SWEET GINGER BLOSSOMS

Happy Thanksgiving!

Want to share a few pictures of some of the late blooming ginger in the front yard meadow....they have been finished for a few weeks now but with the magic of pictures i can bring them to you today...This day of thanks for all we have..... May the love in your heart's spread out to all the world!!!!



Peace, Rena at the NSA Farm

Monarch Butterfly's are here!

I've been wanting to write about the Monarch butterfly's that pass through the NSA Farm property every year....the Asclepia tuberosa also know as 'butterfly milkweed' that is pervasive and blooming this time of the year is the a favorite food of the Monarch... and while at the kitchen window, looking out on to the kitchen pond area and the asclepia in bloom there, there it was! The biggest most beautiful Monarch having a snack on the asclepia blossoms! i ran to get my camera and managed to snap off a few (lousy) pictures .... some times it all falls into place and other times...well this is the other time! hope that another opportunity is forth coming and I can up date you with a better shot!  Untill then...I hope you enjoy these....

Epiphyllum in the Locust Tree

A very mature Epiphyllum in the canopy of the Locust tree in the courtyard just before it was to bloom...this one blooms at night & will last in to the morning then fades.....so you've got to catch it when it's ready! I did! after many tries....

now some close ups of the buds ....

the night they bloomed...

early morning with the blooms still fully open..wow!

early morningEpiphyllum, according to the Wikipedia, has 2 synonyms: Phyllocactus and Phyllocereus. It blooms only at night with large fragrant flowers of many colors... Epiphyllum species are added to some versions of the hallucinogenic drink Ayahuasca.  Here again, Dad was cultavating a plant with useable properties....

Buzzy Bee!

here are some pics that I thought you'd enjoy!  

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What's Blooming!

Tipu, Lippia, & fruit....

Up close, Tipuwana tipu Tipu  blossoms... when they all fall it is like golden rain and just beautiful!

Tipu canapy in bloom

Tipu blossoms on the way back patio ....

the apples starting to look like the real thing...

This Pomegranate was planted from seeds brought from Saudi Arabia by John’s brother Nick, said to be “the best in the world.” they are really comming along....

a HoT pepper that is Perennial here on the Farm

This is a Lippia sp., Verbenaceae also considered to be in the Vervain family. I just noticed it here on the farm when it began to bloom, a small clump of up rite spikes with sweet tiny clusters of light lavender flowers... then i noticed it in Oscar Clarke's yard soon after while pulling into his driveway for a visit...when we began to compare notes he told me that he acquired it from John many year ago. It is a tropical plant (noda) and is being sold at the UCR Botanic gardens as ‘Lippia-Oscar Clarke’ because no one had been able to identify it fully...The specimen in Oscar's yard is very large with lovely small lavender flowers& long arching branches… we still have not been able to identify it fully ...soon we hope, so that the proper name will be attached to the one's that gardener's purchase at the UCR Botanic Garden plant sales.

Fruit and Blooms!

a nice yield of apricots

Back pond water lily's and water Hyacinths

glad that the bees still populate the Farm!

A morning out back at the Pond

here is another Bloom i'm watching in the fern Grotto...the first ginger to show color...reminds me of Hawaii.... love it!

Cannaout at the back pond...water Hyacynths& this cute fellow who seemed to be posing for meJackaranda bloom spikes

an elusive Blossom ... caught ya!

been trying to photograph this 'Dragon Fruit' as Dad called it, for weeks and always seem to miss the opening of the blossom...then a few nights ago i was out watching the sun set in the way back by the back pond and noticed that 2 of the blossoms were starting to open...as i watched i took pics, as it did indeed fully open to this beautiful super large cream and yellow flower blossom..as large as a volley ball! and, as i suspected buy the next morning it had faded and fully closed....there must be some night moth that fertilizes it don't ya think?! extraordinary! i sure hope that i can catch the one to the west of the courtyard that is climbing in the Locust tree and has a small trunk as its base...so far i have missed them all looking in the early am...there are 2 more buds developing thank goodness!...maybe i will watch for it at dusk as well.....hummm??!!!! good thinking! here are the spent blossoms...