First up is a spray just starting to bud out on an aloe vera plant. This plant came from a cutting given to us by our neighbor last year, and it's really doing well. I didn't expect it to get flowers at all so this was quite a surprise to me when I saw it this evening.
Next we have buds coming up on our kangaroo paw, a plant that is native to Australia. We had it in too small a pot last year and it nearly died. We transplanted it into a large oak half-barrel along with a banana tree, the aloe vera, and a few other assorted plants and as you can see it has recovered nicely.
And another plant that we nearly killed by keeping it in too small a pot: a wee hibiscus that is now in the same barrel as the aloe vera & kangaroo paw. Actually, every plant that we put in that barrel was half-dead at the time, and all but one have recovered.
This pretty little bud just ready to open is actually on a garlic plant, if you can believe that. The flowers have a very slight garlic under-scent (if that's a word) but aren't stinky as one might expect them to be.
The obligatory pond shot, with its single lily :-)
I realize this is an unattractive shot, but I had to include it as we are quite proud of our newly-sprouted marigolds. I can hardly wait for them to bloom, but I guess I'll have to be patient since they've just barely broken through the soil.
No idea what these are. Ralph saw them at Home Depot, and picked up one that had buds but no blossoms yet. I think they look like little orchids although Ralph disagrees with me on that. I know that they aren't really orchids, they just make me think of them.
Our amaryllis is doing marvelously well. We've never had this many blooms on it at the same time before.
Nectarines a-plenty! Still very small, and I know we'll lose at least half of them to the birds but there will nonetheless be more than we can eat before summer is over.
Itty bitty baby figs! Nothing quite like a fig fresh from the tree, and I recently got a new cookbook that has a recipe for a rather tasty-sounding fig crostata with cinnamon & sugar.
First fruits on our rogue tomato plant. I'll be keeping a close eye on these to see if they are red or yellow ones. Still hoping for yellow!
Blossoms on our Thai hot pepper plant, and if you look carefully among the green you'll see an actual pepper growing on it. These turn a deep, shiny red when ripe.
Another rogue plant! I saw what I thought was a large weed growing next to the pepper plant, and when I went to pick it I realized the flowers on it looked very familiar. Upon closer examination and rumination, I realized that it was a tomatillo. We had two of them growing last year, but all the fruit was eaten by bugs before we could get a single one. We'll be spraying this year, that's for sure.
This ratty looking plant is actually a blueberry bush, and as you can see it's producing a lot of fruit for something so scraggly. In fact, a few of them look ripe enough to pick. It does make me a little sad, though, for we used to have a conure that loved fresh blueberries, but he died two years ago. I always think of him when this plant is producing fruit.
And lastly, fresh lemons on the ever-producing lemon tree. I am going to try to make use of the fruit this year; last year we hardly used any at all and it does seem such a waste when we've got so many.
I am very envious of your fruit trees. Especially the lemon tree. I use lemons in almost everything. My favorite thing to do is squeeze them in a glass of cold water.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried a lemon pie with them? That would use some up.
Maybe your tomato plant will come out hot pink instead of red or yellow. :-)