Butterfly Garden Progress

Here is a view of my butterfly garden this spring.  The coral honeysuckle continues to take over the world, and I'm please how my firecracker plant has sprung up.  I recently bought a hummingbird feeder (on the hibiscus), so we'll see what happens with that.  The regular bird feeder has become quite the place to see and be seen by the local fowl about town.

Orchid Regrowth!

I never mentioned my orchid-fail due to extreme embarassment.  :-(  I last posted about my orchid here, proud of its new growth and promise of fresh flowers.  As the buds swelled and prepared to bloom, I brought the orchid indoors and put it in a spot of honor.  Not able to leave well enough alone, though, I tried to stand the stalk a little more upright and, sadly, it snapped like a twig!  I brought it back outside to wait another 4 months for a new stalk, but nature is amazing!  The pent up growing energy in the orchid immediately burst out throught the stalk to form this shoot.  :-)  You'd best believe I'm leaving that thing alone.

 

...And here is a spot that makes me smile.  I've been trying to work a green and coral color scheme on the lanai, and I found this pot at Target recently.  I filled it with two low maintenance flowering succulents (I think they're succulents anyway, but I may be wrong), and I can't walk by without smiling. 

Gladiolas!

I have quite a few gladiola bulbs growing right outside my lanai. 

I couldn't decide whether to cut some for inside or just enjoy them growing outside.  Mother nature made my decision for me, though.  We've had some torrential rains the past few days, and some were blown over.  Now I get to enjoy them inside and outside.

 

Yellow Aphids

I had quite the yellow aphid infestation on my mandevillas.  They were also on my milkweed, but I just photographed these two plants a couple of weeks ago.  If you look close, you can see them on the newest growth, near the flowers and buds.  They just look like a yellow slime.



I was  concerned when I did a little online research since it said they can hurt the plant.  I started with a hose blast which did get a lot of aphids off, but there were still quite a few on the plants, and the flowers look like they had taken a beating from the hose.  I considered the Dawn/water spray approach, but I didn't want to risk hurting the caterpillars and good insects that are hanging around.  I decided to wait a bit before taking drastic measures and I'm glad I did.  The ladybugs managed to find my aphid smorgasbord and have been gorging themselves.  :-)