August look out!

Impatiens enjoying the showers

Rain lilies abloom again

Water lilies thriving after a recent fertilizing

Lily pond awash with colourful blooms

 I had a mixed seed packet of humming bird loving plants. These were the only ones that germinated. I thought they were salvias  BUT I was wrong. I don't know these plants they are adorable and a pleasant surprise.

 

Can someone help me out in identifying this plant?

I have just found a similar looking plant on the internet called the Mexican evening primrose so for now I think I have identified this plant.

Another mystery plant I need help with.

I have just replanted  lettuce in my aquaponic box.

 Hello and welcome to My Rustic Bajan Garden  It is August in the tropics when anything can happen. We have been getting some showers and the race is on to see who will be the winner in the garden. By that I mean if the weeds or the plants will win. 

I am also recovering  from hysterectomy surgery I had last month. I have to take it easy for at least 6-8 weeks. This is week 4.  So enjoy the rest of the week and happy gardening.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day October 2013

 Day blooming miniature yellow

 Day blooming blue

 Day blooming pink

 Night blooming pink

Welcome to Garden Bloggers's Bloom day  where gardeners from all around the globe post what is blooming in their gardens. My water lilies are blooming furiously. The night bloomers are huge 10 inches  or 26cm in diameter. 

Yesterday evening my water baby Sandy was rushed to the vet. I found him drooling from the mouth and walking uncoordinated. That was his second visit that same day. Earlier that morning my hubby had taken him there about a skin problem . He was diagnosed with a type of mange. The vet said that he would have inherited it from his mother at birth and that it was not infectious. She prescribed some shampoo and some skin medication.  Now Sandy is afraid of getting into the car and it was a job for me to get him in. We were concerned that a second trip to the vet would be traumatic for him. The vet suspected some kind of poisoning, I thought he may have bitten a toad. He was given something to vomit whatever he had in his stomach and a muscle relaxant to stop any seizures as well as a sedative. They told us to leave him overnight.  This morning when we called, were told that he was alert and had eaten. They told us that will be ready to go home later in the evening if he showed no other signs of illness.

To see more of what is blooming in gardens around the globe please stop by Carol's at May dreams gardens. Have a great week!

C'est Vendredi en fleuri

white snowflakes

day blooming cereus or epiphyhllum

beautiful hot pink pentas

Hello again and welcome to another blooming Friday. For more blooming Friday please take a stroll over to Katarina at roses and stuff.
It is still hot and dry with no rain ! Have a great weekend folks!

pondering over ponds

I am presently looking after this pond for a client who lives in Canada . She is on the  island 2-3 times a year and comes in by private jet. The architect who designed the house, wanted a modern spatial look for the pond to correspond with the house. Well she instructed that only one water lily was required. The person who was looking after the pond at that time bought the water lily from me and installed it. 

Several months later I got a call from the house manager requesting that I come to meet the owner of the house to discuss the pond. When I arrived there I looked for the lone water lily. It  was near death due to lack of care and  I almost cried. The owner a very pleasant lady  who is a film director by profession, was very concerned about the state of the pond. She said that she wanted more plant coverage  to stop the water from going green.

 

I realized that she had Koi in the pond. I told her that normally water lilies and Koi don't go together because they are natural vegetarians and one day will revert to eating the plants that are in the pond.  I explained  that by placing large flat stones around the plant base will help them from being uprooted, but I cannot stop them from eating the leaves.  I suggested that if the Koi are fed regularly that will help. 

She told me to put as many plants that will be needed and she will take the chance with the Koi. I was also concerned about the amount of sunlight the pond got during the day with the shadows that were cast by the overhead roof and building.  I placed the  lilies that needed the least amount of sunlight  in the shaded areas (minimum of 3 hrs) whilst  the ones that needed the most amount of light (between 4-6hrs) in the open areas. 

A total of 10 water lilies were installed. So far it has been nearly 8 months and just a few leaves have been nibbled on.  One day the same architect stopped by and exclaimed  how beautiful the pond looked with all the water lilies in bloom. Remember this was the same person who was insisting on a minimalist look ....ha! Take that madam! Minimalist my big fat .....toe!

Bloomin' Friday

Chalice vine

I am busy getting the garden ready for my garden ramble and plant sale the next two days. I am hoping that it will not rain but am not in control of that, however the show must go on. For more blooming Friday please take a a short trip over to Katerina at roses and stuff. Have a great weekend!

Bloomers of a watery kind

day bloomer

day bloomer

day bloomer

day bloomer

night blooming pink

night blooming white

magenta night bloomer

Alas!! The rains have come! There is a steady downpour and it is comforting to know that my plants are being fed from the skies above. So today I decided to post from a watery perspective. Growing water lilies can be fun and so rewarding. There will be a bloom everyday in your water garden when things are done correctly. There are four types of water lilies to my knowledge. These are the hardy, the tropical day bloomers, the tropical night bloomers and the amazon Victoria.

The hardy ones are better suited to cooler regions and they also grow well in the tropics. They are very pretty and have the widest range of colours . They go dormant and will reappear the next year. The blooms float on the water's surface . These are normally propagated by root divisions and by tubers or rhizomes.

The tropicals are more vivid in colour, the blooms stand above the water, are larger in size and many of them are scented. In the tropicals there are two types, day bloomers and night bloomers.

The night bloomers are large with a leaf span of 3-8 ft or more, and come in three colours, light pink, magenta and white. There are other characteristics that define the night bloomers. They are more prolific and are very aggressive growers. They cover a larger area and can stifle any other lilies that are in the pond. The blooms open at night hence the name night bloomers around 8pm and will stay open until 10 -11am the next day.

The day bloomers include miniatures, medium size to large. The colours range from many shades of blues, yellows, pinks, whites, purples to hybrids. Recently there was a successful hybridizing of a night bloomer with a day bloomer. Propagation is done by way of root division, seeds, rhizomes and viviparously. Viviparously means that the young plant develops on the leaf of the mother plant.

The Amazon water lily or the Victoria is the largest of water lilies. It originated in the Amazon and one lily will need a space no less than 20ft by 20ft. So that one is enough for large ponds. The leaf of this water lily is thorny and care must be taken when tidying up the plant.

Water lilies are planted in pots or basins without holes, in clay soil and be careful not to bury the crown of the plant. They grow in in full sun in depths of 18 - 30 inches of water. Mind you I have seen some growing in depths of 14 inches. If you have Koi fish I recommend that you find a way of protecting the plants from them or just do not put water lilies in the same pond. We had Koi a few years ago and they lived well with the water lilies until one day we came out to see the plants all eaten and uprooted. What a mess it was. So we decided to sell the Koi and replace them with comets. Since then we have had no more problems. The comets look like Koi without the damage to the plants. So be careful of the types of fish to put into your water garden. Ask your self whether you want a fish pond or a water garden and that will determine the type of pond you will have. Water lilies are voracious feeders and must be fertilized regularly, every 4-6 weeks or the leaves and flowers will become smaller and eventually stop flowering. If the water lilies are planted in the bottom of the pond like a natural pond, they would not need any fertilizing. They will get their nutrients from the fish waste and the soil. Their roots will be free to travel in search of food. Water lily fertilizer tablets are available in many plant shops and if they are not available you can use a slow release fertilizer like Osmocote . I will take the plant out of the water, lift or pull the sides away from the pot and sprinkle some Osmocote. Or I recommend that you get some old pantyhose or knee highs and cut them into pieces that will hold about a tablespoon or two of fertilizer. Tie the small tight bundles and push them down into the soil that the water lily is growing. Remember to cover the fertilizer with more soil. From my experience the Osmocote will last longer than the tablets.

Water lilies are very hard to kill and the plant will have a lifespan of 10 years or more if you pond conditions are right. High or Low pH is a definite killer and always check the pH before adding water lilies to your pond. If it is too high or low I will say not to put them in until you can adjust the pH. Water lilies thrive best in a pH of 7.5-8.5 Anything over 9.5 and below 7 will quickly kill your plants.

A day on the job

I have a client who is presently landscaping a very large property on the west coast. I was contracted to supply and install water lilies in the above pond in December 2008. This pond is huge, and holds approximately sixty thousand gallons of water. As a rule before putting plants into ponds we check the pH of the water. A very low or high pH and I mean above 9 or below 6.5 is toxic to water lilies and fish, so it is important to bring it down/up to acceptable levels between 7.5 to 8.5. The pH of this pond was very high, this is typical of newly unpainted concrete ponds. Concrete leaches lime that makes the water alkaline, pH readings indicate the alkalinity or acidity of the water. Concrete ponds are usually sealed when plastering with water proofers and sealers mixed into the motar, however they do leach initially. One way of avoiding this problem is to paint the finished pond with a rubberized paint or any pond sealers that are available. We treated it for several weeks before the water lilies were installed. We used sodium bisulfate (pH lower for swimming pools) and treated several days with buckets of the stuff. We finally gave it a muriatic acid treatment putting in around 10 gallons of the stuff. That kept the pH down around 5.0 that was on the acid side which is just as bad as a high pH. We waited a week and then tested, it had risen to between 7.5 and 8.5. The client wanted the water lilies asap not really understanding the problems with new concrete ponds. We then waited for another two weeks, testing the pH on a weekly basis. The pH level had stabilised between 8 and 8.5 so it was time to install the lilies. So at the end of January this year we installed 30 water lilies. Yesterday Tuesday, after six weeks in the pond, I went to fertilize them and to remove all the dead leaves and flowers. There was one that I needed to replaced, but that was not too bad given the water conditions. It resulted in 4 medium garbage bags of debris. I spent 3 hours in the water doing this. Each plant took 8 fertilizer tablets, it was back breaking work but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed their intoxicating perfume and the Kaleidoscopic arrangement that surrounded me. The pH is monitored on a weekly basis and we will continue to treat it if it gets out of hand. The fish are in the pond now so we have to be very careful not to lower the pH too rapidly since any sudden changes will kill the fish. I mentioned to the landscaper that the pond could take another 10 more water lilies but he says he will wait and see how they grow. I will check the lilies in the pond in another 2-3 weeks to see how the fertilizer kicks in. Water lilies are heavy feeders and must be fertilized regularly every 4-6 weeks.