Banana Trees

This banana tree has been planted for 3 years.

It grows big and tall, taller than the average

height of banana trees around the area.

It never bear any fruit so far.

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Blood Leaf banana foliage covered with dew.

It's this year's purchase and planted in a pot.

It has grown too and has an offspring at the base.

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Hibiscus Blooming

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Four O'Clock At Eight Thirty

Four O'Clock flowers with coleus foliage in a tractor tire planter.

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Flowers open wide at 8.30 in the sunny morning.

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They have been making seeds and we've been collecting them.

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Their brightness is so eye-catching with the big old oak tree at the back. California iceplant is cascading on one side of the planter.

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

A Good Day Fishing

I am not a fisherman and experienced real fishing for the first time only about two years ago. I have been lucky enough though to experience fishing off shore at the Gulf of Mexico, off Venice, Louisiana, and caught -or to be more precise, reeled- a wahoo, and watched acrobatic dolphins (mahi mahi) being caught by the real fishermen. Despite all that, I had all the luck in the world fishing at our neighbor's ponds this afternoon. Here's my catch of the day!

Six breams and a bass.

That was my first catch of bass ever using an artificial bait.

The rest was caught with worms.

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Three big channel catfish, all my catch of the day.

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

A Family Gathering at The Bath

The Eastern Bluebirds

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Web's Catch

A bug ran into the web and broke the net

covered with morning dew.

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A branch of heirloom tomato plant

grasped by the web and be one of

the main anchor of the web.

© Burke's Garden, 2009

Fertilizing done for the garden.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

We welcome sunshine in the morning after two-week long cloudy days and rains. Temperature goes up to high 80˚F and even 90˚s in the afternoon. We'll take it for now.

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Canna Lily

Figuring out Canna Lily's structure.

Single stamen

Leaf-like pistil

© Burke's Garden, 2009

Pistil

Pistil is female reproductive organ of a flower. It's usually in the center of a flower surrounded by stamens and tepals. It comprises of a slender stalk called style with sticky or hairy tip called stigma where pollen grains land and germinate. Pistil typically has a swollen base and that is the ovary that contains potential seeds for reproduction.

Lily family has a single pistil.

The pistil looks like a stamen

without the anther.

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Pistil among stamens with opened anther exposing yellow pollen grains ready for pollination. When pollen grains get transported to the stigma, by insects or birds or other pollinators, the fertilization process begins. Pollen grains would be transported through pollen tube inside the style and ends up in the ovary. Ovules in the ovary will turn into seeds when the fertilization completes.

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Anthers surrounding a pistil

still wrapped in the flower bud.

The pistil is longer than stamens.

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The swollen base of pistil is the ovary

and in this case it's attached below

the stamens and tepals.

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Stamen

Stamen is male reproductive organ of a flower. It comprises of a slender stalk called filament and a sac on its tip called anther where pollen develops. When pollen is ready, the anther would open and pollen grains will either drop, blown by the wind, or transported by pollinators such as butterflies, bees, and birds. Often found at the base of stamen, nectaries, an element that produces and discharges 'food rewards' for insects and bird pollinators.

Lycoris radiata's stamens

before their anthers open.

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The stamens are much longer than the tepals.

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Yellow pollen grains at the tip of

opened anthers, ready for pollination.

All photos are © Burke's Garden, 2009.

Tepals Petals Sepals

These are close up pictures of Hurricane Lily's tepals. Yup, tepals. It's not a typo error as I thought it was when researching this flower. The term that I am familiar with, petal, is apparently just one element of the outer side of a flower.

The outer side of a flower is called perianth. Perianth consist of petals (the inner perianth) and sepals (the outer perianth, usually lie under petals). In the case where petals and sepals are not able to be differentiated (they may be of similar shape, color, or position), they are called tepals. Voila.

For Hurricane Lily, petals and sepals are undifferentiated, thus tepals. Each flower has six curled up and undulating tepals with midrib.

Ribbon-like tepals of Hurricane Lily

Undulating tepals among

filaments and styles

© Burke's Garden, 2009

Hurricane Lily

Lycoris Radiata, or commonly known as Red Spider Lily, Hurricane Lily, or Cluster Amaryllis is seemingly growing overnight at our front porch corner and everywhere around the neighborhoods. And this time of year hurricane season is usually at its peak, thus the name, I guess. At its current stage, the plant is leafless, only 18in / 40cm long stems with a cluster of about six flowers blooming at the end of each stem.

This is how a single flower looks like. It has six curled-up undulating petals and very long stamens and pistil giving a cluster of this a resemblance to spider. It's native to China and Japan. The picture below shows four clusters of blooming flower and one cluster still in buds.

The Outline

Of Alocasia

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Of Bromeliad

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Of an Angel's Wing, Begonia

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Of Angel's Trumpet

More Blooms

Yellow bells of Angel's Trumpets.

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Miss Daisy (Gerbera)

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Gaillardia

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Tropical hibiscus and castor bean leaf

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Hardy hibiscus, 2 days old blooms.

The blooms look healthier and are bigger

after two shots of spider mite remedy.