In English, is that a red castor bean?

The lily is awesome and the plumie I can actually smell from here!

Beautiful, all. Did you put the Plumeria in native or amended soil?

What looks good right now:

Hong Kong orchid tree
Italian tomato
vinca

Pretty much everything. I'm serious.

Melons, tomatoes, squash, all my fruit trees (apples, peaches, nectarines, pomegranates, tropicals, et al) look terrific.

The only thing that isn't is a hedge of grewia occidentalis (lavendar starflower) that probably has some irrigation issues and some lady banks roses that my ex-#$@$#@$# landscaper bought at a discount and planted that were heavily invested with black spot.

All of my Hibiscus are blooming crazy and so do my Canna Lillies.

I have 2 Hollyhocks but still not blooms from them. I planted them a little over a month ago.

I have some seedlings. I have sweat peas growing outdoors that have sprouted and are a couple of inches tall. I have, indoors, some jalapenos sprouting, some lavender sprouting, some poppies sprouting, and a couple of Mammoth Sunflowers and Velvet Queen Sunflowers that are about five or six inches tall. They are having a hard time standing up!

Fun updates everyone! It sounds like most everything is looking good. Keep them coming. :)

Mary, that Jatropha gossypifolia is a plant CRYING for a good English common name, but I haven't seen one. I usually just refer to the botanical name, or sometimes call it cotton-leaf Jatropha (gossypifolia means Gossypia-like foliage (Gossypia being the genus for cotton, and the foliage really does have a similar shape doesn't it?). In any case, it's not a castor bean, though you're right, the foliage sure looks similar to some of the dark-leaf castor beans (Ricinus) doesn't it? It's a relative of our native limber bush, and a lot of succulent Jatropha plants too. It needs a good common name! It drops its leaves in winter so I hardly water it then, but it leafs out early and keeps them until late autumn.

The plumie is planted in soil that's 50% native desert soil and 50% potting soil or compost. I slop some all purpose tomato fertilizer on it a few times spring through autumn. I've got a couple in the ground and they've all done really well, despite this past winter's unusually cold temps.

AJBB, hopefully your roses will outgrow the blackspot and you can get a potential irrigation fixed with the other plants. Let us know what you find out and how it goes.

Just for fun, here's a quick and casual pic of some blooms on my "California fuchsia" plant (Zauschneria) which blooms off an on early summer through very very late autumn.

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Happy gardening everyone,
Grant

All of those are beautiful! I had some wild squash (that's what I call it) blooming big, white blossoms and my tulips are even managing to still bloom with all the mild weather we have had. Though now I'm afraid they will wither and die with temps about to reach the 110 mark. Sorry I don't have any pics to post/share, but thanks so much for sharing yours, Grant!

I managed to get starfruit to sprout, along with Cherimoya!

And my Taro plant just sprouted today, after only 4 days in the pot. That thing is gonna get big...

For fun, I'm gonna pot up some fresh rambutan seeds tomorrow.

will a Rambutan tree survive here in Phoenix?

No, there is zero chance of a rambutan growing in AZ...even in a greenhouse. But, I want to try to get it to sprout.

Grant, where did you get your dwarf plumeria and formosa lilies? Those are spectactular! Do you have any stargazer lilies growing?

Here is a Mammoth Sunflower, perhaps two weeks old or so:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2184421050384&set=a.2157152648691.2132206.1242730128&type=1&theater

And here are Sweet Peas of about the same age:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2184422570422&set=a.2157152648691.2132206.1242730128&type=1&theater

And here are many Jalapeno plants that are only about seven days from seed planting!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2184422850429&set=a.2157152648691.2132206.1242730128&type=1&theater

{{gwi:406869}}Yard photos JUNE 2011

Fun updates all, pics or not. It's really entertaining (and informative!) to see what's looking good or not so good in each other's gardens.

azdyj, I got the dwarf plumeria 'Divine' from a seller on ebay several years ago (cowboyflowerman I think was his username). I got the formosa lily from the great catalog/bulb company McClure & Zimmerman several years ago as well (I also got a Formosa lily x Amaryllis hybrid which also blooms reliably). I don't have any Star Gazer lilies, just tropical and subtropical ones. Does it do well here? Are you growing it??

Ramatheson, I copied/pasted your nice links but couldn't view the images, even when I logged in to Facebook. We'd love to see so if there's another way to send them, don't be shy.

dlg, your album is full of great photos. Everything looks really nice. I love your variegated pothos as a ground cover--fun! I had Salvia greggii at my last garden but don't have any now, and your great pic of yours is giving me a craving! Great stuff!

Just for fun, here's a Huernia zebrina that's been blooming on my covered patio this week. So easy to grow and such neat blooms!

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Keep the updates coming all,
Take care,
Grant (who, by the way, finally turned on the A/C today, June 19th--no more 56 dollar electric bills until autumn, LOL)

Dlg, I'd love to know more about using pothos as a ground cover. What kind of light does it get, and how often do you water it? Does it root along the ground at all? I'd also love to know what that cute stuff with the little yellow flowers is that's in front of it.

Just came back from a 2-week trip ... should have set the drip for longer times. Nothing died, but most of the p-lants were not thriving.

EXCEPT: Matt's Wild Cherry tomato. Picked about a quart of them this morning, and dumped almost as many into the compost heap because they were over-ripe.

plstqd,
The pothos in under the eaves of my house on the north side so it is always shaded. I only water it every two weeks. Of course it does get more water from the roof if it ever rains. It roots wherever the stems touch the ground when there is sufficient moisture in the soil.

The small plants in front are impatients, which are in bud, but not blooming yet.

The tall plant to the side is equisetum.

Grant, how can I post my photos so that they look like yours instead of being posted as a link?

Looking good! I finally had the time to figure out the photo uploading here.

Here's our first cereus bloom of the year - I slept in a little, so it's on the verge of closing, but it's still one of my favorite things about Tucson summers!
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Here's our lantana, cape honeysuckle, bouganvilla and texas ranger. All but the ranger was frozen to the ground and cut back to the base in March. So great to see them back! Hopefully the grass will look much better (or like grass) by July!
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Not terribly impressive yet, but these next shots are all newly planted from late March, when we installed drip and many plants I'd been dreaming about for years!

Butterfly mist - first blooms
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Pink rain lily - first bloom ever!
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Mexican bird of Paradise and Red Bird of Paradise were volunteers prior to our planting, but now they are on drip and much happier. Here's the Mexican Bird of Paradise with tecoma stans gold star, orange jubilee, mexican petunia and a few others in the background.
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Here's another night blooming cactus - Also the first of the season. I forget the name of the cactus! Notice the family of doves who have taken over the old cactus wren's nest. This is the third family this year! I think the babies just hatched within the last couple of days.
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Okay, two more! I've wanted to post pictures for a few months now so I hope you don't mind me posting a ton this time:)

Newly planted fig tree - Planted it on Mother's Day to celebrate my first year as a mom.
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This last one is another dream finally realized - well, the start of it at least! Our Father's Day weekend project was building a garden bed. We'll finally have some veggies growing this fall!
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Thanks:) By the way, love the plumeria. I had one on my balcony in my apartment a few years back. I might have to look into planting one here in my yard!

Great updates all! KellyGirl, I LOVE all of your pics! Never be shy about posting them here, we love to see and share pics. Your garden looks really lovely and I'm very envious of that raised bed! The cacti blooms are wonderful and those little doves on top of the old cactus wren nest are super cute. I've planted a lot of various cereus cacti in my garden and they're growing nicely but still not large/branched enough to get much attention from cactus wrens or any other birds for that matter, LOL.

Dlg, there are several ways to post pics, but what I do is (img src="https://.....where the image is hosted.jpg"/) buuuut replace the ( with .

Keep the updates coming!
Take care,
Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden pics (so far) June 2011