Wild Poinsettia

 Two or three years ago I found a wild poinsettia growing beside the road. I pulled it up, took it home, and planted it in my flower bed. Maybe I should not have done that. In the beginning the poor plant seemed to struggle and I tried to help it along by giving it extra water when it was dry. The next year there was one more measly tiny plant a few inches from the original. I wished the 8 inch tall plants would grow a little better.

 This year, after a rainy spring these flowers are popping up all over my flower bed. The tallest is about 2 feet tall. They are very pretty, providing dots of color and clear green foliage, but their numbers have started to worry me.
 I found out that my lovely little wild poinsettia's name is Euphorbia cyathophora, a member of the spurge family, a family well known for at least one invasive member (leafy spurge). Spurges have milky sap that irritates some people, but overall, we know there is little to fear from poinsettia. There are several other species that are used and enjoyed for their exotic looks by the horticultural trade.
 I guess I will let these grow and try to dispose of some of them before they go to seed and take over the whole bed. They are pretty.

Another Dish Garden

This dish garden has grown out beautifully. The Streptocarpus with purple blooms takes the show but the strawberry begonia (Saxifraga stolonifera) adds variety with it's variegated foliage . In the right back the red undersides of a Rex begonia leaf stand out.
Ever since I started thinking about dish gardens, everything I see seems like a good container to make one in! At a local nursery I saw a gorgeous one in a square box made from 2x4's. I have a colorful enamel pot that I can hardly wait to plant. I think I'll leave the color to the pot in this case and use shades of green leaves or different leaf shapes to provide interest.

Two Evening Beauties

 The evening primroses I have shown before, but their sudden unfolding is a marvel that I don't tire of.  About 8 PM, they stick a little tongue of  a petal out and soon thereafter swiftly  unfold. At the last the sepals snap back and downward to fully release the blossom.

Last night I had 8 night cereus blooms. Tonight I have 15. They are another night blooming marvel worth celebrating. Their heady fragrance and feathered stigma give them an exotic air that is always worth a second look.

Now if the humidity was not so awful....

Dish Gardens With Succulents

I made several dish garden back in the early spring. Succulents do not need much care and so are excellent candidates for dish gardens. The difference in terrariums and dish gardens is terrariums are enclosed, or mostly so Both require careful watering . Too much water will be the death of almost any plant, especially in a container that doesn't drain.

Iris

 I had lots of beautiful Iris during April. Here is one whose color combination is uniquely beautiful with bright yellow standards and lavender falls.. I have no idea what the cultivar is. Can you guess and let me know?

Two Species of Oenothera (Evening Primrose)

Oenothera speciosa has taken over my gerbera daisy bed. A few years ago I threw some evening primrose seed  in  a bed which up till then had been occupied largely by gerbera daisies and roses. It took about 2 years for them to take hold, and now I have just left the battlefield, They are such simple beautiful flowers that I let them bloom and enjoy them. After most of the blooms are gone I hoe them out, but they continue to re-sprout, so it's a task I do several times a season

My mother used to refer to these as cornbread flowers, I assume it was because they are so plain, yet beautiful, These pink wildflowers are virtually indestructible and you can often see them blooming along the roadside.They bloom most of the month of May

The month of June brings in another evening primrose. It is Oenothera biennis. Their bright yellow flowers open around 8 PM and are worth the a nightly celebration. I like to sit outside close to the bed and watch them open. The sudden unfolding is worth seeing, and more than once. They are pollinated by sphinx moths. Japanese beetles consider them delicious.

Sundrops and several other evening primroses can often be seen along roadsides, but this one  is a biennial, only making a foliage rosette the first year, and dying after it makes seed. It's flowers are large (3/4 inches across). It opens in the evening and closes as the sun begins to warm the next day. the sad drooped blossoms are not likely to attract any attention during the day. But just wait til evening!

Seedling Clematis

                                                   
                                                            Above is Clematis 'Ramona'

Below is what I believe are 2 seedlings of 'Ramona'. I found them nearby in an area overgrown with day lilies and spirea. I dug them out and replanted one in a pot and one in the ground.  The next year they bloomed. Of course Sweet Autumn Clematis reseeds like crazy, which is why you see it growing wildly along roadsides, but I have never had a hybrid Clematis reseed as far as I know. They are not that easy to get to germinate, as I have found by planting seed in a pot. They require freezing, maybe several cool/warm periods and  some voodoo. But apparently Mother Nature knows how to say the right words.