Love It! Cosmos Day Dream

Cosmos is very easy to grow, and especially when the flowers are as pretty as this one, it's like hitting a jackpot.

Two months, or 65 days to be exact, after seeding, the first flower has just opened.  I love the color so much <3

Happy but Devastated.

My first Blanket Flower finally bloomed, and I felt a great sense of achievement.  After all, I waited nearly 7 months for this day!

 I love the colors.  What a cheerful flower :)

BUT...

Something devastating has happened in the last few days.  Five days ago, the plant looked like THIS, and today, it looks like the pictures below.

What is going on??  It's all wilted and looks like something stomped on the plant.  Same thing happened to the Blanket Flower I planted in the front yard and killed the first, very-much-anticipated flower.  I've been watering them well, and they looked happy.  Now what?  What did I do wrong?  I've got to do some research on this.  Does anyone know?

Witnessing the Vogue Apple Blossom

Geraniums seeds germinated in 5 days, so I thought this plant was a fast grower.  I was WRONG! These, in fact, grow so slowly that I eventually stopped paying attention, but if I see the pictures in the last entry from January, it sure has grown bigger.  Even better, I found buds!

Can you see the buds?

Close-up.  Can you see the buds?

Single petaled pale pink flowers opened on the 181st day after seeding.  By the way, according to the seed package, the color is indicated as "Vogue Apple Blossom" - so I was expecting to see darker color.

Seed Pods.

Texas Bluebonnet adds bright blue color in my garden, and I am glad I grew them.  Even now in late April, Texas Bluebonnet is still blooming profusely, but some of the early bloomers started having their babies.

 Look how pretty these flowers are.  So blue and so pretty.

New buds pop up continuously.

There are many seed pods on the flowers that started earlier.  There will be many seeds to seed next year :)

Almost, almost!

The Blanket Flower bud I wrote about last month was snapped off by the winds or something and eventually died :(  However, the giant (literally!) Blanket Flower planted in the backyard started to show some buds right after the 'casualty' in the front yard.  It's been over a month since I found this bud, but I haven't yet to see the first flower.  Talk about patience!

The giant Blanket Flower in the backyard is about 3-feet tall while the one in the front yard is about 10-inches tall.  I don't know if this is normal because the ones I see in my neighbors' yards aren't this big.

The bud.  Looks as though each petal is an individual bud, don't you agree?

3 days after the above picture was taken, and while I see a slight change, it doesn't seem like it's ready to open anytime soon.  I guess I will have to wait several more days. 

Patience, patience...

It has been almost 7 months since I seeded the seed.

Just Because It's So Pretty.

My Gaura is a happy plant!  It continuously opens new flowers that look like butterflies (oh, those who don't know, I am butterfly-fobia). 

Aren't they pretty? 

Cosmos - Day Dream Update

I procrastinated - again - to make entries, but I've been taking pictures of my plants :)  (Thank goodness!)

Here, I am showing the progress that my Cosmos has made in the last several weeks.  But then, I wonder if this is better than frequent updates so you can see more pictures in one entry?

 About 2 weeks after the seedlings emerged, I transplanted them in the ground, in my backyard flower bed where the soil is sandy.  I divided seedlings and planted them in slightly different conditioned spots of the same flower bed.  (Location 1: more sun)

 (Location 2: more shades)

 About a month after transplant, Cosmos in Location 2 started to show buds.  Location 1 is about the same height as these, but I don't see a bud yet.

I Almost Forgot About You.

It was at the end of September 2010 when I seeded some tiny seeds of Forget Me Not, and this plant surely took a long time to grow.  It was so slow that I almost forgot about it!  However, last week, I noticed little buds at the tips of some stalks, and this week, I finally saw the flowers!

Can you see the buds?  (You can click on the picture to enlarge)

This!  This is it!  I have always wanted to have Forget Me Not in my garden, and now it's official that I do have it!  It surely took a long time to grow(nearly 7 months!) to get to this stage, but I am happy now.

Citrus

Here are random pictures of the citrus trees I have in my yard. I bought small, stick-like plants when I first moved to this house in May 2010.

From left: Lemon, Naval Orange and Lime.  I bought these at Wal-Mart for $14.00 each.  They were so thin and small that I was skeptical they would even fruit in the next few years.

--- But! ----

Lemon buds in December 2010.

The first lemon flower opened almost one month after the above picture was taken.  Wow, that was a long wait!

In two weeks, the first flower petals fell and showed a tiny fruit.  Can you see it?  Unfortunately, the flower shown here didn't fruit and fell off completely few days later.

 The survived baby lemon, one week after the above picture was taken.

In a few weeks, Lime tree started to have buds!

 Nearly a month later, the first Lime flower finally opened.  I didn't realize citrus flowers take this long to open!

We had summer-like hot days, and lime flowers came and went quickly.  It looks like I will have a plenty supply of limes this summer.  Thinking of making lime pies already!

And this is the lemon.  It's still tiny, but it is getting bigger and bigger each day.  See the lemon shape?

2 more baby lemons and a bud that I think will open in a few days.

This is my Satsuma Mandarin tree.  This, too, started to show some buds.

Since I've never grown fruits, I am pretty excited about these little fruits!  Stay tuned for their development :)