More Amaryllis and Methi

There was non-stop rain in Southern CA for 6 days last week which is very unusual. It was referred as the storm of the decade. I was worried about my Amaryllis bulbs because if they sit in too much water, they will rot. So far out of 10 bulbs, 5 have sprouted. Hoping that the rest will grow soon.

My methi plants are growing well, I will be harvesting soon.



'Neon Rose' Amaryllis: This is in a pot.










Exotic Star Amaryllis: This one is in the ground, I wanted to experiment how it fares in the ground.

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you all a safe and joyous holiday season!!!

First Amaryllis in bloom!

I am excited to report that my first Amaryllis bloomed a couple of days ago. More to follow soon. The variety is called Pasadena. Look at the scarlet red blooms with white flashes on each petal, Isn't it beautiful?

End of November report

I am glad to report that the tasks listed on my previous post have been completed. We had been to Yosemite for Thanksgiving and it was stunning. What a beautiful place! On the garden front, my amaryllis continue to grow, my methi is looking good, my swiss chard looks okay. It's been very cold here since last week, also rained a few times. My new experiment is to grow garlic. I planted a few cloves and they have sprouted. Will have to see how they do.

I hope you all had a good thanksgiving!

To do list for this weekend

1. Plant some more Amaryllis.
2. Clean up the Gladiolus bulbs I dug out last week and store them.
3. Plant the Swiss chard seedlings in the ground.
4. Plant the tulip bulbs. (I got a couple from my neighbor)
4. Clean the backyard.


I'll update on how much I accomplished.

Methi and Pepper harvest

I sowed some fenugreek seeds a couple of weeks ago and they are growing fast.

Here is the pepper harvest from last weekend.

Amaryllis

I bought 10 Amaryllis bulbs from a gardening co-op and they arrived last week. I planted 2 of them last weekend. I will plant 2 each week so that I have continuous blooms from end of Dec to Feb. It will take approximately 7-10 weeks to bloom. Based on my research they do well in pots but I am planning to put some on the ground to see how they do. They do not even need any soil, all the nutrients are contained within the bulb itself. My co-worker has one in a jar with glass stones.

Peppers

I am very surprised to see the pepper plants producing in fall. We have about 12-15 peppers growing in 5 different plants. There is nothing better than picking them and making sambhar :) So fresh and it's very cute to see my kids checking on them every now and then.

Flower bouquet from my backyard

We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday and I always like to have flowers in the house when people come over. I didn't have time to go to the store to buy flowers, so I ended up making a bouquet. Dahlias, Zinnias and Roses are in bloom right now. I made the flower arrangement using Coleus and a dinner plate Dahlia. How does it look?

Happy bloom day!

It's been gray and dreary in Southern California, raining on and off. We haven't seen sun in days now. These beautiful blooms cheer me up.

flowers in my apple tree 

ready to open 

humongous dinner plate Dahlia 

Zinnias 

This is how it was this morning around 7.30am

Succulents

It's been raining/drizzling for the past 3 days, very unusual in CA. Normally we do not get as much rain as we would like to. That brings us to the topic of Succulent plants. These are water retaining plants, they store water in their leaves, stems and also in roots. They do not need much water and they are a fantastic addition to any garden. Even people with black thumb can grow them easily. California is facing severe water challenges for the past few years and succulents are gaining popularity here.

Here is my succulent centerpiece on a patch of land at the side of our house. It is surrounded by heat loving Vincas. I have Jade, Hens and Chicks, and some others.

Here is another one, I do not know the name of this, but I love the lush green color.

Random Stuff

The temperature in Southern CA has shot up crazy. We were in 100s for straight 4 days, it's slowly getting better. Some of the flowers got burned because of the heat.

Sowed seeds for Lettuce, Swiss Chard, Onion and Indian greens last week.

Also planted 10 Iris tubers.

My Golden Dorsett apple tree has its first flower in bloom.

Watching the humming birds visit my Canna flowers make me happy. Before I run to get my camera they are gone.

Coleus

Coleus plants are eye-catching and so easy to grow. I love them for their colorful foliage, they add a splash of color to the garden. Bees visit the flowers often. I learned that the flower spikes should be nipped to keep them growing as a perennial. I am planning to grow them in a couple of containers.

Look what happened...

I do not know the name of this plant, but a terrible thing happened to it. Some creature chewed up all the leaves in a day! I was so shocked to see the leaves gone when I checked out the plants one fine evening. I found the culprit the next morning. A hornworm was wandering in the pot, they are notorious for eating tomato and pepper plants. It was looking for more leaves. Hornworms are these disgusting creatures who can devour plants in a very short time. You know that they exist on your plants by the trail they leave behind (black poo on the ground). Anyway I killed it. I thought I had taken take of them when I removed my tomato plants. Here is the poor plant :( All that's remaining are the stems.

Semi Cactus Dahlias

I Love these Dahlias.

This one is huge, bigger than my palm.

This one is called 'Western Spanish Dancer', so cute.

Here is my other beauty I posted earlier:
http://zone10newbiegardener.blogspot.com/2010/07/dahlias.html

'stuttgart' Canna

I got two Canna rhizomes and they sprouted as two plants but now I have 10 plants. They multiplied so quickly. The tallest one is over 7 feet and I love the huge banana like foliage, it gives a tropical feeling. The flowers are in apricot color. I accidently planted them in part shade, looks like that's perfect for them because of the leaves getting scorched if it's very hot. I also read that it's tolerant of wet conditions which is where it is right now. Don't you love when the accidental stuff you do turns out perfect?

Gladiolus

My generous co-worker shared gladiolus corms with me. I planted these in Apr/May I guess. I love the flowers and very happy that the humming birds visit them.

Roses

I have 4 rose plants in my backyard, 2 red, 1 peach and 1 white color. What's happening for the past couple of months is, something is eating my rose plants. I sprayed a solution containing chili powder, garlic and salt which is supposed to be one of the non-chemical ways to protect a plant but alas! it didn't work. Just look at this plant, you cannot even see the plant, it's completely gone.

This plant bearing red roses has been with me for the past 10 years. It was in a pot all these years, I transplanted it on the ground few months ago. Beautiful red roses, huh?

You can see clearly that the leaves have tons of holes in them. What could be eating the plants?

Tomatoes

So when I got back from 4 weeks vacation, I was shocked to see my tomato plants. They were so big, grew out of control even with the cages and had huge hornworms. Yuck! Hornworms are large green caterpillars, luckliy none of my tomatoes were affected. I trimmed the plants a couple of days ago but still more work needs to be done in the backyard. Here are some pics:

Hi There!

Hello all,

We went on a 4 week vacation to India and got back on Thursday. Still jetlagged and terribly miss everyone back home. My neighbor took care of my garden while I was gone. Some plants are dead mostly seasonal ones. My tomato plants have grown out of control, will post pictures soon.

Zucchini

I have 2 Zucchini and 1 yellow squash plants. Only one Zucchini plant is doing good. It flowers well but because of non-pollination, not a good amount of zucchinis. I have got 4 so far that too hand pillinated ones. And moreover both the male and female flowers are not opening at the same time. The plant is huge with lovely bright yellow flowers. I am not going to plant these next year, time for experimenting with some other veggies.

Brandywine heirloom tomato plant

Oh Boy! This plant is about 4 feet tall and has lot of flowers but has only one fruit. The beautiful flowers are dropping :( I like how this plant is so much different from the hybrid ones. Thanks to my boss, he gave me the sapling.

Apple and Citrus Trees

We have a Golden Dorsett Semi Dwarf Apple tree and a Dwarf Velencia Orange tree. We bought the apple tree as a bare root from Home Depot in January. That's the good time for purchasing bare root trees on sale. We planted it and it started sprouting leaves.  That's about, didn't do anything at all. I am convincing myself that it is establishing roots. Here is a pic:

We bought the Orange tree on Mothers day. We transplanted it on the ground and for a couple of months nothing happened. Even the small fruits dropped due to shock I guess. Now I see some new leaves sprouting.

Tomato Harvest and more Dahlias

Kids were very excited to pick the tomatoes and take pics. This Dahlia plant has 3 flowers so far and more buds coming up. Rest of the plants are still small.

Note: Those of you who check my blog, please leave comments. I would appreciate it and as a newbie your comments would provide me inspiration. Thanks.