Olya, simply stunning plants and flowers. I am drooling over that orchid in the first pic, Beautiful, my friend!

Olya,
So many beauties. Thanks, You have given me some new ideas for my pond. I feel a new project is coming on. I need to purchase water lilies. You all are constantly giving me
inspiration.
Felix

Wow, Olya! Just stunning!!! My yard looks like a rat's nest right now! Everything burnt and lanky and weedy, and I'm just OVER working in this heat.

Your water plants are gorgeous. Can you share a picture of your pond or water garden? Would love to see the overall look of it.

And you are making me want to get more orchids. Yours are fabulous! I love the green one in the first pic and that wonderful orange one! Wow!!!

Thanks for sharing!
Marcia

Oh yes, the pictures are lovely, thanks for sharing them. ;o)

Absolutely gorgeous photos. Your plants all look so healthy! I especially like the Water Snowflake! Thanks for sharing.

Very nice pictures! All your plants look very happy!

Olya, all your photos are beautiful, but that gramatophyllum is stunning! I had one years ago (a scriptum), but it got sooo big and sooo heavy, I could not move it or display it anywhere. I ended up giving it away. I'm kinda sad I did, they are truly amazing and spectacular plants. Yours looks extremely well grown. Congrats.

Anna

Yes, please show more pictures of your pond and garden settings!

Your photos are extraordinary and beautiful.

Susie

Thank you :) So glad you liked the pictures

Marcia, I am happy to be able to enable...Orchids in Florida are a must

Pond...It is still new - and I am still working on it. The last step right now is to hide all the liner and add more dirt for the bog area...
It is a bog-pond (I heard the definition somewhere and liked it). Basically, no artificial filtration system: no pump, etc. Lots of plants that are needed to make this "little ecosystem" work: oxygenators, floaters, marginals. I have lotus grown from seeds - have lots of seeds to share, water lilies (hardy and tropical), water hyacinths, etc. For marginals, water iris: lousiana, flag, taros, swamp hibiscus - have a few to share if someone wants a hibiscus seedling (I think it is called scarlet hibiscus).

I am planning on adding more lousiana iris - already ordered a bunch, could not help it. I am thinking about adding more around the pond, and also creating a little bog area close to the pond with the iris.

The idea of the pond came from my husband. He usually comes up with the ideas, and I execute. Though, he did all the digging - days and days of it (I helped, however insignificantly..).

Here is one picture I took this morning:

Bog ponds are fun. It is now attracting a lot of toads and frogs, and it loaded with mosquito fish (no larvae here - mosquitoes do not stand a chance against hungry fish)

As for the garden, my husband and I are in the process of creating a "jungle" in the back: all under our huge oak. Lots of shade lovers: begonias, hydrangeas, ferns. We are making pathways. Before, it was a bare piece of land - and my hubby finally got tired of mowing and me nagging that I want to plant more stuff :)

I also have a rose garden in planning, in the front yard. Once it is ready - yooohoo, it is going to be one pretty place ...if it all goes like planned :)

Here are a few links with photos:
Pond, the development - pictures sorted from oldest to newest:
http://picasaweb.google.com/OlyaGrove/Pond

a few pictures from the backyard:
http://picasaweb.google.com/OlyaGrove/BackyardSummer2007

and a whole bunch of my galleries:
http://picasaweb.google.com/OlyaGrove

Thank you :)
Olya

Absolutely stunning!

Wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing. I also have a grammatophyllum scriptum, and it's very large. I can't figure out where to put it, so I move it all the time. Someday, it'll have a real home in the yard. They are lovely when they bloom.

Maureen

Lovely Olya. I would love to have a pond, but I'd want fish and it would break my heart to see the egrets and herons scarfing them up!

Ladywingr, fill your pond with guppies, mollies, mosquito fish and other smallish minnow-y types and the egrets won't be able to catch them all. They are live bearers and will reproduce happily in ponds down here, and while they love to be fed fancy food from time to time, they can thrive a long while on mosquito larva and other small water bugs, etc. If you have shallow edges to your pond, you can enjoy them schooling around the plants, etc, and not have to worry overmuch about the birds killing them all. They breed faster than the birds can keep up with, believe me, and with lots of grassy hiding places, they don't get caught all that much, anyway.

Just a thought for ya....

Marcia

(grumble... and here's another one - manature - trying to get me in trouble expanding my gardening horizons)

**BIG SMILE**!!

Thanks for the tips - maybe one day when I get the rest of these projects done.

Beautiful !! Beautiful !! Its 'cooling' just to see your pictures of your Bog garden. Thanks

What a lovely bit of paradise you have created! It makes me want to work harder in our gardens. Your flowers are all so lush and beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

FlowerLady