Lets start with the flowers above--Blue Plumbago. This flower is just beautiful. You find it all over Corpus Christi and it seems that wherever you find it it livens and brightens up the landscape it's in. Two years ago I found a couple of buckets of these almost dead in the discount rack at Lowes and decided to give them a try. In some ways I find them a bit disappointing, but I have to admit, the flowers are always a spectacle to look at. Unfortunately they are rather difficult to care for.
Blue Plumbago can be grown as either a bush, or as ground cover. I never realized that the latter was even a possibility. My initial planting had me believing that I would have beautiful bushes that would grow out of the ground easily. With these, that's not the case. These require extensive pruning in order to make them bushlike. Several main spikes of the plant will come out of the ground, but then it branches out and you have about 20 branches coming off of each spike, all at 45 degree angles and only about 6 inches long each. Each one of those branches will have a cluster of flowers like the ones I've posted here on it. It's maddeningly beautiful! What's the problem, eh? Well, I wanted a bush, and to be honest I've not figured out HOW to prune the stuff effectively to turn it into one! I've decided to make it a priority job in the backyard before the end of summer. It should really make a huge difference in the appearance of the flower bed that has virtually been taken over by this ground cover.
I'd also like to show off a photo of my Nopale Cactus (left). I planted this two years ago as well (I believe I have had photos of that on here asking about the flowers at one point) and the growth on it has been unbelievable. My little 3 ft tall cactus is now almost 9 ft tall! I'm not sure whether to be proud of it or horrified as it just seems to keep growing, and growing and growing. A bit earlier this week I decided that it needed a pruning and took off about 10% of the lower growth of the plant. It's been flowering and producing cactus pears at a fairly reasonable rate of speed too. those are supposed to only be available around here in September, but this plant is so healthy that it seems to be producing two harvests a year! Yay! Now I need to figure out how to make cactus pear jelly! Perhaps if you look closely at this photo when enlarged you'll see the bright red fruit, which looks like little hot pink dots, all over it.
While this final character has never been shown on my blog here before, he's become one of my backyard favorites. He's my "Burrow Tail Cactus." Despite it's name, it's really not a cactus, but rather a succulent. This photo isn't the best, as it looks like it's a little pale in color. Actually, each individual little bead in the tail is a jade green color. Each of these trailing "tails" will eventually grow to have a flower on the very end of it, and I've been waiting patiently for this to happen now for two years. It's a pretty slow grower though, so it could be another year or so before I finallly get to see the flower. It's growing so well though I just had to show it to you all.
Well, I guess that's all for today. I know this seems like a kind of worthless post. I didn't teach anything or give specifics on plants like I normally do and I'm sorry for that. It's just been such a very long time since I've posted here that I wanted to get something up as soon as possible. I plan to get into this again very very soon. I'm taking photos like a crazy man too on my new camera so you all can expect some better photos than this in the future. Have a great one!!
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| Nopale Cactus |
I'd also like to show off a photo of my Nopale Cactus (left). I planted this two years ago as well (I believe I have had photos of that on here asking about the flowers at one point) and the growth on it has been unbelievable. My little 3 ft tall cactus is now almost 9 ft tall! I'm not sure whether to be proud of it or horrified as it just seems to keep growing, and growing and growing. A bit earlier this week I decided that it needed a pruning and took off about 10% of the lower growth of the plant. It's been flowering and producing cactus pears at a fairly reasonable rate of speed too. those are supposed to only be available around here in September, but this plant is so healthy that it seems to be producing two harvests a year! Yay! Now I need to figure out how to make cactus pear jelly! Perhaps if you look closely at this photo when enlarged you'll see the bright red fruit, which looks like little hot pink dots, all over it.
While this final character has never been shown on my blog here before, he's become one of my backyard favorites. He's my "Burrow Tail Cactus." Despite it's name, it's really not a cactus, but rather a succulent. This photo isn't the best, as it looks like it's a little pale in color. Actually, each individual little bead in the tail is a jade green color. Each of these trailing "tails" will eventually grow to have a flower on the very end of it, and I've been waiting patiently for this to happen now for two years. It's a pretty slow grower though, so it could be another year or so before I finallly get to see the flower. It's growing so well though I just had to show it to you all.
Well, I guess that's all for today. I know this seems like a kind of worthless post. I didn't teach anything or give specifics on plants like I normally do and I'm sorry for that. It's just been such a very long time since I've posted here that I wanted to get something up as soon as possible. I plan to get into this again very very soon. I'm taking photos like a crazy man too on my new camera so you all can expect some better photos than this in the future. Have a great one!!
