All of the pictures were taken early yesterday morning. I had planned on posting them yesterday but the weather decided against it. Today we spent most of the day outside, cleaning up and stuff.

Lynne
USDA Zone 9b
Heat Zone 10
Bradenton, Florida

Lynne, I hope the wind left these beauties unharmed. It must be wonderful to have so much color at this time of year. Thanks for sharing these with us - they make the sun feel warmer even when it is cold !!!!

USDA Zone 7/8
Copper Canyon
North Central Texas

Lynne, enjoyed your lastest album of goodies, as well as revisiting your previous albums.....you are one photographer extraordinaire!!

Jarie
Rio Grande Valley, TX
Zone 9

I've never seen a snake plant in bloom, very cool. Its so nice to see all those plants growing outside. I wish it was like that here. It's said that there's beauty in all nature. That might be true but I'd much rather see all those wonderful colors instead of bare branches and evergreens.
Karyn

Lynne - great photos! We in the colder climes really appreciate seeing something in bloom. I love your castor bean plant - I grow one every summer because it's such a neat looking (and very large) plant.

Thanks for sharing them with us.


Kathy
USDA Zone 5
Connecticut

I looked at your pictures a day or two ago. Nice addition. You have a great gallery going there. Love all the variety.

ChSam (Shirley Morr)
Chariton, Iowa
Zone 5

Thank you all!
I had to take out some of the older pictures I had in the gallery, my slow dial-up couldn't load the entire page anymore. It's so hard to choose which ones to take out though.

The night of the 25th there were 2 MnH flowers just beginning to open. I decided to wait for morning to take pictures, but by then there was nothing left. They were brown, bruised, and hanging sadly. But that's ok, there are other buds on the way.

The Snake plants, Mother-in-Law's Tongue... I had no idea they bloomed. They were here when we moved in and are spreading quite quickly around a large tree in the backyard. They're easy to propagate too, you can dig up a section and have a new plant, or just cut a couple of inches off of a leaf and stick it in dirt. The leaf will root and grow a new plant beside it.

Kathy, I'm a little nervous about having the Castor. I didn't know what it was when I planted it and now it's producing beans. It's taller than me already, and not even a year old yet, I had to grab the leaves and pull it to me to be able to take a picture of the flower spikes. The fruit are interesting too, they crack open first and then the beans explode out of the pod, shooting everywhere. We have to get them before they pop, don't want a forest of Castors in our front yard, lol.

Lynne
USDA Zone 9b
Heat Zone 10
Bradenton, Florida

Lynne, just a note, if that is a Castor bean plant, the seeds are very poisenous if eaten (chewed up) by dog or kid. With all the critters I have around here I would dig it up and scorch the earth <G>. We just had an article in our dachshund magazine about a lovely year old dachshund that chewed the beans and died 2 days later. Very sad.

Lynne
The pictures look great! I am sure you have alot of things blooming right now and enjoying them all!

Linda
Zone 9
Jacksonville FL

Lots of wonderful photos Lynn. I sure do miss my pretty blooms at the moment. Your photos help me with the winter blahs. We still have 4 months to get going here.

Castor beans are pressed to get castor oil, the pulp left behind contains Ricin, a very deadly poisin. The oil is used for lots of stuff, not just the most disgusting "cure-all" medicine ever... It's used in paints and varnishes, it's the basic ingredient for nylon, motor oil, and also makes some synthetic flower scents and fruit flavors. The bean pulp is supposed to be a really good fertilizer, and they're researching the possibility of using pure ricin to kill tumors in cancer patients.

Linda, we're currently in between flushes, there are a couple of blooms here and there, but several of the Brugs are getting ready for a major flower fest! I kind of feel sorry for the milkweed though, the Monarch caterpillars have eaten almost all of the leaves and even chewed into several of the seedpods. I know the plants will be fine and grow back and everything, but I'm now begging mommy Monarch not to lay anymore eggs for a while, lol!

Dott, that morning when I took the camera out, I walked right by the Hibiscus, then I thought of you and turned back around to take pictures of it too. I'm just glad that those of us in the south can help keep you Northerner's spirits up with pictures.

Hey, look at it this way though... the Winter Solstice is over, each day is just a little longer than the day before, and tomorrow will be a little longer than today. Warm sunshine and the new growth of Spring are on their way.

Lynne
USDA Zone 9b
Heat Zone 10
Bradenton, Florida

Funny you should mention the Winter Solstice, Lynne, because just this afternoon, I was thinking that very thing. Shouldn't be long til things start perking up some. Many of the leaves on my young cuttings are looking much the same as others...droopy, slightly curled, mottled.

Come on Spring!!

Jarie
Rio Grande Valley, TX
Zone 9