Hibiscus and Succulents

I can't believe that it's already the end of the last day of the long weekend...it went by much too fast, as usual!  Our neighbor friends decided to finally tackle the crushed granite path they wanted to make from the front fence all the way back around their back porch.  We always work together, this one my husband represented our team more than I did, but from Saturday morning through 2 p.m. today they got it done! There's something about mud that does nothing for me, so I was much more useful today than the other two days.  I dabbled more at cleaning my house and getting the back porch in order; still have a ways to go with both!  I did however get the succulent hanging baskets done for the front porch.

Other than the Kalancoe 'Chocolate Soldier's' in the middle, everything should grow and hang over.  There's a 'Brown Bean' Sedum, 'Vera Higgin's' Apenglow and a few other Sedum and Echeveria varieties.  Hoping that these should do better in this spot than the Chocolate Mint did...that got repotted and put in the back yard in a shadier spot.  I also worked on the succulent pots that my mother bought and left for me to pot.

This one's my mother's.

This one is mine.

It was dark when I finished these, but I figured I'd take more as they fill out.  Julie, the 'Mother of Millions' you sent me has done really well, so much so that I shared one of them with my mother.  I put my Kalanchoe Serrata, 'Magic Tower', on the top of mine with an Echeveria.  The 'Magic Tower' is more pinkish than the 'Chandelier Plant' that I already had, and it's leaves are serrated, whereas the other is more tubular.  I bought another Hibiscus Saturday morning, my neighbor and I couldn't not leave Home Depot with them.  This is her first and I did warn her that they're also addictive.  They had these great little bushes called 'Carolina Breeze'...a gorgeous orange! 

Off to make an enchilada casserole before we start wilting!

Hope everyone enjoyed their long weekends!

Mandy

A Bloom

For months, my Chocolate Soldier has had bloom stalks waving around with bloom buds.  All winter in the little greenhouse cover more stalks came up with nothing but buds.  Last week I noticed that they looked like they were trying to open, but nothing.  Until this morning...this morning one was opened up and it's the prettiest little thing.  I hope the others follow suite now and open up.

Pig's Ear is Not a Pig's Ear

I pulled a piece of what I thought was a Pig's Ear out of my rather large plant to share with a co-worker.  I was searching some names on the internet and came across what I had thought was a Pig's Ear, but is in fact a Cotyledon Orbiculata type also known as a Cigarette Plant.  Boring....  I think I've seen where it could be called a Cigar Plant as well, so I'm going to go with that one and call her Havana...Cuban cigars sound much better than a stinky cigarette! Now that that's all cleared up, I'm in search for a Cotyledon Orbiculcta 'Oblonga'...which is what I thought I had, but mine didn't look anything like the pictures I was finding.  Lowe's is normally really good with their names, but there's a first time for everything!

Now to the adventure of the day.  Along with a wonderful husband, I've got two lovely daughters.  The oldest who is 13 needed to have some widsom teeth removed.  My wonderful husband has been out of town all week, so I was going to get to tackle this one alone.  We got there only to find out that she really only needed two taken out on the right side...yeh!  It went off without any problems...another reason to celebrate!  She's up and eating ice cream of all things, she was very pleased when she asked if she could get more than normal, I agreed without a lecture on junk food.  The best part of the whole thing is I got to take two unexpected days off to take care of her!!  My house will appreciate the cleaning it's going to get too. 

I can't post without including one of my succulents, so today's pick is going to be my Kalanchoe Tomentosa 'Chocolate Soldier'  ...I have a thing for fuzzy succulents, and this is one of the best!  It has been trying to bloom for what seems like forever, but they finally opened up yesterday.  I'll take pictures of those for later...not like a normal bloom.