Love that milkweed vine, Mara... is it native ? But I really want to know why you sent a kissing bug to the health dept?

billbergia is awesome. bloom on a. fimbriata awesome. hymenocallis white blossom awesome.

The milkweed is Matelea reticulata and it is a Native. I got some seeds from Linda from this spring's swap and I was going to plant them this fall, So, now I find them growing in an area that I know well and they are brand new to the spot. This weirdness has happened more than once. They have not been there before. The blossoms are very small and subtle.

I found a kissing bug in my house. On the same day my neighbor found 2! If the bugs you find are in the house, the Health Department will test for free. It is a MAJOR YUCK! We have been cleaning , dusting , spraying and diatematious earth scattered behind furniture and dark inaccessible corners.

Eeek on the kissing bug and Wowza on the plants! They are all gorgeous. Is that a bog-type spider lily bloom? Mine finished blooming a long time ago but if there is a way to get them to bloom again, please tell.

What is the last flower? It is awesome.

That is an Aristochia fimbriata ( DG data base). I forget what that Spider Lilly is . It lost its tag a long time ago. If any one recognizes it or remembers giving it to me, please speak up. I do grow it where the grey water comes out from the house. I know nothing about it. This is the first and only bloom I have ever ever had.

My hymenocallis are just finishing their bloom cycle also, but are a different variety. Gorgeous blooms!

All are so beautiful. That Mexican Frost Plant is amazing and I love your walkway. Does it cover a stream? So tropical looking!

No stream though we have thought about putting in a stream but the limited water supply makes that an impossibility. IT goes from the house to our shop. We built our structures out of recycled building parts and we had to buy ALL the bar joist from this church that was being demolished and we had left over ones so we made the bridge.

I was out this morning and was treated to this hummer in the standing cypress. then the skeetters found me and I ran back in.

Mara, We always love hearing the stories behind the photos. I can certainly understand about the limited water supply. What we found so interesting was the story behind the construction of the bridge and making use of the recycled building parts. Wow... its story is beautiful and amazing! Love the hummer photo... the standing cypress is just gorgeous!

We used old windows, old bar joist, old roof ladders, old commercial lights, old rug squares, old RUN WAY LIGHTS from muller airport, mezzanine boards from Bergstrom airforce base. Used plywood, used flooring, used doors. We are bottom feeders.

The agave in that photo is the mother of the agave that Ragna dug out of her blue pot I think. It does get big. It is indestructible except by 30 minutes of 3" hail. I had 10 minutes and only a few of the hail was 3". It had measles for a summer till the next growth grew in. I can see some marks if I look hard for them. Last summer I took my glasses off when I got close to it.

You've used all that? That's really admirable! All that and gardening, too. The agave story is priceless..... 'except by 30 minutes of 3" hail.' So funny! It's really beautiful!

(I have to add that I'm not laughing because we had severe hail damage. I also had severe damage... so much so that my roof got replaced within two weeks.) But, that's Mother Nature!

My hail was nothing compared to the hail that Ragna had.. We might have needed a roof but our roof is a heavy gage galvalume , NOT recycled. LOL Mother nature. Got grin and bear it .....Bless her heart.

Here is a drift of Monarda punctata that took over my cactus garden. This is AFTER major weeding. I brought home two seed pods from Tent Rocks NM (between Santa Fe and Albuquerque) and they have been expanding ever since without care..

Todays string bean harvest . I guess I better wash them. I left the cat in "for scale"

Mara , do you ever invite peeps to come and visit for a day? You have so many interesting plants and beautiful acreage.

;

Peeps come on occasion. It is best that you approach me through a private message.

What a bunch of fabulous plants many of us have never even seen, such as Hexalectris spicata. Is it native on your land? And Monarda punctata, what a beauty!

I'm so glad the drought has broken and we can enjoy them all with you.

The H spicata is native to my land. I not sure about its ID. It is not the "normal more common H spicata. It is either H spicata var arizonic or the H . nitida , which I doubt because of it extreme rareness. There are only 30 known populations . The H. spicata var arizonica is also rare. It has come up 3 times on my land in three different places. then it disappears. None of the ones that came up have made a re appearance. IT takes 20 years from seed to bloom. I don't know how it grows or what it does during their long periods of dormancy.

The Monarda punctata is native to Texas somewhere. I think it likes any soil. I found the seed pods on a plant in the sandy wash of Tent Rocks canyon in New Mexico. It is a relative of our Monarda citriodora, horse mint, bee plant. It is an easy annual to grow . I only found the first one three years ago. So I am on the look out for it now. I have found it on the northeast facing bank of my arroyo, on the lower shady oak/cedar moist leaf littered areas

Not an unusual plant but interesting to me that my magnolia soulangeana is blooming in June. It also bloomed in late April. Wondering what caused this

I didn't get very good flowers last year because we were so dry and the rains came so late. No September rains screwed up the flowering of many fall bloomers. They bloomed but not a performance to write home about but they bloomed all the way through the winter. Last year was their first year. Did yours in winters past make frost flowers like the native frost weed?

And Bossy V, I have no idea about your dilemma. I would call that a luxury problem and don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

I looked for, but didn't see any frostweed-like ice sculptures on my stalks. I did see this on my frostweed and also my salvia coccinea, in 2014.

Ragna, I don't think it is the Hexalectris spicata var spicata, but the less prettier but much rarer Hexalectris spicata var arizonica. The blossom does not have the yellow and it does not truly fully open. I still think that I might have had a H. nitida on the first year. I never saw the bloom that time, only the spent flowers on the stems and the stems were a different color than the ones that I saw last year. Maybe I am just doing wishful thinking. I did read that they were often seen in conjunction with each other. Strange. They like similar conditions. , a mixed oak juniper forest. But one prefers the cedar and one prefers the oak.

Here ors another interesting site.

Hexalectris

I am still very confused and very fascinated by these plants. No one talks about their life cycles. But it is obvious to me that they come and disappear for years. I document and mark them as I find them. I do need to get a hold of the NPSOT guys.