Happy blooming day!

It has been a rainy week here in my little garden in japan, but this weekend we finally got some sun and the flowers are really grateful. Almost all of the plants are flowering, the only one left is the calla lily and the dahlia, but I am sure they will have a couple blooms soon.

Happy blooming day!

The osteospermum hasn't stopped blooming at all

The anemones finally recovered completely from the drought and are showing a very nice display. The chocolate cosmos, which I had already tossed away until I noticed new growth from the roots, resurged and have kept on growing.

The dill is flowering like crazy

The kalanchoe is all out too

Even some of the herbs are flowering, the thyme, the dill and rosemary have little flowers and the lavender is starting to form flower buds.

The mini rose is blooming already and the red rose will be very soon

The geraniums look great

As the summer approaches some of the annuals are starting slow down and start to fade. I will probably have to do a renewal of some of the flower boxes next month, but for now they all get to give a last bloom.

summer will be here soon

Enjoy many other bloggers showing their blooms at blooming day from May Dreams Gardens!

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My red rose

Before continuing on introducing what I got from garden center on last weekend sale, I want to show you another plant I got a bit before. It is my new red rose that I mentioned I got back on the little garden in japan monthly update early this month. 

My red rose all set and ready for next year

As you know I was looking for a red rose because, even though they have been overused for romantic purposes so much that they become bit cliché and corny, I really like them as such. I believe they got to that point because they truly are fitted perfectly for that; They are beautiful and yet a bit dangerous because of the thorns, the petals are very sexy with their silk smooth texture, they make great cutting flowers, and so many other reasons.

Of course for me, a bit of a hopeless romantic, the red rose represents all of this the best, it is a classic that are have stood the test of time and remained as elegant as always. So when I was buying it, I look for the most perfect and vibrant red I could find.

But, I faced a small setback, all the roses at sale were not blooming. They are were stubs meant to be planted and kept dormant for the winter. I had no idea of the real color of the rose would be and it was specially hard to choose, since they were more than twenty kinds of red roses at display.

They did all had photos and a lot of information, like they usually do, but I wanted to be completely sure, I did not wanted to end up buying a pinkish red, or one too purple (which are also beautiful, but not what I wished for). The red I was looking for was a mix between a crimson red, a very sensual set of lips and a true red poppy.

I hope my rose turns out a very nice red

I don’t know much about rose varieties or types, but with a little help from the Internet I decided on a papa meilland rose. Hopefully it will turn out how I imagined it. Now, I got a nice planter for it, and had it all set up. It seems to be doing great. I will continue to cultivate it and hopefully I will have beautiful blooms to give to the girl of my dreams someday.

My little garden in japan october 2010

A little late but here is a quick check on how my little garden in japan has done this month

• All my lettuces and kalanchoes continue to overflow their pot. I cut some away, but they are still so many.


• The old strawberry died, it didn't make it while I was in mexico, but I guess that was expected.


• I got a new geranium, and some new strawberries, I will make sure to take extra care this time, and plant them in two pots.


• I also got a crave for herbs lately. I got a lemon thyme and tomorrow I plan on buying more.


• From Mexico I got an aloe and a maguey. I don’t know if they will have enough light to grow here, but I guess is worth to try.


• I sow a new bed of lettuce, kalanchoe and one or two coriander in the pot where the strawberries used to be. They are already sprouting.


• The roses have been flowering a lot, and i am thinking if I should get a new red rose.


• I have a lot of mints growing because I separated the plant, now I dont know what to do with it.

All the other plants continue to grow happily. They are all doing great.

And for last, Here is my submission to blooming day, is a small one but I hope is good

The rose has been blooming a lot lately

My globe amaranth continues to flower

New geranium flowers

My flowers

Every garden needs flowers. They look great, smell great and help to attract many beneficial insects to the garden.  

My flowers at their best

Having a garden is a tradition that starts with my grandparents. They always had a very full of life garden. My grandpa had grapes, strawberries and even an "amaze everybody he could grew it" pineapple. My grandma on the other hand always had many beautiful flowers, she often woke up early and cut some flowers to adorn her house, filling it all with the fresh scents.

Back at my parents, we also used to have lots of flowers in the garden. Usually we grew petunias for spring, and "Nochebuenas" (Poinsettias) at winter, but we had many others as well, including a huge bugambilia that covers the whole front fence.

My Calla lily blooming this summer

Having a garden here in japan, I could not miss out on having some flowers of my own. I already had a Calla lily, and a Kalanchoe but this spring I got a bunch more.

My torenia

It just keeps on blooming

I bought this one at my favorite garden center. It was quite full of flowers when I got it, but at my garden it went crazy growing and blooming nonstop. They remind me of the full white carpet of petunias that I used to have at my parents' house.

Now it continue to give flowers, but it is not as full after the vacation drought.

My Blue Salvia

I love this purple color

I had seen a lot of this flowers around since last year, but I didn't know much about them. Silly me at first I used to believe this was lavender. I think it's an honest mistake, the flowers do look alike a bit. However when I visited Hokkaido last year and I saw the lavender farms, I realize it’s a different plant.

This spring I spot some at the garden center, and I had to buy them. This deep purple color is one of my favorites of all my flowers.

Sadly this plant got a lot of damage on the week of the drought, and it never fully recovered. Now it still have some green and some tinny flowers but I think it's best to take it out. Next year however, it will sure be on my list of flowers to get for spring.

My Marigold

The flower basquet

This is another flower I got because it reminds me of the flowers back in my country. I wanted to have it because I know it attracts a lot of beneficial insects and because I really like the scent. Sadly I lost it because of vacation drought, maybe next year I can get some more.

My Mini Rose

It finally started blooming again

I love roses. It might seem as a cliché but I think they are the most romantic of all flowers. In my garden I have a tinny yellow mini rose. Well, it started as tiny, the pot it came in was barely half a cup. When it started growing I changed it to a bigger pot but then problems started.

At the beginning it was full of flowers, but after a while it stopped. I assume it wanted some food so I prepared some banana milkshake fertilizer and it started blooming again.
Now it continues to live very happily and it already grew five times its initial size.

My Geraniums

Geraniums for my mom

I got this plants because they remind me of my mom. She loves geranium. I remember once we bought a bunch from a plant nursery and then we felt bad because they where only stems (back then we didn’t know that’s how geraniums reproduce).

In my garden I have a red and a white one. They seem to be ok, but they are growing slow because they got a little hurt from lack of water on vacations. The only problem is that white one seems to be growing albino leafs, I think it got too much sun, I hope it recovers soon.

My Globe Amaranth

Butterflies love Globe Amaranth

I didn't knew this flower before, and so far I had only seen it in japan, but it's definitely one of my favorites. I had seen it growing in many gardens here but strangely I didn't found it for sale last year.

I wanted to have one on my garden because with that shape it looks like it’s the kind of flower butterflies go crazy about. Luckily this week because of a post at tokyodiygardening.org and thanks to @a_small_lab I was reminded of them, so I went to my favorite garden center and I found them there. Of all the displays it was the one with the most butterflies, it think I counted around 14.
So that’s how it become the new acquisition for my garden. I got the one with more buttons, so I can be sure to have butterflies at my garden.

Oh and turns out this flower is native back in my country.


So those are my flowers.
Besides from all of these ones, when they were on season, the tomato, the strawberry, the peppers and specially the mints were full of flowers and add to the flower collection.

Strawberry flowers

My plants

Here is a small ever-changing list of the plants on my garden.
I will try to update this page accordingly to my current garden status. All my plants are now on the "my garden" page

 

• Mint: One apple mint and one peppermint
• Beans: No idea what kind I just try to sow some I didn’t eat
• Grape: It's a Pione, I just got it this month 
• Cilantro: Now on the second sow, I hope they are still on season
• Basil: Sweet basil, I want to try to cook with it
• Japanese maple tree (紅葉): The pot actually has four different kinds I'm waiting for autumn to see which one I keep
• Kalanchoe: Pink, donated by a shop
• Strawberry (苺): In memory of my grandfather 
• Tomato: On the end of season
• Pepper: Rescued form a garden shop trash
• Torenia: White, so many flowers
• Blue Salvia: Beautiful purple flowers
• Zantedeschia: My first plant in japan
• Rose: A little yellow mini rose
• Geranium: White and red for my mom
• Globe amaranth*: For the butterflies  

 

All of my plants have been an adventure on its own, some have worked some have not. Also besides from this I hope to acquire some tulips and maybe some other plants along the road.

*Updated 27 Aug 2010: A brand new globe amaranth