Autumn Garden: A Season of Review

I just finished watering my front and back yards. The front looks fine, lawn is still green and my various bushes and plants are thriving. That’s the good news.
The bad news? My back yard had a combination of hits and misses.
The hits:  Most of my roses (primarily hybrid tea) are standing strong (a few perished), [...]

Chinese Flame Tree, Aflame!

It may be autumn, but don’t tell that to my Chinese flame tree. It’s all aflame with exquisitely beautiful paper lanterns! Many of the yellow flowers that preceded these paper lanterns have been replaced by these lanterns, though in my other Chinese flame tree, it has a bit more yellow flowers than lanterns, so a [...]

Nagami Kumquat Tree, Fruiting

I can hardly believe it but it looks like one of my Nagami kumquat trees is fruiting! I purchased and planted this tree in the ground just four months ago. Click on the photo to get a detailed view of the tiny green globes dotting this petite tree! It was in flower a little over three weeks [...]

Pear Tree Grafts

It would seem that the graftings of other varieties of pear tree to the primary “host” pear tree are thriving (this is a 3-in-1 tree, 3 varieties of pear). A friend wondered if these might be suckers of the host tree, but I’m suspecting not.  Upon closer inspection of this sapling, the leaves of the host [...]

Nagami Kumquat Tree in Flower

This was a bit unexpected since my Nagami kumquat tree sapling is a bit young, but I enjoy surprises such as this! Those of you who have grown citrus trees have known the sweet fragrance of these flowers in your garden. It gives me great pleasure to know that a few months after being transplanted from [...]

Trees as Weeds

I’m guessing this is a baby palm tree, but it was not planted by me. Likely, a seed was dropped by a bird and landed in the soil and began to germinate. In any case, these particular trees sometimes appear in various parts of my garden and even between cracks in my cement patio. Right now, [...]

Dragon Tree in Container Nearly in Flower!

Dragon tree, how do you do it? A little over a year ago, I had a few branches of  my mature dragon tree trimmed, but kept all of the tree branch cuttings, placing most in 5-gallon containers.
Once again, this powerhouse of a tree surprises me: one of these cuttings has not only survived in its 5-gallon [...]

Dragon Tree: Branching!

Following up on the last post, here is a photo of my mature dragon tree (aka Dracaena draco), branching. The beautiful branching habit of this incredible tree provides the structure for its dome-shaped canopy. Click on the photo to see how each earlier branch spawned at least 2 new branches, and so on!

Dragon Tree: In Flower!

It’s that time of the year again, when my beloved, mature dragon tree (aka Dracaena draco) is in flower. A few of these flower spike are now dotting this tree. Presumably, branching occurs when the tree flowers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracaena_draco

Pear Tree: Fruits Emerging!

One of my two 3-in1 pear trees is beginning to fruit, about 3 months after I planted them! Wow! This is really a nice surprise since both pear tree saplings did not show very many leaves or other activity. These two photos are of at least 3 fruits from the same one tree. My other pear tree sapling does [...]