New Resident

As I watered the garden this morning, I looked up and was excited to see a baby lizard (or newt?)! I’ve never before seen one so tiny with its stub of a tail and green stripe down its back. Though the lizard is a welcome addition, something I found trying to blend in with the geranium leaves—a grasshopper, was not! I let it know that it was not welcome and sent it flying!

Double Header

Today is another two red hibiscus day! I didn’t see this one coming; I usually see the buds forming and can estimate when they’ll bloom and happily anticipate them but the second one was a pleasant surprise! The fertilizer must be working. However, it can only be applied quarterly.

The hummingbird came back for my fuchsia petunias this morning—just as I was watering the basket. Seeing me, he or she flitted to a nearby branch to sit and wait. The first time I saw this I was astounded since I had never seen a hummingbird be still. I recently read somewhere, perhaps in Birds & Blooms, that hummingbirds spend the majority of their time resting. That could just be the key to more energy!

Resistance Can Be a Good Thing

I checked to see if my hydrangea cuttings were taking root by gently tugging on each stem (probably not the ideal way but far better than digging them up!) and was pleased to discover that I met with firm resistance, a sure sign that roots are taking hold! I had experimented to see if it mattered whether I stripped all the leaves off or not, so I left the leaves on two of the hydrangea stem cuttings. Apparently it does matter since the two-leaved ones gave no resistance but pulled easily—no roots. So I stripped their (now black-edged) leaves as well and am expecting rooted resistance from them soon.

Another Visitor Whirred In

More rain came yesterday evening in a tremendous downpour with wind so strong that it blew the rain sideways! Though it doused the plants, I’ve learned to water a little anyway because the rain often only wets the leaves and the top inch or two of soil.

Today I had a treat while watering my hanging basket of white-scalloped fuchsia petunias and yellow-green sweet potato vines; a long absent hummingbird whirred in for some sips. Last year one, or sometimes he or she would bring a friend, hummingbird made frequent visits but not this year. Perhaps the intense heat has been too much but today the temperatures are cooler with the rain or maybe I don’t have enough flowers blooming to make it worth their while. At any rate, I have to be careful that the hummingbirds don’t think I’m a flower too since I wear bright colors! Seriously, more than once a hummingbird has flown close to me as though I was a flower! Yikes, that would be traumatic for both of us!

It’s also a Two Red Hibiscus Day!

Thank You Lord for the Rain!

We had gotten a bit spoiled with rain nearly every day, sometimes twice a day. But lately we’d had none and the grass was beginning to turn brown. Though we hadn’t heard it, this morning I discovered that rain did indeed fall—enough to water the garden.

Multiplying a Gift

Recently I received from my friend R’s garden, a gift of gorgeous deeply hued hydrangeas. They lasted, in one form or another, for nearly three weeks but there’s no need to let it stop there. In all my years of poring over garden books I’ve seen a lot of articles about starting new plants from stem cuttings; I’ve tried it from time to time with mixed results so I decided to try it with the hydrangeas. I had a pot and remembered an old package of rooting powder. Though the powder is very old, it’s been zip sealed so it has possibilities. I made holes in the soil with an old pencil, dipped the stem cutting ends in the rooting powder and stuck them in the soil pressing it down, then watered. I stripped most of them of their leaves—we’ll see whether it makes a difference. This is regular potting soil but I may have to change to something with sand in it. I think I have some. I may do two sets. It seems that I have nothing to lose but I surely would enjoy my own beautiful hydrangeas.

Natural Visitors

A surprised Carolina Wren jumped from a corner pot as I looked out on the garden this morning—so that’s who’s been digging there! The wren flew up to the rail, bent down, picked up something with its beak then flew to the side of the building, bringing back a larger something, pale grey, narrow, rectangular—a moth? The wren then picked it up and flew away. Bug patrol. Thanks. (And well, it left something too, several somethings. I have always heard how neat wrens were—but then; maybe some other bird came in the meanwhile…Oh well, even in Eden.)


Though my garden is in pots, in the air and not very large—I do get a few other welcome natural visitors. I usually prefer to not be in proximity to frogs but I’ve been happy to have the tiny ones that have made their way up to my garden.

The Beauty Queen

Today is another “Red Hibiscus Day” when the Beauty Queen of my garden shows herself. The flowers only last a day and come only occasionally so their appearance is a cause for celebration--though now that I’ve found a special organic fertilizer for palms, hibiscus and other tropicals (Palmtone), perhaps we’ll have more stunning blooms.

I bring my hibiscus indoors at the first frost; it does very well blooming every now and then bringing some color relief to dark winter days—though I have noticed that the blooms are a bit smaller.


I was first taken with red hibiscuses when I was in Spain teaching art. They were everywhere! When I added one to a group painting, I was told that the local name for the flower translated into “Flower of Peace”. So when I returned home, I had to get one. My blossoms turn up in my paintings representing peace.

I’d like to get an orange hibiscus too but I’m waiting for the right color of orange and the right price…

Leafy “Flowers”

Flowers, in all their color, are my favorite things to grow. I’ve also painted them for years (I’ve actually been asked, in all innocence, if it would hurt the flowers!) Even these days as I paint pictures of buildings I’m still painting, in effect, flowers.

However, I’ve become quite a fan of plants with colorful foliage. These plants, such as the purple Persian Shield and magenta streaked Parrot Leaf pictured, are still colorful all summer and fall even when the flowers aren’t blooming, looking like stained glass when the sun shines through. They also root from cuttings. In my Piedmont climate, they’re annuals but they last a little while indoors when I bring them in before frost.

Always a Gardener

I’ve always been a gardener—from the first paper-cup-of-dirt-with-a-seed-in-it school project to being surrounded by my grandmother’s flower gardens to my own first garden made by my dad in halves of an oil drum to my garden on the go in my many homes. I love the color of a garden, the shapes. Tending it and watching it grow. I love the surprise of discovery when something new pops up—whether expected or unexpected.

This is one corner of my current “tree house garden” on our balcony.