Tuesday, April 29, 2008

My Bulbs Arrived - Hurray!

I ordered some rain lily and tuberose bulbs and they just arrived in the mail. The postperson put them in the WRONG mailbox, however, and the neighbor was nice enough to immediately deliver them to my door. It is a good thing that they didn't sit in that hot mailbox for several days or they would have been crispy critters by the time I finally had them in my posession. Anyway, here they are:



I purchased some yellow rain lilies (Zephyranthes citrina), some white rain lilies for my swampy area by the air conditoning unit (Zephyranthes candida), Pink ones (Zephyranthes grandiflora), and some Mexican Single Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa) that are supposed to be easy to grow.

Rain lilies are native to the Americas, which I think makes them a neat plant to own. They also like really hot and humid summers, and can take both drought and drenching rains. What better bulb for Austin? Right? I had to get my hands on more of these. I have some Pink Zepharanthes 'Labuffarosa' in a shady spot that bloom spectacularly for me (even though most rain lilies like full sun). I guess the pink ones can take more shade than maybe the lighter colored ones.

As a side note, according to the Wikipedia, The name Zephyranthes comes from Zephyrus, the god of the west wind in Greek mythology. I guess the West wind is supposed to bring in the rains that makes these lilies flower. Nifty.

And here are some keen images of the bugs that are pollinating my prairie cactus:



These weird little beetles are just diggin' around in the flowers. I think they are kinda neat looking with all their yellow spots (or are they yellow with black spots?):



Here is a wider image of the cactus with its blooms:



And here is a bright green Sedum that is doing well and flowering for me. There is also another type of sedum in the image that is slowly dying off. It is just too darn hot for that variety here:



The Gulf Coast Penstemon I put in the air conditioning unit drainage area:

4 comments:

Iris said...

For some reason (lazy, non-researching?) I thought this penstemon was red only, so I passed it by, not wanting to add too many "hot" colors to my front yard garden. It's too damn hot here too often, so I usually stick to the blue/purple/white bloomies.

Anyway, it's lovely! Thanks for showing me a purple one and thanks for adding me to your blog list.
--Iris

Sue Swift said...

Lovely bug photos.

Lee17 said...

Iris,

You are quite welcome! I like the purple too - it a cool-feeling color.

Lee17 said...

Sue,

Thanks, I do love all the critters in the garden (ooh, except for those that sting and bite!) ;)