Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Poppies

I grew a couple of kinds of poppies this year as nice ornamental spring flowers. I had seeds for Mother of Pearl poppies and seeds labeled Double Pink poppies that I had gotten from a seed trade.
 These are the Mother of Pearl poppies. They're supposed to come in a variety of pearlescent colors, but mine were all white for the most part. They are very pretty and delicate. The blooms don't stay super long, but the seeds are easy to collect.
These are the Double Pink poppies. I think they're more red than pink, personally, so I'll call them Double Reds from now on. They are double blooms and were very prolific. Their seeds are also super easy to collect so you can save seed every year.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Olbrich Botanical Gardens Part 1

So like I mentioned in my last post, back in May I went with my family to Madison, Wisconsin and we went to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens. They are enormous and have both indoor and outdoor gardens, so I've broken up all the pictures into several posts. This post is some of the indoor plants!
 So I'm pretty sure this is a hibiscus. I took a photo because of the crazy double bloom! I'd never seen a flower like this before.
 I also forget what species this is, but I thought the flower looked cool, especially with the hot pink bits sticking out above the reddish orange puffs.
 I know this is either a bromeliad or an orchid. I'm thinking orchid, maybe a dendrobium? Either way the flowers are pretty.
 I thought this flower was pretty interesting because of the tips poking out like wheel spokes.
 This is the Chenille Plant! I really like these. They are very soft and do feel like a chenille sweater. I always sneak a little touch even though you probably aren't supposed to. My local nursery had some of these a couple of weeks ago. I'd like to get one someday but I'm on a plant no-buy right now.
 Another very neat flower. I thought the way they clustered was cool.
 This is an orchid, although I don't remember what kind. It's a big flower.
 This flower is so cute and dainty!
 This is the flower on a succulent, I think it's a Kalanchoe. The leaves are fuzzy and they're covered with these little purple flowers.
 This isn't the clearest picture, but it is a flower on a Rhipsalis. I have a Rhipsalis but it's never flowered, and I'd never seen one flower before.
 Here's what looks like a close relative of a Rhipsalis. It's a Hetiora from Brazil.
 Like the label says, this is a Taffeta plant. They look and feel kind of like taffeta! It's hard to tell from a picture but the leaves are almost metallic looking in the sunshine.
 Here's the ceiling of the geodesic dome that comprises the indoor portion of the gardens. You can see all the palm and banana plants in this picture.

 Here's a flowering Epiphyllum! I have three different kinds of these but none of them have flowered yet. Epiphyllum are tropical cacti.

 In the indoor gardens there were quail! They were moving around a lot so it was hard to take a picture of them. They are so cute! When I was in elementary school we tried hatching quail eggs as a class project but none of them ever hatched. I've always liked quail since then even though our experiment didn't work.
 Here's another pretty flower!
 There's always a waterfall in the geodesic domes! And you can see that Epiphyllum on the left.
 Here's another picture of the quail! They are actually pretty small.
 Every time I see a pineapple growing, I have to giggle a bit. They just look so goofy popping out of the top of a bromeliad. They're adorable when they're that tiny though!
 Here's some pitchers from a Nepenthes. This is another plant I would love to grow, but I don't have an area with enough humidity for them.
This is a really weird orchid. Apparently it's in the genus Gongora. Those huge bottoms are so different from other orchids. 

That's the first part of the Olbrich Botanical Gardens! Next time I'll finish up the indoor portion, which includes more orchids, tillandsias, and some carnivorous plants. Then we'll move on to the outdoor gardens!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Love-In-A-Mist

This lovely picture is the very first bloom from my Love-In-A-Mist!!! This year is the first year I've grown it, and I grew it from seed. A bunch of them are getting ready to bloom so hopefully I will get more colours on the other blooms. I was so excited to see this beauty when I got home from work! These flowers are old-fashioned and beautiful. I will definitely be keeping them in my garden from now on!