Closing out the Summer??

Hey all...

Non garden related news...

I realize that this year things have been pretty quiet here on the Blondmyk's Backyard Blog, but that doesn't mean that things haven't been happening.  It's been a really tough year plagued by problems--financial, deaths of friends and (extended) family, and horrible health problems for myself.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a diabetic.  I'm also disabled and on medicare, which has prevented me from going to see any doctor due to the insane spendown I have yearly in order for medicare to kick in.  To put it in a nutshell, I've been going without my insulin and that's resulted in several months of bloodsugars in excess of 400 (VERY unhealthy for those of you who don't know what that means.)  I've not felt like doing a whole lot at all up until this past month when I finally found a free clinic to go to and managed to get a script for some insulin.  Now I'm back in the green and raring to go!!

If you've been following me on my facebook page, then you know that I've not been bed bound.  I've posted a few goodies on there showing how the backyard has been growing this past year.  It's grown a great deal and currently sports some 90 potted plants and about another 20-25 planted in ground!  For the most part my partner, Dana, has been taking care of most of the heavy digging and watering for me while I've been down and out.  For this, much credit is due, so a hearty THANK YOU to Dana for tolerating a full year of nothing but direction and patience for dealing with a perfectionist such as myself.  I don't know what I would have done without you and I never want to know what I would do, either.  Now, on to what's happening!

My standards--Red Tropical Hibiscus--Painted Lady.  The
white spots on the petals are odd, but okay.

Hibiscus--We had a spot of trouble with these this year, but they seem to be back on track.  During the spring and early summer we had trouble with them not opening fully.  I've never seen anything like it in the 5 years that I've been growing them.  They would open halfway and then at the end of the day they would curl up and die from the heat.  I had a few wonderful suggestions about pests from a Facebook garden club I belong to (Thank you Brent, may you rest in peace) and so I Sevin dusted the heck out of them and started feeding them a bit more often.  Here are some photos to show the succcess I've had with them this year after that catastrophe!

My Tropical Hibiscus--"Smokey Mountain" 

The main problem lie with the Pink ruffled Tropical Hibiscus "Smokey Mountain."  They would even open up enough to see the pistils inside of them.  To be honest, I think that's one of the most interesting parts of the plant!  The pistils on these Hibiscus come in a variety of colors and it's one of the big things that show off variations in the plants.  It was pretty exciting to see these come back.  We are still combatting a leaf situation though that will most likely be taken care of with a more efficient feeding schedule for all of these guys.

Hibiscus "Pink Cloud" most likely, surrounded
by Blue Plumbago

Click to enlarge me!

The cuttings that I took from the Hospice that my Mom passed away in a few years back are doing famously.  One is a variety known as "Pink Cloud", and I still haven't been able to determine the variety of the yellow one yet, but it's really spectacular when it blooms.  If anyone knows it off the top of their head, please don't hesitate to shoot me a message.

My poor kitten beaten "Cape Honeysuckle"

Cape Honeysuckle--We've had a few litters of kittens running around the backyard this year, more than ever before.  This put a great deal of strain in the garden as kittens just love to get into and play with everything.  Early in the spring they got to chasing a lizard or something and absolutely TORE UP my "Cape Honeysuckle" plant.  If you remember, I was pretty proud of that plant as it was the first successful cutting I'd ever taken from a bush.  As you can imagine I was pretty torn up when I came out into the yard this spring to find out that they had busted off five branches from my poor favorite plant.

My new Cape Honeysuckle babies, almost ready for repotting.

 Rather than kill kittens, I decided to attempt to root the five broken branches.  The result was pretty good!  I wound up with three that were successful.  I gave one away to a friend just last week and the other two are just now really starting to take off and will most likely need to be repotted in something larger here within the next week or so.   Here's a photo of the poor original plant though.  It just doesn't want to come back in those places where the branches were busted off, so it looks half naked, even when in full bloom!

The Big Leafed "tree" looking plants are the Plumeria.  There
is a smaller one hidden in with the other plants waiting to find
a new pot.

Plumeria--It really WAS a rough winter last year for my Plumera, and I really feared for two of the three of them when their leafing process was troubled this past spring.  I got them as virtual twigs three years ago and they were among the first of the plants in my little potted paradise.  After a particularly bad cold spell last winter I accidentally left one of them in the house and it started it's new leafing cycle about six weeks before any of the others did.  I have NO sunlight in this house, so I was really worried for that one.  I shouldn't have wasted the worry though as that one turned out to be just fine.  It was the one I had with the giant leaves that gave me fits when the kittens decided that climbing on and/or spraying the stalks of the larger ones would be great fun. Twice one of them tried to produce leaves only to see the little nubs crumble and die off.  Long story short though it finally DID take off, but much too late for me to get a bloom stalk this year.  So, for the third year straight I've been growing Plumeria--THREE plants worth of it--and have not acquired a flower stalk...sigh.  I haven't had a real reason to photograph these, but I DO have a photo of the full garden.  You can see the Plumeria at the extreme right and left sides of the garden, using the Mayan planter as a center point.

My raggedy "Banyan Tree" cutting.  

NEW PROJECT--No pun intended here, but with all the success I've been having with cloning Hibiscus and Honeysuckle, I decided to "branch out" and try something REALLY unusual.  Down the street from us we have an oddity...a Banyan Tree...native to Southeast Asia.  You've most likely seen one before, as it's memorable.  They grow about 30-50 ft tall and they have roots that hang down from the branches like the vines that you used to see Tarzan swinging from.  They don't bloom or anything, but its just a really neat tree.  In March (I think) I noticed that they had done some pruning on the tree and left the trimmings by the driveway as yard waste.  Not being one to miss an opportunity to play with plant material, I grabbed a branch and tried my hand cloning an actual tree.  I make it sound like I've never done this before, but that's not true...I have.  My father has a key lime tree in his backyard that I've probably tried to clone a dozen times with no success.  I had one branch from the Banyan to work with though, and starting with 5 cuttings, I am now down to only one...but check it out!!!

This node is right where an earlier leaf fell off.
This one has definitely swollen to almost bud
size

Notice the small nodes right above the leaf
stalks--SOMETHING is going on!

This thing has always had these nodes on it, but yesterday I gave it a quick glance and realized that one of the nodes is actually expanding.  After keeping this twig and it's two leaves alive for a full five months, I think I finally have something happening!!!




Well, this post has gone on way longer than I intended, but there is still so much more to show and talk about.  The garden is showing a great deal of growth and there are a lot of other exciting things that are happening, so please, stay tuned!  I have at least two more posts planned for this week alone!  Until then...Happy Gardening!

Is it REALLY July 15th???

When I looked at the calendar today I was shocked to see the date.  Where does the time go?  I had every intention of restarting this blog again at the start of this spring, but I guess it just didn't work out.  I've been in a bit of a slump since my Mother died last year, so please forgive my dragging along or in the case lack of dragging along, attitude.  To be honest I lost my joi-de-vivre for gardening for a while there, but now it's starting to come back.  I'm ready today with a few new photos to let you all know how some of the things happening in my backyard are going.

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.

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!!

Flowers still blooming in South Texas at end of October!

Hey everyone!

Just thought I'd drop a post about what all is still blooming here in South Texas as of October 28th, 2013.  It's been a very mild fall so far, with us only dropping below 60 degrees once so far.  The flowers of spring and summer are still blooming down here, so I figured that I'd share a few photos of whats happening right now in the backyard.

Roses

My unknown pink rose.

Lots of petals and so fragrant!

Right now, the cooler weather has granted some sort of boon to the rose bushes here in the backyard.  Having been virtually dormant over the majority of the summer, both of my rose bushes have started producing masses of new blooms.  This one here is my Pink Rose and I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it, but the Gold Rush roses (which are yellow and red and nowhere near as fragrant) are doing the same thing.  Unfortunately, the Gold Rush roses are not as full of petals as these pink ones are, and remind me of some sort of demented Knock Out rose, my least favorite on the market right now.

Triple Purple Datura

Prolific blossoms this year!

The Datura have taken over a great deal of space this year and are bigger than I ever could have imagined.  This is the first year that I've ever put them directly into the ground and while I've learned it's a great solution when one is running low on pots, it's NOT the best solution when it comes to controlling your space.  I have about four plants clustered in one area out back and they have become a huge bushlike thing that stands about four foot tall and is about six foot around.  It is blooming profusely though and no one can argue the beauty of this incredibly toxic plant!

Taking over the yard!  Note the red hibiscus to the left.

I've been pruning this severely in order to keep the blooms coming, but I've got a huge crop of little fruits full of seeds coming in.  I've harvested two so far, so those of you who have been wanting seeds can expect an email from me soon requesting addresses to send them on.  Just remember to please check your state laws and make sure that it's legal to grow Datura in your state.  It's not legal in all parts of the United States due to it's hallucinogenic properties, as well as because it can cause death when injested!!  Be careful with this plant!  Handle it with gloves, and keep pets away from it, especially the really dumb ones that think that they can eat everything!

A nice cluster showing varying petals on each
flower.

Hibiscus


Down here in Corpus Christi there is one flower that just keeps on giving.  The hibiscus bush seems to thrive here no matter what happens.  It doesn't matter whether it's the hardy hibiscus varieties or the tropical varieties, you plant one down here and it thrives.  I currently have four different varieties of Hibiscus growing in pots in the backyard.  Two of them are of the Hardy variety, and two are the tropical variety.  Currently three of them are blooming, but I have a suspicion that they all would be blooming if two of them were just a little bit older and bigger than they are.

Last Smokey Mountain of the year.

This past March, while my Mother was in the nursing home, I took 5 cuttings from different varieties of Hibiscus growing there in the gardens at the nursing home. Two of them actually survived to throw out roots.  I posted a photo of the "Pink Cloud" variety in an earlier post.  I've shown photos of my "Smokey Mountain" Hibiscus on several different posts in this blog, so you know what that one is too.  Today I present my first Yellow Hibiscus as it just bloomed a few days ago!  I have no idea what it's called either, but I'm so thrilled with the flower and can't wait for it to give me more in the spring!!

My newest addition!

Well, I guess that's about all for right now.  I'll try to get a more comprehensive group of shots for my next posting.  I'd also like to go over different types of aloe with you all next time.  I have three different varieties back there right now and I"m eager to share.  You all take care and have a great Fall, or Winter, depending on where you are!

As a side note, I would encourage everyone to look at the photos in the "gallery" mode.  Just click on one of the photos and it should take you to that made.  It will give you a much more detailed look at the photos and give you a closer view.

Ciao!

Carrion Flowers--Do They REALLY Smell Like a Dead Cat?

Hey everybody and welcome to this installment of "Mykey's Backyard Blog".

The Corpse Flower, aka Amorphophallus Wilhelma

Today I want to talk about Stapelia Gigantea, or the "Carrion Flower".  If you all remember back a few years ago, a couple that wanted to marry made a big stink in the news (no pun intended) by wanting to get married in front of the largest flower in the world at the time.  That flower was the "Corpse Flower" and the main problem with it was that it stank the high heavens just like a rotting corpse.   The first photo here is an example of that flower, ripped right from Wikipedia.

The flower is quite striking when you first see it, isn't it?  I think it's perhaps one of the neatest things I've ever seen, but I sure wouldn't want that thing stinking up my home!  Can you imagine how much scent something that size gives off?  PeeYew!

Today we are not speaking of this here Corpse Flower though, but a distant relative of this guy called "Stapelia Gigantea".  It's a much smaller variety of plant and flower but the effect is still much the same.  It gives off the scent of dead things in order to attract flies to it, who in turn carry the pollen stuff around and fertilize the plants.  I'm not really sure why they do that, because from everything I read, the carrion flower can only propagate through stem cuttings...much like mine was done.

The Carrion Flower is a very striking, large, star shaped flower  with thick, fleshy petals that open from a cactus like plant.  I've been growing mine in the backyard for two years now, and I've shown you some brief photos of it in the past.  I'm happy to report that this year, it decided to bloom, and it has not stopped blooming since it started about two months ago!

Now, to the subject of this post...Yes, it does stink.  Some say that it smells much like a dead cat decomposing.  I, personally have either had my smeller disrupted after having smoked for 20 years (I'll be 3 years smoke free in October!) or just have been exceptionally lucky with my Carrion Flowers, because I am unable to smell them at all!  Of course, I've not been stupid enough to stick my nose in there to find out what it smells like!

The plant itself is not like anything you would expect it to be.  If I had to classify it myself, I would call it a succulent.  It LOOKS like a cactus with tall, spiny columns of "X" shaped stalks all sticking out of the ground.  In actuality, It's just one or two stalks in the ground that have grown in clusters outward and upward.

HUGE Flower Head of the Carrion Flower

It grows best in full sun with moderate water.  Your soil should be porous and drain well.  I've let it get too wet a couple of times, and it really, REALLY doesn't like that.  When that happens the stalks turn white and die out, sorta.  The dried parts have to stay on the plant though, so you just have to deal with the icky looking parts once it happens.  Me personally, I was too afraid to cut the dead areas off.

There are two really impressive things about these flowers:  Their size, and their coloring.

Their color is flesh colored...a kind of peach looking star.  Veins of reddish purple run through the entire flower in a consistent pattern.  They don't really look like veins, but I can think of no other way to describe them.  The flowers are probably neatest right before they are ready to open when the resemble big balloons attached to cactus type vines.  If you've ever seen a balloonflower, these flowers do much the same thing.

The first flowers of the season for this plant are the largest.  My first flower was approximately the size of both of my hands put together.  Since that one flower, the largest has been about one hand size.

Another shot to give size perspective of the Carrion flower.

While not the most pleasant flower in the garden, I highly recommend the Carrion Flower to everyone for it's novelty.  Not everyone can say that they have one, and they are very easy to grow.

Have fun and keep gardening!

My Excellent 48th Birthday!

Greetings Everyone!

It's the end of July, and of course that means that it's my Birthday.  Last year at this time, I had a new plant to talk about.  While I don't necessarily have new plants this year, there are a few noteworthy garden events to talk about.  But first, I'd like to tell everyone how my day went...

My cupcakes, books and all the great things that came
 my way on July 26th, My 48th Birthday

Dana woke me up at about 7am, to take my medications.  It was about an hour later than usual, but it was wonderful being able to sleep in.  I took my pills and slept until about 9am.  Waking up has never been my strong suit, so I grumbled around until about 10 am  when I had a breakfast of wonderful apple pancakes.  After Breakfast, Dana gave me my gifts.  I decided that I didn't want to open them though, as I wanted to see what the rest of the day had in store.  I did however decide to open cards from both my Aunt Susan, who sent me a most generous gift (Thank you Aunt Susie!) and from Dana's Mother, Eileen Pille.  Shortly thereafter we headed over to my Dads house.

My Dad had set up a plan with me to go over to his house around noon on Friday to have Cake and Ice Cream.  We arrived at noon to find that he'd made the coolest display of cupcakes, arranged with candles and candy letters to spell out "Happy Birthday Mike" and also two spares--one with a 4 and the other with an 8, to indicate my age.  These weren't normal cupcakes either!  They were German Chocolate cupcakes with the maple-pecan frosting that is so good on the standard German Chocolate Cake!  It was a really creative set up!  Dad gave me my card, and along with that, another very generous gift!  (Thank you Dad!!)

They lit the candles and sang to me, and while there were only about 15 cupcakes, I wasn't able to blow out all the candles on the first try!  I missed one!  Aargh!  After that, we sat around and talked about all sorts of things--gardening, putting in a place for a barbecue grill...a really nice visit. I guess we left there at about 1:30pm.

We had decided to go to the beach that morning.  It's something that I've managed to do every year on my birthday.  We went, and it was a great time!  I walked on the beach, got sun, but managed not to sunburn my feet like I did last time.  The beach was crowded, but the wind coming off of the ocean was cooler by far than it was in town, so it was easy to overlook the crowds with the nice weather.

We got home while it was still daylight, and I had the chance to water the garden.  Before I did though, I had the opportunity to take a few photos, and they are included below.

What I call "Hurricane Lilies"  but what are they?

After that I opened my presents from Dana.  I was very surprised to find a hardback first edition copy of Anne Rice's book "Merrick" was the first gift.  He'd discovered my Amazon.com wish list where I have a listing of hardback books that I want copies of to complete my collections by Rice, King, Barker, Lackey, et.al. to get me started on that road again of collecting first editions of my favorite authors.  While I'm not terribly sure I want to do this (It WAS hard to move all these hardbound books) it was a book I had not read other than by audiobook before, so I was pleased to get it.

My second gift from Dana was a copy of Xara Photo Editor.  Just three days ago I was complaining that I needed a new photo editor as ASee-DSee had run it's trial and I've been having a terrible time editing images.  I wanted something that could bring them to the computer from the camera directly.  I tried like heck to get the new software to work with my camera, but it won't.  I CAN edit the photos with the new Xara software though, and it has a nice 3D rendering part to it as well, so it too was a really nice gift!

another shot of the Hurricane lily

It was a Wonderful Day and I owe a great debt of thanks to my Dad firstly, who put a great deal of time and effort into those wonderful cupcakes he made me.  (Thank you Dad.  You REALLY DID make it a Birthday to remember by doing that.)  More big thank you's go out to Dana, who chauffered me around all day when I had really decided that I didn't want to go anywhere after we got home from Dads but he kinda pushed me, and of course to the other gifts and cards given by Aunt Susan, Mrs. Pille, and My son, Eric.  I don't know why I was so worked up about this birthday,  but I was, and I thank you all for helping me through it.

My final Birthday surprise came from the backyard on Friday night.  I've spent 2 years trying to get these hurricane lilies to bloom (that's what I call them), ever since we moved in to this apartment.  These lilies are kind of rare down here, but much more common in Florida.  I don't know what they are called, but they are so neat!!!  Can anyone help me truly identify them?  I was SO excited that I managed to get two of them to bloom!!!

Pink spider Lily

Additionally, another kind of Lily that I've been waiting to see bloom for over a year now has decided to take off.  It's a pink spider lily!

And finally, after more than a year of waiting, my Pride of Barbado's shrubs havestarted blooming!  Check them out below!

Yellow Pride of Barbados

Close up of Pink Spider Lily

That's it for now.  What a great day it was on Friday!

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Interesting things happening.

I sort of lost my enthusiasm for gardening this year after I had a major disaster.  I planted a garden in my front yard, not realizing that the front would be too shady for anything to grow.  I spent a lot of money on it too, so when it didn't grow, it sort of sucked the enthusiasm that I had for gardening this year right out the window along with the disaster that the front yard became.

It's late summer now though, and many interesting things are beginning to happen in the backyard garden.  Things that have never bloomed for me before are starting to show up and show off their specialness to me and the rest of the folks in my apartment complex.  The Gardenia that was almost dead last year is FULL of buds, the Blue Plumbago is lush and growing, and my Burrotail cactus is doing some serious dangling out of the sides of it's container.  In other words, things are looking surprisingly good, even considering the heat and the lack of water we've had this year.

Perhaps the  most exciting thing happening right now is the blooming of lilies.  I've been trying to get these blasted Lilies that I transplanted from the front yard to the backyard to bloom for two years now and I am FINALLY seeing the fruits of my labor.  I don't have flowers yet, but I have flower stalks!  I believe these to be hurricane lilies, but I can't be sure since they are hanger-onners that didn't come with an ID tag.  Another completely unknown lily that I've been playing with has come to stalk as well.  It is also unknown with flowers that grow on a seperate stalk away from the original plant.  This stalk will grow with flowers on it, much like gladiola do.  No idea what that is called either!

Many things that I attempted this year didn't survive, despite the positivity I express right now.  I planted at least 25 snapdragons in yellow and pink, grown from seed that I planted with my Mom while she was in the nursing home before she passed away.  Not a single one of those survived the heat.  They were bred in the air conditioning, so I don't think that they had enough of a "hardening off" period after I brought them home. Additionally, I planted Gerber Daisies and Alyssum that didn't survive.

The Datura that I grew from seed last year that was supposed to be sold to a greenhouse was instead planted in the ground, part in the front yard.  Of the eleven that I planted up there, three still live.  The others were planted in a little area in the backyard and are doing very very well!  There are blooms on those almost daily it seems.  The Canna Lily Indica were also planted into the ground.  They are still alive, but not doing very well.  The require more water than the desert can provide, and will die off without a watering every three days.  There are about six plants remaining of those, and it's a real chore to keep them alive now that they are in the ground in back.

Thus far this year has seen yet another disaster, of sorts, for me.  I tried planting Texas Bluebonnets, the state flower mind you, and they DIED almost as soon as I got the in ground.  I love TX Bluebonnets, and they grow like weeds here in this state.  How could I NOT have success with them?  That was terribly discouraging.  I also planted another Pink Desert Sage along with it though, and it's beginning to take off finally after about three months of near dormancy.  I planted roses in pots this year also, but they burn up almost as fast as they bloom and never seem to look attractive.  I can't wait to put them in the ground so that I can transfer other things into the huge pots that the roses now occupy.  I have no place to put them though where they won't just die off!

As you can tell, this year has been a bit of a struggle for me.  I plan to keep at it though, and report a little more often.  Till next time....and there WILL be photos next time...

First Tropical Hibiscus of the year!

Today we got the first tropical Hibiscus flower of the year and it was monstrous!

I don't mean that it was just monstrously huge either, but it actually was kind of ugly, for a flower.  I'm not quite sure what happened to it over the winter.  Have a look:

Picture doens't quite do it justice.  It doesn't show all the color correctly and was taken at night

Another Flash photo taken at night

.I don't mind the pinks and greys and purples that are shown on this photo.  Those are the pretty colors that Hibiscus are supposed  to be.  What you can see here is that the lighter colored edges are YELLOW!  I'm not talking about a nice subtle yellow either, but almost an old nicotine stain yellow, like the kind you find on the wall of a chain smokers house.  The plant has several other buds on it getting ready to open as well, and all of those seems to be this strange yellowish color on the outside of the flower as well.  I don't know what to do about it either.  The only thing I've done differently this year is to use Hibiscus food on the plant!

I say that the flower is monstrous not just in color, but also in size!  I knew that this was what they call a saucer sized Hibiscus when I first bought it last year.  When it bloomed last year however, I gave me flowers nothing like the size that they were supposed to be.  This is NOT the case this year.  Check out the perspective with this third flower.  I have a simple 1 lb box of cat food held up next to the flower to give you an idea how large the flower really is!

Cat food box is used for perspective on flowers size!

By the way, this Hibiscus is a NOID ( No Identificaiton) and I would sure appreciate anyone that can give me an idea of what variety it is supposed to be.  Just drop me a quick line in the comments section!  Also, if you enjoyed the photos or learned anything here, please give me a +1 on Google Plus, or Like me on Facebook!

I have a lot of new and fun things going in the flower garden this year and cant wait to start sharing.  Right now we have Roses, Chrysanthemums, snapdragons, Impatiens, Stock, and a few other suprises waiting to be photographed.  Check back soon for new updates to find out what's happening in My backyard garden!