winter blooms

It's been a while. There was a period of time when nothing was blooming. Now I have blooms! And almost blooms!

First, a common winter flower: amaryllis. This one is two and a half feet tall! With four massive blooms.

Next, a cymbidium noid. 

Gastrochilus bellinus is finally in bloom! Last year it had three blooms. This year it has four. The flowers smell faintly of soap. These pictures were taken from the bottom of the mount looking up. The flowers hang below the leaves.

Here's a winter hibiscus flower. It's not too happy inside. 

My winter jasmine is blooming. All but one bud blasted on this plant, but it still  smells so strong that I could tell it had opened from the other room!

My Seville orange is about to bloom, too. This plant did absolutely nothing all summer. No new leaves, nothing. Yet now it's producing so many flowers!

Lastly is a noid succulent that I was given in a plant swap. It has many little pink flowers.

New Year's Blooms and others

Happy New Year!

Here is a seasonal plant: cyclamen. I picked this up recently, and I hope to rebloom it next year. It likes to be cool, so I have it on an enclosed porch. It seems happy out there. 

A close-up on the naughty bits:

The Phalaenopsis have begun their blooming cycle. They bloom in the winter and need a temperature difference of at least 10F to bloom. This is a noid that I rescued from Stop&Stop a while back.

I also have another orchid blooming: Pleurothallis viduata. Unfortunately it's so small that I can't take a decent picture of it. I have recently purchased a new macro camera, but by the time it arrives, these blooms will have passed. (I've been taking pictures with my cellphone for the past four months.)

Here's an update on my Ponderosa Lemon that was pollinated over the summer: baby!

And two of my AVs:

 I can't get this one to stop blooming! Such problems!

Baby lemon

It looks as if I will have two lemons - if everything goes well!

Look at that cute little lemon! (Okay, it's a swollen ovary, but lemons!)

Also the hibiscus is still going strong, and so is the Coelogyne.

Odds and ends

No broad category of plants are blooming. I just have bits and pieces of plant families doing their thing.

My lemon is trying to kill itself with flowers. It has bloomed for me three times since January, and I have tried unsuccessfully to pollinate it myself. This time around, I stuck the thing outside and let things happen. And, lo! They did happen.

I have never seen a bumblebee so obsessed with a plant before! She didn't even bother to put her tongue back in between flowers! Look at that face full of pollen and bulging pollen sacks!

I also think another one of the reasons that none of the flowers took to pollination was that the light wasn't strong enough for the pistil to properly develop. I hope I have at least one lemon from this! (The flowers smell so strongly!)

My out-of-season Coelogyne ochracea has started to open its flowers. This is normally a spring-blooming plant. The smell is of strong lilies, and I can barley be in the same room as it: it's that strong - and it's not even fully opened!

I also have a sedum noid that blooms reliably every August. This year is no different.This was a gift three years ago, and this is the third year it has bloomed for me.

Last April (as in a year from April), my grandmother gave me all her African Violets. They were in sad shape. One of them died - root rot - but this one finally bloomed for me!

And lastly, I have a hibiscus that's very, very happy. It's putting out multiple blooms each day. Unfortunately, each bloom only lasts for a day. It's potted up with another hibiscus that isn't as enthusiastic. That plant has a coral-colored flower with a lavender center. Once these two plants are established together, they're going to put on an amazing show!