FLORAL FRIDAY FOTOS: April 2016

Thursday, 28 April 2016

FFF232 - LILIUM 'TINY DOUBLE YOU'

Lilium ‘Tiny Double You’ is a dwarf Asiatic lily (Plant number: 1.318.840) and one of the Lily Looks™ series developed in the Netherlands. Bred originally for containers, these are versatile garden plants as well. The dwarf habit makes them useful near the front of any sunny border where they put on a great midsummer show. Also equally at home in a rock garden. The best effect comes from massing in good-sized clumps of one variety. This selection is unique and new to the series with large, upfacing double, orange flowers. It is an outstanding garden plant and its unlicensed propagation is prohibited!

It is suited to a full sun or partial shade position and will grow in most soil types. It grows to 30-35 cm and blooms in mid-summer. It is deer-resistant and does well in rockeries, borders, massed displays and in containers.

Join me for Floral Friday Fotos by linking your flower photos below, and please leave a comment once you have done so. If you take part in the meme, please show an active link back to this site on your own blog post!

This post is also part of the Orange you Glad It's Friday meme,
and also part of the Today's Flowers meme.

Thursday, 21 April 2016

FFF231 - BUDDLEJA

Buddleja commonly known as the butterfly bush is a genus comprising over 100 species of flowering plants endemic to Asia, Africa, and the Americas, within the Buddlejaceae family. The generic name bestowed by Linnaeus posthumously honoured the Reverend Adam Buddle (1662–1715), a botanist and rector in Essex, England, at the suggestion of Dr. William Houstoun. Houstoun sent the first plants to become known to science as buddleja (B. americana) to England from the Caribbean about 15 years after Buddle's death.

As garden shrubs Buddlejas are essentially 20th-century plants, with the exception of B. globosa which was introduced to Britain from southern Chile in 1774 and disseminated from the nursery of Lee and Kennedy, Hammersmith. Several species are popular garden plants, the species are commonly known as 'butterfly bushes' owing to their attractiveness to butterflies, and have become staples of the modern butterfly garden; they are also attractive to bees and moths.

The most popular cultivated species is Buddleja davidii from central China, named for the French Basque missionary and naturalist Père Armand David. Other common garden species include the aforementioned B. globosa, grown for its strongly honey-scented orange globular inflorescences, and the weeping Buddleja alternifolia. Several interspecific hybrids have been made. Some species commonly escape from the garden. B. davidii in particular is a great coloniser of dry open ground; in urban areas in the United Kingdom, it often self-sows on waste ground or old masonry, where it grows into a dense thicket, and is listed as an invasive species in many areas.

Popular garden cultivars include 'Royal Red' (reddish-purple flowers), 'Black Knight' (very dark purple), 'Sungold' (golden yellow), and 'Pink Delight' (pure pink). In recent years, much breeding work has been undertaken to create small, more compact buddlejas, such as 'Blue Chip' which reach no more than 0.6–0.9 m tall, and which are also seed sterile, an important consideration in the USA where B. davidii and its cultivars are banned from many states owing to their invasiveness.

Join me for Floral Friday Fotos by linking your flower photos below, and please leave a comment once you have done so.

If you take part in the meme, please show an active link back to this site on your own blog post!

Thursday, 14 April 2016

FFF230 - MILTONIA

Miltonia, abbreviated Milt. in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus formed by nine epiphyte species and eight natural hybrids inhabitants of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one species reaching the northeast of Argentina and east of Paraguay. This genus was established by John Lindley in 1837, when he described its type species, Miltonia spectabilis.

Many species were attributed to Miltonia in the past, however, today, the species from Central America and from cooler areas on northwest of South America have been moved to other genera. Miltonia species have large and long lasting flowers, often in multifloral inflorescences. This fact, allied to being species that are easy to grow and to identify, make them a favourite of orchid collectors all over the world. Species of this genus are extensively used to produce artificial hybrids.

Despite the fact that Miltonia is now a well established genus, most of its species were originally classified under other genera as Cyrtochilum, Oncidium, Odontoglossum, and Brassia. All were discovered between 1834 and 1850 with the exception of M. kayasimae, discovered only in 1976. These epiphytic orchids occur from Central to Southern Brazil down to Argentina.

These orchids have two leaves, arising from a pseudobulbs, covered with a foliaceous sheath. The inflorescence consists of waxy, nonspurred flowers. The lip is large and flat and lacks a callus at its base. They possess a footless column with two hard pollinia. The flowers have a delicate, exotic scent, some compare to that of roses. They are named after Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 5th Earl Fitzwilliam, formerly Viscount Milton, an English orchid enthusiast.

The species in this genus are sometimes referred to as the "pansy orchids", but it is the Miltoniopsis orchids that have flowers that closely resemble the pansy. Almost everyone except for the most serious orchid hobbyists use the name pansy orchids interchangeably, which may cause confusion. Miltonia looks more like Oncidiums than the other pansy orchids. The most "pansy-like" a Miltonia can get is the species Miltonia spectabilis.

The one shown here is "Miltonia Lavender Glade" ( Milt. spectabilis var. moreliarta X "Milt Belle Glade"). Easy to grow, has a nice scent and is free- flowering. It is a plant that will give much pleasure and few hassles!

Thursday, 7 April 2016

FFF229 - YELLOW ECHINACEA

Echinacea is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family, Asteraceae. The nine species it contains are commonly called purple coneflowers. They are endemic to eastern and central North America, where they are found growing in moist to dry prairies and open wooded areas.

They have large, showy heads of composite flowers, blooming from early to late summer. The generic name is derived from the Greek word ἐχῖνος (echinos), meaning "sea urchin," due to the spiny central disk. Some species are used in herbal medicines and some are cultivated in gardens for their showy flowers. A few species are of conservation concern.