Some people just put the flowers in the compost because taking care of it was too consuming. Also, in the hot season, they're too stubborn to bear any beautiful bud. If you adore this perennial, you might as well learn how to deadhead quickly and apply fertilizer. A few more weeks, the flowers will begin to sprout. I don't believe in a perennial that blooms without being taken care of, at least even by Mother Nature.

I'm still thinking whether I should put my Nicotiana annual indoors. Fellow flower collectors told me that I should keep it indoors if it's winter, and in a partly shaded area in the home garden when it's summer. So I guess I would just let the Nicotiana adorn the window outside of my bedroom. If anyone passes by and smells the powerful fragrance, especially at night, I won't be surprised. Nicotiana has been known for its wonderful scent and purple, pink, green, or white flowers.

They do look common at first glance, but Nicotiana buds, a.k.a. Deep Purple, are an exciting sight. I don't water them very much as they drown easily. These flowers characteristically bloom even without enough cultivation. In fact, they can handle extreme drought cases and do not require special soil or fertilizer. Sometimes, I extract the flower's scent in a bottle, because it's heavenly. You can smell the flower's natural perfume better at nighttime.

Flower lovers who like vivid and outstanding colors should plant Nicotiana, as I did. If you choose the purple and the white ones, they really make your garden glow. The White Sylvestris is perhaps the best specie of Deep Purple. You can plant them even on old pots and they can live without too much caree, as long as there isn't too much water. In fact, it would be better to keep them away from flooded areas. Also, know when to cut the old stems so that the new buds have room for growth.

They call my Japanese Holly Fern a cryptogam. The name does sound 'cryptic' to me, but it's really the friggin' leaves that are getting to my nerves. Initially, I thought the Jap Holly was easy to cultivate. I was practically bent on watering it, keeping the moisture and all, and also keeping it well-aired, via a wide enough container. Unfortunately, my green thumb (and nail) is turning black from all the digging but the fuckin' leaves still look as though they're ready to crumble. Also, the foliage didn't look as damn healthy as it used to be.

A neighbor eventually knew better than me and gave me an earful. "I don't suppose you're looking forward to seeing it bloom. A Jap Holly isn't like a French poodle, you know. You don't take care of them TOO much, or they die. You overwatering it or what? You putting in some plant shit?" "Yeah," I said. "Miracle Gro." Then Ferdie (my neighbor) inspected the bottom of the container. "Christ," he said. "You got the plant drowning in water."

Ferdie drilled me on the Japanese Holly. He had been repotting "Cyrtomium falcata" and showed me how dry the roots were, while amazingly, the leaves were all full and lustrous. A Jap Holly requires very little moisture and is often used in Xeriscapes because of llow moisture requirements. Ferdie doesn't use Miracle Gro shit, but he adds ground pine bark and puts it in a partially shaded area of his garden. They only get repotted every once in a while. "Ignore them, and they will grow," he said.

Have you seen the so-called sensitive plant or sleeping grass? When I was a kid, I always play in the garden. One time, I accidentally hit this plant with small leaves, then I saw them folding. They look like those kids who turn blush and become shy whenever they see they're crushes. Out of curiosity, I ran to my mom and asked about it. I found out from that its the sensitive plant or Mimosa pudica, a plant which is known for its leaves that fold when touched. Their leaves also fold during the evening. Mimosa genus is common in Southern Mexico and Central America. However, this genus is widely cultivated as an indoor plant in temperate places and as an outdoor plant in the tropics.

According to my mom, the genus Mimosa have already accumulated 3,000 names for itself throughout the history. Because of that, there are circumstances that the name Mimosa is being used for other species who were transferred to other genera. This genus was used also to other species with similar characteristics like plants pinnate or bipinnate leaves like Silk Tree (Albizia julibrissin) and Silver Wattle (Acacia dealdata). She also told me that it is customary to present women in Russia with yellow mimosas during the International Women's Day. However, these flowers are not true Mimosa, but are actually Acacia dealdata.

Galanthus nivalis or commonly known as the "Common Snowdrop" is the most famous representative from the small genus of Galanthus. It is comprised of about 20 species under the family Amaryllidaceae. Galanthus species possess bulbs, linear leaves, and erect flowering stalks, destitute of leaves, but bearing at the top is a solitary pendulous bell-shaped flower. A Common Snowdrop can reach 15 cm tall and and blooms in January or February in the northern temperate zone. Its white flower has six petals with the outer three segments being larger and more convex than the inner series. Its six anthers open by pores or short slits and the ovary is three-celled, ripening into a three-celled capsule.

This plant propagates by offsets or by seeds. There are professional growers and keen amateurs that use methods like "twin-scaling." This method increases the stock of choice varieties quickly. This specie is often compared to its relative Snowflakes or Leucojum. However, Leucojums are much larger compared to Galanthus. They also blossom in spring, with all six petals in the flower in the same size. Galanthus is one of the flowers blooming in our garden these days. My mom loves spending time there while reading her new entertainment magazine with actress Jodie Foster as its cover.

Pansy Violet, or simply Pansy, is a cultivated garden flower. Despite its name, there are also Pansies which are non-violet. Those are the species that have been bred. Their colors range from gold, orange, purple, violet, and a blue so deep as to be almost black. Pansies are quite a hardy plant and they grow well in sunny or partially sunny places. They are technically biennials, producing greenery on its first year, then flowers and seeds on its second, before they eventually die.

These plants can tolerate light freezes or a little snow, however, not for very long time. They bloom during the winter and are being planted in low areas with warmer climates. In these areas, they are known to reseed, assuring that they will again bloom the following year. These flowers are not known to be very heat-tolerant. If the temperature gets over a certain level, these plants become leggy and the blooming stops. Now I know why my Mom always ask me to water them thoroughly once a week. Today, our garden has a lot of Pansy Violet species. There are orange, gold, and blue that make our garden even more colorful. Its just so relaxing to look at them while eating my favorite dessert like Sweet Baked Alaska.

Iris is a genus with 200-300 species of flowering plants. They are showy flowers which got its name from the Greek word for "rainbow." This genus also has a wide array of flower colors. The term iris is used as a common name and also refers to all iris species and related genera. This genus is widely distributed throughout the north temperate zone. It thrives in cold regions as well as in grassy slopes, meadowlands, stream banks, and deserts of Europe, the Middle East, northern Africa, Asia, and across North America.

Accordingly, Iris are perennial herbs that rise from rhizomes and bulbs. These species possess long, erect, flowering stems which may be simple or branched, solid or hollow, and flattened or have a circular cross-section. Rhizomatous species have 3-10 basal, sword-shaped leaves growing in dense clumps. However, the bulbous species have cylindrical basal leaves. Inflorescences of Iris are fan-shaped and contains one or more symmetrical, six-lobed, slightly fragrant flowers. They grow on a pedicel or lack a footstalk, and the three sepals are spreading or droop downwards. They expand from their narrow base into a broader limb, often adorned with lines or dots. They are sometimes reduced, while petals stand upright, partly behind the sepal bases. Smaller species possess all six lobes pointing straight outwards. Their sepals and the petals differ from each other. They are connected at their base into a floral tube that lies above the ovary. Their styles divide towards the apex into petaloid branches.

I remember when we we're young, my brother and I always run in my mom's garden. No matter how my mom told us to stop, we still kept on running until she got very mad. One time, she was annoyed when my brother accidentally hit some flowers on one side of the garden. According to my mother, that plant was the hydrangea. It is a genus composed of 70-75 species of flowering plants native to Southern and eastern Asia like China and Japan, and North and South America. These plants are mostly shrubs that grow from 1-3 meters tall, however, there are also small trees as well as lianas reaching up to 30 m by climbing trees. These genus are either deciduous or evergreen. Mom added that the flowers are produced mainly from early spring to late autumn.

Flowers of this Hydrangea genus grow in flowerheads or corymbs or panicles at the ends of the stems. In most species of Hydrangea, flowerheads contain two types of flowers. These are small fertile flowers in the middle of the flowerhead, and a large, sterile bract-like flowers in a ring around the edge of each flowerhead. She also mentioned that other species have all the flowers fertile and of the same size. Flowers are mostly white, but some flowers can be blue, red, pink, or purple.

Spending time in our garden is my habit. It gives me a great feeling of relief especially when I see those lovely Impatiens flowers. For example, when I lost my Siemens SX66 phone, I just stared at those flowers and after that I felt fine. Impatiens are very lovely and alluring flowers. It is composed of about 900-1000 species of flowering plants in the family Balsaminaceae. They are widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere and tropics. However, they are not found in South America.

Some species of this genus are annual plants. Impatiens produce flowers from early summer until the first frost. There are also perennial species that can be found in milder climates. They can bloom throughout the whole year. This plant can exist both in, and out, of direct sunlight. I also found out that some Impatiens hybrids have commercial importance as garden plants. This species derive its scientific name Impatiens ("impatient") and the common name "touch-me-not" from the plant's seed pods. As you can see, when the seed pods mature, they "explode" when touched, sending seeds several meters away. That's why my mom always tells me not to touch them. Some species of Lepidoptera depend on this plant for survival.

Have you heard of the following plants cinquefoil, tormentil, and barren strawberry? Would you believe that these names point to only one plant, and that is Potentilla. This plant is a member of family Rosaceae and is native to North Hemisphere. If you're interested to know how this flower looks, then I will describe the plant for you. This specie has leaves that are divided into five leaflets which are arranged palmately, but there are also species with three leaflets. But don't be confused if you will see a Potentilla specie with 15 or more leaflets because it is possible.

In our garden, my mom plants Potentilla on one side and every time I go there, I notice that there are moths and butterflies flying near them. Then I learned that the leaves of this plant serve as food for the larvae of some Lepidopterans. My professor back in college told me that there had been some changes to the circumscription of Potentilla. According to him, these changes were the effects of recent genetic researches. If you have time, why don't you plant this flower to help in maintaining the balance in the environment. I am sure many Lepidopterans will appreciate it because there will be more available food for them.

I really find it hard to pronounce the word "Rhododendron." This is actually a genus of the plant that belongs to family Ericaceae. This genus is considered as big because it consists of more than 600 species, which are either evergreen or deciduous. These species have recognized for having showy flowers. Being a large group, it is subdivided into four groups namely Subgenus Rhododendron, Subgenus Hymenanthes, evergreen azaleas, and deciduous azaleas. Subgenus Rhododendron have the presence of scales on the leaves' underside while Subgenus Hymenanthes lacks these scales. This genus is widely distributed but mainly found in Sino-Himalayan mountains of southeast Asia. There is also other significant areas like in the mountains of Indo-China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. There are several species that grow in North American region and in Europe.

According to experiments, most species of Rhododendron like acidic soil conditions. The best known species of this genus are noticed because of the many clusters of large trumpet-shaped blooms and glossy oval leaves. However, alpine species have small flowers or small leaves. Accordingly, this flower is named as Nepal's National flower. It is also the state flower of Washington and West Virginia of US and Sikkim of India.