Welcome!

Welcome to austinagrodolce … My family and I garden with more intention and enthusiasm than allocated budget or overall design plan. It shows. Wildlife populations don't seem to notice our lack of cohesive design, they just like the native plants here. It seems by growing local we've thrown out a welcome mat. Occasionally, we're surprised at who (and what) shows up.



Wednesday, June 20, 2012

What a difference....

24 little hours can make.

We'd kept an eye out on these plumeria buds for a couple of weeks.  My hope was that since these are plants especially dear to the Hub, we might get our first blooms of the year on Father's Day.

Alas, it was not to be.  Plants have their own timing and designated holidays are not on whatever passes for their calendar.
The shot above is how they looked yesterday, and then.....
Today.

The original plant was a gift from a co-worker to the Hub years ago.   The Momma plant was dormant, looked like something that had broken off a walking stick, but we were assured with a little support, it would pop into high gear once the season was appropriate.

And so it did.  Since that time the Hub has carefully tended and repotted until now we have a mini-grove of personally propagated potted plumeria plants (try saying that 3 times fast!).

We admire the plumeria's broad leaves displayed umbrella style at the tops of the branches.  Their presence in our garden beds powerfully evokes memories of family trips taken to Hawaii in summers past.

But what we love most about plumeria are their showy blooms. Clearly, we are not alone.

Look closely at the photo above, and you'll see we were not the only ones tracking the progress of these flowers.  The blooms had been open for barely a couple of hours before two spiders had set up shop waiting to prey upon unwary visitors.   (I think they are crab spiders.  But.  Blah blah blah, I stink at identification, you know the drill...).

Though the blooms weren't open in time for Father's Day, I have no way of knowing if the bloom's appearance is on schedule for the crab spiders.  In the garden, it would seem everybody has their own agenda.

3 comments:

Cat said...

Yes, everything in due time but rarely on the gardener's schedule!
A plumeria was just gifted to me this week. I'm eager to see it in bloom. I've heard they can be a little finicky and not bloom for years? Oh, I hope not.

Tina said...

Lovely plumeria. I've never grown those, but I enjoy it when others do.
I do have lots of those same little spider dudes and dudettes. I love them as well.

TexasDeb said...

Cat, I can't accurately recall if our plumeria bloomed that first year out or not. I think their foliage is gorgeous, so we've been happy to enjoy that and any blooms are pretty much icing on the cake.

Tina, I'll admit to annoyance when I first started noticing how so many of my bloom close-up shots also featured these teensy spiders. Now I look out for them specifically because they are such clever little hide and seek players.