Crape Myrtle and the Adenium connection........

There is an interesting techniuque for inducing polyploidy that I am trying on Adenium.....way too soon to see if it works with crape myrtle but we may try later this summer once fresh seed are available.....plus I just found a research paper that describes how to do flow cytometry to test for ploidy change in crape myrtle.......so here we go again.........maybe.........
Just another long term idea to keep life amusing..............

Verbenas...........

Here are a few different Verbena that were collected for our enjoyment............
They do quite well in the Florida summer..........compared to many other flowering plants that is.......
This summer has been a real test so far............wish I was Verbena tough.........

Friday Flowers at Work..........

Rangoon Creeper:

Allamanda (close):

Allamanda (farther):

Coral Vine:

These plants from work were photographed 15 minutes ago........they are all in full sun and have been subjected to 95 degree temps for the last 2 weeks.........they are doing well.........me not so good.........I guess the fact that they have more genes than me is paying off.........

Mosaic Mom's Flowers............

Here are a couple of photos of Mosaci Mom's flowers......
They are great.....

btw......I think they should breed for "Flowering Coleus" instead of just "Foliage Coleus"........

A Couple of my Adenium Pets.............

Here are a two of the Adenium that I am playing with........it is fun to see what how you can manipulate a plant both morphologically and genetically........

I like the flower shape of this one.......
The flower shape below is quite different.........

I want to see what the hybrids will look like............

My Mail Order Adenium Daddy Plant...........

Last week I received an Adenium cutting in the mail from a fellow hybridizer (photo above).
The stem had 8 flowers that survived the cross country trip.
I have since used all 8 flowers to make 8 pollinations.
After 4 days it looks like a few seed pods are starting to develop.
It is tough to wait 4-6 months for the seeds and then another year to see what the hybrids do.
But these seeds will be special, as the babies will be.
In the meantime I will tend to all the other parents and babies that crowd my greenhouse.

The Busy Little Red Wheelbarrow............

In the background rests the poor little red wheelbarrow.......
That poor thing worked a week to haul away our old nursery outhouse......
It was a nice outhouse made with lots of heavy concrete blocks.....
See what the poor guy did below.....
But the little guy kept chipping away and makeing trip after trip to the dump pile......
and now he is quietly resting in the shade.....

Here he stands triumphantly on the concrete floor.........waiting to give the final blow......

Here he his taking a break and sizing up the remaining walls..............

Now the little 'barrow is checking out the job ahead.......and a big job it is to be.............

Big Daddy Cloud...............

Here is a cloud that will make you take notice.......finally heading into the rainy season.........grass mowing season........the humidity season and the mosquito season.......

Meet Bony ...............

Here is another photo Bony - the new stray kitten that chose our shed to hide in..........After a week, Bony has gotten stronger, more confident and now is in the investigative mode.......he is staring at the 2 sand hill cranes by our bird feeder.....not quite ready to bring them down......but maybe after a few more pounds......
Bony is a survivor.......hope to keep his luck going.......but after going to check out a velvet ant and a large hornet this morning I am getting a little nervous......

Next we are going to visit the swimming pool.......He might like it................

Adenium 'Calypso'.............

That is my baby..........no wonder I enjoy these plants so much................the flowering goes on and on and on and on.......

A Good Squirrel...............Foxy

Every so often a fox squirrel visits and hangs around for a few days.....they are so cool.....
2x big as gray squirrels and not afraid of much.....of course we call him/her "Foxy".
We especially love how all the pesky gray squirrels disappear when Foxy is around.

Gee, wish we could hire him on a full time basis.

Class Flashback......some flowers............