What's Blooming Now

Red Bird of Paradise-Fiiiiinalllly blooming!
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This is my favorite Lantana-yellow and pink

My Desert Willow is STILL blooming

This Gazania sprung up for free. A pretty weed.

Moths, Moths and more Moths

I looked out the back door the other day as the sun was setting and I saw a bunch of little hummingbird type things buzzing around my flowers. Looking closer I saw that they were moths. I had never seen such a thing. They had very long tongues and were sticking them in to each Lantana flower. I tried to take pictures but I didn't have my camera set for close-ups so the pictures are blurry. I found one from wikipedia that is clear.moth with flowers

This explains why there was a tomato hornworm living on my Lantana last year. He was a big guy. One of the biggest I've seen. I put him in a jar for a while but he didn't look happy so I let him go. The hornworms turn in to these hawk or sphinx moths. Fascinating.

My Texas Ranger

I did 2 things wrong with my Texas Ranger. I put my patio too close to it even thought I knew it was going to grow much bigger and I left the drip system too close to it's truck so that the roots didn't spread out. This is a low water plant so I can probably take the drip off of it altogether.

We had a big storm last Tuesday and my poor Texas Ranger fell over. Luckily I found it while the ground was still very wet so I propped it up with a rock close to its trunk. Once the ground dries out it cements the plant in place so if you don't put it upright fast, it will be permanently lopsided.



I was thrilled to see that it finally bloomed. I had read that it blooms when the air is humid but it has been humid for 3 weeks! I went out to look at it every couple of days to see if it looked like it was thinking about blooming. Then, on the day of the storm, when I find it laying on its side, I see it covered with flower buds. I am glad it survived the storm so that I could see it's beautiful flowers.