Phelps

If I could be just half so effective as plantsman, as he is as swimmer..........

from: www.sportlive.co.za

Violets

I do not remember exactly, but must be four to five years ago that I purchased a plant with few violets as weeds in the container. They were so dark blue that I didn't clean off the surface of the container. After years they have migrated as weeds in some locations in the garden, freely cross breeding with the usual forms of Viola tricolor present in my region. The following pictures show some of the nice results.

Top: "originally purchased" violet.

Love or Hate

A friend of mine loves Kniphofias........ So I captured these pictures a couple of hours ago especially for you!

Kniphofia galpinii

Kniphofia galpinii

Addendum to not invited visitors

These pictures show the progression of the damages in less than one week!

White in the Garden

For some unknown instances some plants are precocious this year as the cold weather of the past Winter has stimulated their metabolism! My Eucryphia xnymansensis opened the first flowers just yesterday evening. And despite it was frozen to the soil, also Mandevilla laxa has begun to flower. I also perhaps discovered another factor leading to high mortality under bees... (no this is just a joke, if is true that crab spiders hunt bees they usually do not focus on this insects but hunt all possible species ).

Eucryphia xnymansensis

Mandevilla laxa

White hunter (quite probably a crab spider from the Thomisidae family)

Not invited visitors

Last year I experienced just focal damage on my box parterre due to the new introduced pest in middle Europe, the box tree pyralid (Glyphodes perspectalis). This small moth from Asia may cause relevant damages, with the caterpillars that can complete defoliate a parterre. This year the problem is more relevant with hundreds of caterpillars feeding on my plants. Well yesterday evening I treated the plants bit spores of Bacillus thuringiensis. I hope I can keep the problem under control without chemicals.

June Yellow

I did a quick foto shoot from yellow blooming pearls from my garden.The first one is Cattleya xanthina, a medium large Cattleya from South America, nice pastel yellows but no scent. The second one is a small rupicolous Laelia also from South America, Laelia briegeri. The single flowers are small (4-5 cm in diameter), the culture is quite different as for normal epiphytic Cattleya. Rupicolous C. like when their roots attach to rocks, so I use small rocks and charcoal as potting medium. These species need also less water than epiphytic ones. For the third species we need to change continent. It's a small Arisaema flavum from Asia. The leaves are dark green and glossy. The small flowers appear quite late in the season (from middle June toward). This species is not difficult at all in cultivation, but it 's still one of my favorites.

Cattleya xanthina

Laelia briegeri

Arisaema flavum

Arisaema flavum