A Little of this...a little of that....

Category: Morning Hodgepodge | Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 6:32 pm

I think this is one of the prettiest flowering vines! I love Mandevilla! The flowers are quite long lasting too! We bought two of these vines to put in the planters by our pool and this pink is so striking beside the blue of the pool water. It has also been so obliging about climbing the trellis. I've added some white moonflowers and the vine is starting to intermingle with the mandevilla...I think the white flowers will look so pretty with the pink.

Our little moonflower vines continue their climb up the fence. We have 7 planted and all are near 2 ft high. I can even see some tiny flower buds starting to show. One of my passionflower cuttings has rooted nicely enough to go into this area too....so that means some day this fence will be covered with : moonflowers, cobaea scandens (cathedral bells), passionflower, chocolate vine, coral vine, and trumpet vine....it is a long fence so this is possible. I am hoping ot always have something blooming with this plan.

These are the plumeria cuttings I got from my Grandma's house. She has a red plumeria so I got a cutting for my mother-in-law, who has a cutting of white...I thought she might like to have the red. I am partial to the white, which my Grandma didn't have....BUT her 90 year old neighbor does....so do you know what my 85 year old Grandma did? She went right over and pilfered a cutting for me. She says my Grandpa planted that plant anyway and that the neighbor wouldn't even notice. I think there is something about stealing plants that really appeals to my Grandma.

I need start out right now by saying that my first hypertuffa experience did NOT go well. I am not sure exactly what went wrong but the mix did not cling together well. It didn't help that I wanted to make a bowl shaped planter using my huge exercise ball...not good. I got desperate and dug a hole and tried to use that as a mold but I am not optimistic.

On the upside, one of my bowling balls is ready grout, and the other just needs a very small amount of gems and it will be ready. I will do both at once--hopefully it will go BETTER than the hypertufa. I haven't given up, because I know I'll get it right, I just hate to make a big mess with nothing to show for it.

I think I've decided what to do for my "pergola hanging baskets". I am going to use sweet potato vine coming out through the bottom (because it will be free), because of the pretty shades of pink and green, and impatients in the top (because they like shade and are available), because the come in so many pretty colors. My hanging baskets out front aren't too shabby, but kind of a crazy mishmash of plants:

I didn't even realize the calladiums were there!

I redid my windchimes...it seems I forgot to create a "sail" to help catch the wind. I noticed they were awfully quiet. I rubber stamped them with silver leaves to give them a pit more zip. I am very glad that I did...MUCH better!

I was actually pleased to see this cicada. He (she?) was just shedding it's shell. I remember collecting those empty shells off of trees when I was a little kid. It has been a long time since I've seen any so this guy was a nice little bit of nostalgia. He was such a good sport about having his picture taken too!

These baby grackles were visiting the cat (bird) food bowl. The birds wait every morning for cat to finish and then swoop in. They get kind of impatient, it gets to be like a scene from "The Birds" and the cat starts feeling a little too much like Tippi Hendren.

Now, I need to contemplate a better hypertufa plan of action,so if anyone has any advice please feel free to share!

Last edited: Wed Jun 06, 2007 6:36 pm

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bethie wrote on Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:09 pm:

Firstly, I have a hypertufa tutorial in this forum called hypertufa time. It's very explicit and I will be glad to help you however I can. The first thing I made was a recipe off tv that had too much sand and wouldn't hold together either. Don't give up.
I love cicadas also. We collected the shells as kids and sprayed them gold and silver to make pins.
Those balls look great.Lucky me, my hubby does all the grouting here. What a mess!
Ah, the "romance of vines" is in your heart. They MAKE a fence. I am unclear what a coral vine is. Everything is looking great at your place.

Frank wrote on Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:31 pm:

Hummingbird here is the link to the excellent hypertufa tutorial Bethie kindly contributed:

http://www.gardenstew.com/about1779.html

I'm still very impressed with the clay pot windchime.

hummingbird3172 wrote on Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:50 pm:

Thanks Bethie and Frank!

Bethie, Coral vine is also called Love Vine or Queen's Wreath.

zuzu's petals wrote on Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:33 pm:

". . . this pink (Mandevilla) is so striking beside the blue of the pool water"
Ahhh, I can just imagine how lovely that must look,
and when those Moonflowers begin to open in the evenings,
with their fantastic scent,
won't it be great to sit out by (or in) the pool in the evenings?

I love :-D your Plumeria story,
and your plant filching grandma
sounds like she could be related to my family.
*LOL*

In fact, my oldest Plumeria, a white one,
is a descendant of the cutting
that my great aunt
sneakied back from a Hawaiian vacation
in her luggage. :-0

hummingbird3172 wrote on Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:36 pm:

LOL, Zuzu! It's not the first time she's done it either! She got a cutting at a park and smuggled it home. It was a pink bleeding heart...not the old fashioned type but the other kind...she HAD to have it. It's growing in her garden now, though.

cajunbelle wrote on Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:50 pm:

Lovely mandevilla, one of my favorites, everything is looking great. I managed one moonflower vine this year and just found it uprooted, I am putting it somewhere else so I can keep a closer eye on it.

eileen wrote on Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:05 am:

Those bowling balls are really great. One day I must get around to making some for my own garden.

Your grandma sounds a lot like me. I remember going to the zoo in Edinburgh with Ian last year for a day out. I came home with around a dozen cuttings - don't tell anyone will you?!!! LOL

hummingbird3172 wrote on Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:10 am:

LOL, I certainly won't tell! I guess I always feel like someone's watching me so I chicken out, also I've not had the best luck with cuttings.

Thanks Cajunbelle!

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