Color!

The north side of our house has some splashes of color these days. My hibiscus is finally starting to bloom again. It's in desperate need of repotting, but I don't want to do that because then it's too hard to handle. I've cut slips from both plants, but they're not rooting right away like the last time I tried that. I might have to try some newer growth later. But here's a photo of the coral bloom (with a bud from the red plant in the background). It gets such a deep, bright color when it gets a lot of sun. I do move it far enough from the house that it gets sunshine most of the day. The wind has been mostly in the south so far this summer, so it's more protected on the north. If/when we get north winds, I move it to the other side of the house. So now you know why I don't like it in a huge pot... plus I bring it into the garage every night to protect it from raccoons, skunks, and/or whatever likes to dig in pots (kittens? never!).

Below are my colorful impatiens with some non-stop begonias in the upper right corner:

These are my favorite impatiens:

I also love my non-stops!

Oh, and the gerbera daisies are back there, too, in the sun with the hibiscus. They're just beginning to bloom nicely, too. I forgot to take pics of them, though. Later.....

Winter views

All of these photos were taken within inches of each other.

Outside the window:

Did you notice how it's sitting right at the very tip of that little branch?

Yeah, they're just crows.

I like this inside-the-window view much better:

My hibiscus is blooming nicely, even if it's a bit straggly. It does brighten a winter day!

Hibiscus, etc.

How is my hibiscus faring this winter, you ask? Okay, nobody asked, but I'm sure you've been wondering. You have, haven't you? In the midst of all your Christmas preparations, surely you've been wondering. Okay, not. But I'm gonna tell you anyway. :)

Here it is, relegated to the bedroom Courtney uses when she stays here, which used to be her daddy's bedroom (and he still claims it as his when he's here). The room is on the south, so it gets plenty of sunshine, but it's not heated much. The hibiscus is looking kind of scraggly. Josie was pretty hard on it last winter, then the heat of the summer was a bit much for it, too. Not to mention that it needs to be in a bigger pot (please don't mention that!).

But it's valiantly blooming! I took these pics yesterday. The nice thing about the cool room is that the flowers last longer... maybe 2 or 3 days instead of just the normal 1 day. Of course I'm rarely in that bedroom, so I don't get to enjoy them as much as if it were in the living room... but that brings us back to the Josie problem....

On top of the cabinet next to the hibiscus is my umpteen-years-old red prayer plant looking down. It seems to like its location, too, where it gets just enough light without direct sunlight.

Oh, and in case you noticed the greenery by the hibiscus pot in the first photo, that's my now-42-year-old ivy. :) All of the above, plus my gerbera daisies, make up the extent of my houseplants these days. I used to have tons of them... but I guess I got lazy... and/or I got cats. ;)

Just because I like this photo

Hibiscus flowers only last a day. Sometimes a bud will fall (or get knocked) off before opening. If it's far enough along, it will still open, and it doesn't even have to be in water. A couple days ago, I found one on the cement outside the back garage door. It probably got knocked off as I brought the plant into the garage for the night (to protect it from critters who like to dig in pots in the dark). I wasn't sure if it was far enough along to open or not, so I tossed it in the pail I use for weeding. Later I noticed that it was beginning to open, so I picked it out of the pail and laid it on my glove which happened to be on the step in the garage. I knew it would be futile to bring it into the house, because Josie would sniff it out and have it chewed up in no time. It did open fully, and I thought it looked kinda cool on the glove, so I took it outside and snapped a pic, just for fun. Here it is!

Morning loveliness

I was delighted to finally find hibiscus blooms this morning, one of each color even! They're the first since having to cut the plants way back last winter after Josie's torturing them so much. Enjoy!

If only the flowers would last more than a day. They probably won't even last that long today, with this horrid heat. It was already 90° by 9:30 a.m., and the humidity is high. At least it's supposed to be cooler tomorrow. Yeah... 85° will feel cool after this past week.

Our crops are very much in need of rain, so would you pray-ers out there send up some extra prayers for rain for us? There's a chance of rain in the forecast for this afternoon and tonight, but not a very big one. Maybe some prayers will help bump the chances up a bit. Thanks!

This is a first

In the 6 years that I've had this cat tower, this is the first time I've ever seen a cat lounging on that bottom shelf! I could never figure out why none of them ever used it. Its fleecy cover is softer and nicer than the carpeted ones above it. The only thing I could think of is that they just like being up higher.

Josie seems quite content, though, doesn't she?

Oh. But I think she may have ulterior motives.

Yep... most likely planning how best to tackle my hibiscus this time! (The poor thing never gets to bloom... the buds are her favorite part!) Aargh.

Bad, BAD kitty!

Josie has been so awful to my hibiscus plant ever since I brought it into the house a few weeks ago. She just will not leave it alone. She chews on the leaves, and she seems to think the flower buds are special toys. The buds come on the ends of the branches, and there are seven branches, all of which should have buds and/or flowers on by now. There are only two branches that do, because she's chewed the rest off. She also likes to snoop at the potting soil, so there's usually bits of that on the carpet all around the pot.

Yesterday morning, there was finally a flower on the plant, way up at the top. I took a picture of it, because I just KNEW it wasn't gonna last. Here's the pic. If you click on it to enlarge it, you can see how sad some of the leaves look.... not to mention the ones that are totally missing. (She doesn't eat the whole leaf. I usually find them on the floor, along with lotsa little chewed bits.)

The goofy thing is, when she goes after the plant, she warns me with a funny little "hmm?" sound. So I get after her and start yelling. That seems to work the best... she doesn't like yelling. Then she'll walk a few steps away and lie down and watch me... to see if I'm watching her.

The flower survived all day yesterday.... till after supper I went down to the basement for a while and closed the door so the cats couldn't come down. When I came back upstairs, I noticed a tiny bit of 'something' on the floor by the kitchen sink. I picked it up and noticed it felt wet, sorta fresh. It dawned on me what it might be, so I started looking around. I found this near the hallway:

And here's the rest of the story:

Pretty sad flower.

But considering that hibiscus flowers only last one day, anyway, I got most of the day's worth of enjoyment out of it, at least. If only she wouldn't chew off the buds before they got a chance to open up!

Of course, in getting to those top branches, she's also tipped over the entire plant 3 or 4 times. *sigh*

On another Josie note... she has this goofy habit of pawing at her food bowl until some of the food spills out onto the floor. Numerous times during the day, I'll hear a thumping coming from the entry, and I know exactly what it is. At least she usually eats it up after she spills it, which is what she's doing below, in a most relaxed manner.

What a cat! But I love her. And I'd get rid of the hibiscus before I'd part with her! :)

Hibiscus and cats

Auntie Kris asked awhile back if my cats bother my hibiscus plant. In a word... yes. :( I just brought it into the house from outside last week. Josie was thrilled.

I think she thought it was a special new toy. No.... on second thought, if it'd been a toy, she wouldn't have liked it so much. Ha! She has chewed numerous leaves off. I've found bits all around the house. At least, unlike Willow, she's not interested in the flowers.

Wispy was curious, too, but she doesn't do much more than just look.

And she only 'smells' the flowers:

Eww... those evil eyes, Josie!

And sometimes she likes to just hide behind it. If she seems to be MIA, I know where to look!

The novelty seems to be wearing off, though, and the plant doesn't look too much the worse for wear. It's a tough plant and will just grow new leaves. Also, Josie hasn't gotten sick, so that's a good thing. So I guess they're becoming compatible. ;)

Hibiscus

Here y'are, Becky! Such a lovely color, huh?

There were two blooms. Here's the other one:

Looks a little weird, doesn't it? I don't know what caused it to be so mottled.

I'm wondering what any future ones will look like.

The other plant (red) should be blooming soon, too... it has a few buds coming.

Well.... as for my discombobulation from yesterday morning... the news is not good. Our water never cleared up completely. In fact, it got lots worse at times... like pure mud flowing from the faucet. Worse yet, last night it quit altogether. The well guy came out about 9:30 and determined that there's no more water in the well. It looks at this point like we'll have to dig a new well. Life could be interesting for awhile. Yuck.

For Kris

This is the best I can do for now. Hope it brightens your day a little. ;-)

A good decision

As those of you who've been following my blog for awhile know, I decided I was going to toss out my quite-a-few-years-old hibiscus plant(s) at the end of this summer. It was a good plan. With all the rain and humidity we had this summer and fall, it was not looking at all healthy. I knew its time was near when the weather started getting colder, so I quit watering it so it would be lighter and easier to carry away. When we got our wind and snow on October 27th, it blew over, and here's how the poor thing looked:

Pretty sad, huh? It was still somewhat heavy, or actually more like awkward to carry away, but the worst part was getting it out of the pot. I've never seen a more solid bunch of roots! It took some digging around the edges with a knife and then some thumping it on the ground, plus a lot of tugging, but I managed. So, all is said and done.

BUT.... here's the new life from the cuttings I took back in June. As you can see, the red one has a bloom and more buds, and there are buds on the coral one, too. So I'm happy.

Now if only I could keep it out where I could see it... but alas, there's Josie, who I'm sure would torment it. So it is relegated to the bedroom where Courtney sleeps, till it gets a little bigger, anyway. Oh, well......

Delightful surprise

Remember the hibiscus cuttings I was starting back in June? They had nothing but stubby little beginnings of roots at that time, and I thought it might be as long as a couple years before they bloomed. Well, it's been less than 3 months, and look at them now!

Yep, 2 plants... a peachy-coral one and a red one.

I couldn't be more pleased! And now I won't feel nearly as bad throwing out the old plants when the time comes this fall.

I am so pleased!

Just look:

And here:

What do you think they are? Yup, roots. And from what kind of plant?

You may remember the sad state of my hibiscus plant (<--click the link and scroll down a bit to see it) just over a year ago. I'd chopped it back pretty severely, and yet it came back and bloomed nicely again. However, it's gotten so old and woody, that I didn't even bother to do anything with it this past spring. I just set it outside, not even making any attempt to gradually get it used to being outdoors. I figured it could just take what it got. It's too big and heavy to move in and out.

It turned out to be pretty bad timing, as just a couple days after I put it out, the weather got very hot and windy, and that's not good for a plant that has just come out after several months indoors. It got pretty beat up... windwhipped and sunburned. Although it's still alive, it's not doing much.

I got to wondering how hibiscus plants are propagated. I thought it was probably from grafting, but I decided to do a little searching. Lo and behold, I found that some (the less exotic kinds that you usually find for sale in stores, like mine which I got at Target) actually can be started from cuttings. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I cut off a slip each from the green and the coral branches, stuck them in water, and in less than a week, I could see the beginnings of roots. Hurray! So if all goes well, I shall have new hibiscus plants! It may be a few years before they bloom, but we'll see what happens.

Color in my white world

It's amaryllis time again! This one is always in a hurry to bloom. It was over a foot high before I remembered to take it out of our dark basement room. It didn't take long for the buds to mature and open up. Gorgeous, isn't it?

The other two are coming along nicely, too.

That's our snow-covered deck in the background.

I finally got a coral bloom on my hibiscus yesterday, too. It's really a deeper color than most of them have been. I was quite surprised. And I love it! Too bad hibiscus blooms only last a day. But there are more on the way.

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Below is some more 'color'. I've just started another sewing project. 20 pieces to sew together! Something new. Any guesses?

Nah, you'll never guess (but you can still try if you want!). You'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully it won't be too long!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I got flowers! Well, no... not from Grandpa. But I consider them a valentine just the same. :-) My hibiscus bloomed for the first time in several weeks. It's been affected by the lack of sunshine this winter, too. Usually it blooms all winter long. I thought it was quite timely today with its four beautiful flowers.

And it gave me just the red blooms. (For those of you who haven't been following the blog so long, it also produces coral blooms for some reason. Click the hibiscus link on the sidebar for more photos.)

It definitely added color to my cold, snow-blowy WHITE day!

I hope your Valentine's Day has had some special moments, too.