On My Walk This Morning 4o

"Lavinia" Pale Peach Tuberous Begonia.

Tuberous Begonias are some of the most beautiful flowers you can have in pots or

window boxes.  A lady in the building next to mine just got this gorgeous plant.

 

"Agave Americana" is a very popular plant around here.  It is big and bold and

dramatic and occupies a good deal of space.  It is a beautiful specimen plant,

and will grow to about 4 feet high.  Then it has sex once, sends out a fifteen foot

tall stalk with flowers, and dies.  Sic transit gloria.

"Magnolia Grandiflora" with beautiful alabaster like petals.  They last only one day,

but for that one day, they are gorgeous.

A  "St. Simeon Yucca."  There are many varieties of Yucca, and they make

beautiful vertical specimen plants.  I like this one.

This is a late blooming "Alicia" white orchid.  Most of the other white orchids

have finished blooming for now.

My favorite "Gardenia" bush just keeps on putting out flowers this year.  

I can be sure that on the day after a nice rain, there will be lots of fresh

gardenias blooming.

Another perfect "Gardenia."

The flowers and seeds of an "Aechmea" plant.  This is about 18 inches long.

They come in many colors - pink, cream, brown, raspberry, etc.

"Aechmea" Plant.  They are members of the Bromeliad family, but their

petals usually have a red or orange tint to them, rather than green.

A wonderful little plant of "Variegated Lantana."  You really need more of them

to make a colorful bed and display, but this one plant is also nice.

"Yellow Skirt" Oncidium Orchids.  Some of these bloomed three months ago,

but right now another three, different plants, are blooming.

"Mardi Gras" Ground Orchids.  There are beds of these mixed with "Orange Heliconia"

and "Blue Siberian Iris," and they are very colorful.

A couple of pansies.  They are nice, but you really need large beds of these

to fully appreciate them.  Washington, D.C. in the spring has the best I know of.

"Pink and Red Dianthus."  These are lovely little flowers, but they also

need to be part of a larger bed for lots of color.

And then some more of one of my favorites are back - "Orange Ruffled Hibiscus"

There are three bushes covered with them.  The gardeners missed them, so

all the blossoms are blooming.

A very nice pot of "Red Crown of Thorns."  I have never seen one in a pot before,

but it seems to be happy and have lots of flowers and thorns.

My Indonesian neighbor has several "Desert Roses," and because he takes

very good care of them and waters them properly, they put forth lots of flowers

and last a long time.

Oh!  This is so nice.  These are the new "Double Imperial Purple Ground Orchids."

This is the nicest bed of any, and there are many beds of these ground orchids.  I met 

the man who lives here, and he explained how he waters them and trims them and

gives them some fertilizer.  I always stop to enjoy this beautiful bed.

"Adrienne" Phalaenopsis Orchids.  There were different orchids on this tree

last year, and they bloomed early.  These have just opened, so they are much

later in blooming.  The color is very delicate and soft.

"Shell Ginger."  We have many kinds of Ginger plants here - Red Ginger,

Lobster Claw Ginger, the splendid White Ginger I found last year, the Pink Ginger

I found this year, and this "Shell Ginger."  The leaves of all are similar, but the

flowers are very different.  These are just coming to bloom, with lots of clusters

of white flowers that look like seashells.

Close-up of "Shell Ginger."  Each one will open and reveal an interior of yellow

with purple markings.  You can see one yellow one here.

The "Gardenia Bush" in bloom again.

"Crossandra" in a pot.  "Orange Crossandra" is very common down here,

but not usually in a pot.  It also comes in other colors.

I just discovered these lovely pale peach "Isadora" Orchids rather high up on a tree and

away from the path.  I don't know if many people have noticed them.

A pot with Pink and Red Vinca / Periwinkle.  This is the building with all the pots,

and they keep changing the flowers.

Another colorful morning in Palm Aire.

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On My Walk This Morning 4n

 

The "Double Imperial Purple Ground Orchids" are coming back better than ever.

They are thick and prolific.  They must require regular watering, because they

are very good by some buildings, and not-so-good by others.

The last days of "Orchid Tree No. 1."  It was really very wonderful this year.

The "Snowcap White Impatiens" this year grow thicker and whiter than ever

before.  I don't know if they are new varieties, but they have never bloomed

like this before.

A nice bed at the entrance to a building.   "Alcantara Americana" with

"Thatch Palm" and varicolored impatiens.

This is a young "Magnolia Grandiflora."  It has been trimmed to grow up rather

than outward.  Not my favorite, but.  It has lots of fat buds and opens up one or two 

blossoms per day.

Two big luscious "Magnolia Grandiflora" blossoms.

"Magnolia Grandiflora."  The leaves are waxy and shiny.

"Blue Agave."  This is the one used to make tequila.  You have to cut down

the whole plant and use the central core for the beverage.

"Pink and White Vincas" in front of a building.

"Golden Marigolds" were one of the annuals tried in front of a building.  They are fine,

but you really need masses of them to make a statement.

"Katherine of Aragon" is a very deep purple orchid with white throat and white

edges to petals.

"Astrid" is a lovely lilac orchid with color fading to white in the center.

One of the gardenia bushes is producing more flowers this year than ever.

Each time we get a heavy rain, I know that the next day or two will display lots of

beautiful white gardenia flowers with a lovely aroma.

Only a few of these "Opal" orchids bloomed, but they were very beautiful

with deep wine throats and white around the throat.

Two clusters of "Yellow Oncidium" orchids appeared by one building.

They are small, but there are a lot of them, nestled in the crotch of a tree.

"Frieda" Orchids were rather large and their petals looked puffy.

These two orchids are on a tree near the "jungle" area.

"Apricot Ashley" has been blooming for a long time.

"Dancing Denise" is a purple orchid with wide white stripes around the petals.

It was tied high up on a tree.

"Mardi Gras" Ground Orchids.

A nice group of orchids on a tree.

One day I took a different route and I ran across this wonderful bright red

"Carmen Hibiscus Bush."

One of the bright red "Carmen Hibiscus" flowers with slightly frilled petals/

A cluster of bright red "Carmen Hibiscus" flowers.

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On My Walk This Morning 4m

 

The one building that has chosen small pots for its flowers works hard to keep them

fresh and growing.  They are always watered, and if the plant is finished, they remove

it and replace it with a new plant.  Here some "Pink Sonic Impatiens" have just been

 put into a pot.

A second pot has new "Hot Pink Impatiens"

A third pot has been planted with with "Alphonsine Pink Sonic Impatiens"

There used to be many "Bauhinia / Orchid Trees" along our street, and they bloomed

in December and January.  But many were damaged by a wind storm a couple of years

ago.  But I discovered this damaged trunk with shoots of flowers emerging.

The Orchid Flowers were very colorful.

"Bauhinia / Orchid Tree Blossoms"

"Adeline" is a lovely light pink and lavender orchid.  Last year there were only

a couple of flowers; this year there are many.

"Elsie" is a wonderful large orchid in creamy white with splotches of purple.

"Dangerous Danielle" is a stem filled with deep purple orchids.

These beautiful "Astral Orchids" are a very pale blue or lavender.  They seem hardy

and yet very delicate/

I saw in the distance, at the end of the first half of my walk, a mass of red.  I went

closer and found it is an enormous bush of "Fire Engine Red Bougainvillea."  It is

growing at least fifteen feet high near the pool, but far enough way from the path

that lanscapers don't trim it.  It is glorious.

"Nefertiti Lavender Pentas / Egyptian Star Flowers."  This is a lovely bed of

pentas at the entrance to a building.

"Sidonie Pentas / Egyptian Star Flowers."  They will grow a long time and

produce many flowers if they are watered regularly.  This building has someone good

who watches and makes sure they are always watered.  

"Butterscotch" and "Happy Days."

"Blue Siberian Iris."  The bed will be filled with flowers for a week or so, and then have no

flowers at all for awhile.  And then suddenly, they are again filled with flowers.  This is

the second time for these little iris.

"Geraldine" is a brassier version of the pink and purple orchid.  The dark veins here

are very prominent.

Here is a "Touch of Blush" at its grandest.  It has the most flowers of any orchid

plant on my path.  On two stems, there are now 25 full beautiful orchids.

The plant has never done so well, and has been blooming for a long time.

"Mr. Funny Face" keeps evolving.  The eyes here are very clear and prominent.

The flowers are quite large.  They were among the first orchids to appear this year,

and they have been blooming for almost three months.

These very delicate "Gloria" orchids are tied high up on a tree; it is easy to walk by

without seeing them.  But they have perhaps the most delicate color of any of the

orchids.

This is one of the clusters of white orchids tied to trees in front of this building.

There are ten clusters in all, but all of the same white orchids.

"Queen Margrete" is elegant, regal, and joyous, put out by the man who likes miniatures.

A bed of "Penelope Pink Periwinkle" beside the walking path.

Huge bushes of various colors of "Impatiens / Busy Lizzies" beside the driveway.

"Wicked Witch of the North" Croton.  The long leave start out as pale yellow,

and then gradually turn dark red and finally black, for a very colorful bush.

The "Three Sisters" are growing on the trunk of a Robellini Palm.

A "Magnolia Grandiflora" blossom about ten inches in diameter.  They last for only

one day and then begin to turn brown.  But that one day is very splendid.

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