The Cosmos I was about to give up on must have heard my threat on their existence cause they are now covered in buds. We have plenty of warm weather for them to bloom if the heavy rains don't break them down first. They have been staked but the storm tonight will be a test of the stakes strength. And there is another bud on the Heliconia, will take a photo when it gets bigger. The Hyacinth Bean Vine is pretty much out of blooms now the seed pods are coming into their own with their dark purple color. HB vine seed pods ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden ) And if you want a quick growing and inexpensive vine, let a sweet potato start putting out vines then plant it. This one has been in the trapezoidal rose bed for a couple of months and is taking over. Sweet potato runamok ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden ) One of the Apricot Profusion Zinnias is in bloom with more buds at the ready. The bloom is only about 1 inch across. Apricot Profusion Zinnia ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden )
that's a pretty color for a zinnia toni! love the color of the Hyacinth bean too...lucky you and your warm weather...we're headed for the 20'sF the next couple of days...
Toni, I am so glad you posted the Hyacinth Bean in PlantStew. I found this growing on my back fence and was wondering if I could EAT the beans!!! Thank goodness I read your info and saw that they are poisonous. Whew. They are pretty though, aren't they?
What a lovely colour the HB pods are. They would certainly brighten up my garden at this time of year if I could grow them here.
I love the HB pods too, there are lots of them and the color is so dark. That Zinnia is sorta wimpy, I don't know if the growth would be affected by the age of the seeds but I bought them at an end of season sale about 2 years ago. Daisybeans so glad you read that note before cooking up the beans.
You've still got some exotic colour there, Toni. That HBV sure is a curious-looking thing. It's nice to have plants that continue giving colour even after the flower had died and fallen-off. The sweet potato is something that I have heard of but I had no idea that it grew vines. Do they climb? That little zinnia sure is blooming it's heart out, isn't it? Maybe it's my moniter settings, but I can't see that it's apricot-coloured. I have some little zinnias too, but they were almost gone last time I looked. This was a good posting, Toni--I sure did enjoy looking at your bloomers.
Nice shots Toni! Don't you just love those Profusion Zinnia's? I have orange ones and they are still blooming up a storm after 2 frosts and 2 wind storms
I tried growing sweet potato last year, but it didn't get enough water, and they didn't really do much. One trick is to put a lot of sawdust in the soil before planting, as they like the moisture held in the soil. THey are really a tropical plant, so don't think much of our temperate weather. This year, I'm going to put a lot more sawdust in the bed, then plant into it. Hopefully we'll get a bumper crop of sweet potatoes. I Love them!
Sweet potatoes are a commonly grown crop around here, they love our growing conditions. It will be fun to see if there are any potatoes in the ground when the vine dies and I pull it up, but I just stuck it in the ground for the vine. I figured the potato was too old to eat, I might as well get a cheap sweet potato vine plant out of it.
Toni, I tried the Apricot Profusion Zinnia from seed this year and they did great here, still blooming away. I had the white last year, but I bought them already flowering, they did good too. I love them. All of your blooms are nice, I need to plant the HB again.
