Burke's Garden: Lily

Showing posts with label Lily. Show all posts

Saturday, June 18, 2011

The Cannas 2011

May 29 - June 10, 2011.

The cannas are in full swing now.

Red and Yellow Cannas by the house and around the old oak stump.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Red Harmony

June 3, 2011.

It already feels like August! The heat soars up to 100˚F almost everyday. Summer flowering perennials are blooming. This gaillardia and daylily are in harmony with the surrounding red sheds.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

I had to transplant the petunia that was grown in this hanging pot on the front porch to a shadier spot and exchange that with portulaca and purslane. The petunia could not take the heat and tends to wilt very quickly despite a lot of watering. I have been growing portulaca and purslane in hanging / wall pots and they proof to be the winner. They are really drought resistant, heat resistant, profusely blooming, and just look good until the frost hit them.

Yellow canna lily bloom at the foreground.

Coral Drift Rose blooms at the bottom.

Red portulaca and salmon purslane,

with Ajanica Pacifica at the bottom, and moon flower and morning glory

climbing a small climber below the hanging pot.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Light and Airy Fern... what is your name?

April 20, 2011.

It's called Asparagus Plumosa Fern and it's not actually a fern but a member of Liliaceae family. It loves full sun and does not like too much water. Propagation can be done by seeds / berries or splitting the mature plant. Hardy in our zone.

April 17, 2011.

This year Hwy 80 Sale purchase from Edgewood Farmer's Market,

a fern (to be identified), repotted and placed by a pot of purslane on the patio.

©Burke's Garden, 2011.

Amaryllis Holiday Star 2011

April 17, 2011.

This year's first few blooms of Amaryllis Twinkle Twinkle Holiday Star,

more flower buds are emerging from the base still.

©Burke's Garden, 2011.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Amaryllis and Bottle Brush on The Patio

March 31, 2011.

Amaryllis Twinkle Twinkle Holiday Star's

flower buds with Kimberley Queen fern on the background.

Bottle Brush's blooms with black walnut tree

branches above them.

©Burke's Garden, 2011.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Lily and Four O'Clock

June 27, 2010.

One muggy morning in June.

Asian Lily and Four O'Clock in the tractor tire planter.

Four O'Clock flowing down the tire planter.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Amaryllis Teresa

April 24th, 2010.

A Christmas gift from our neighbor two years ago, has a second year bloom, grown outdoor in the ground. The flower bud was accidentally stepped on by a worker and broke. We put it in a jar with water, about 10 days later it blooms in the jar, in the kitchen.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Goodbye to Garden

The killing frost has come

I say goodbye to garden

See you back in spring

Saturday, October 31, 2009

The Leaves of Hurricane Lily

After finished blooming, the Hurricane Lily produce leaves like this. Previous posting on Hurricane Lily click here.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Canna Lily

Figuring out Canna Lily's structure.

Single stamen

Leaf-like pistil

Thursday, September 24, 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.

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

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.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Fence Line Report

Tropicana Lily's new foliage shows its tropical shades at last. I thought this would be as hardy as the regular one, but it's apparently not. I split and transplanted two plants into four plants in spring, but only one made it. It didn't do well either, it grows only 1 foot tall with no bloom.

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Hoja santa / Mexican Pepperleaf looks good after all these rainfalls. It's been quite sensitive and had to be watched closely for the foliage tend to droop very fast when moisture is lacking. It's planted by the front fence beyond the reach of garden hose. Now that the ground is wet, new offsprings come out at the base of the mother plant. Its velvety heart-shaped leaves can be used as a wrap for cooking fish. I got this plant because its decorative appeal that the leaves and stems have. It's hardy in our garden zone, too.