You stink!

This is one of the stinky ones!

Typhonium divaricatum aka roxburghii (I prefer the first name).

I got some corms while visiting a friend's friend's "farm" in Taiwan. I saw some cool plants and as always, I nicked some small corms. And well, they ended up in some pots over here, in Romania.

Care is very easy. In winter they can be kept totally dry in their own pots (as it goes dormant) and in spring you start watering. In summer it blooms and stinks. To me, it's a mix of "poopoo" and moth balls. REALLY!

Blooming Aloe

It's not always easy to convince succulents to bloom over here. They must benefit from the right conditions, be of the right age.
But here is one of my succulents, an ALOE (anyone who can tell me WHICH ONE, please DO) that, due to its small size, really surprised me with a tall and slender stem and nice (not-too-small) green->yellow->pink flowers.
It's not producing any pups yet, so I am thinking it's throwing all energy in these lovely flowers.

(I brought it inside, together with some other succulents, as it's been raining on/off for the past 2-3 days).

Here it is, on a sunny day, when I first saw what it's up to.

 Temporarily sitting between a pot of Ledebouria socialis and my only survivor Aloe polyphylla.

The really tall stem makes it hard to catch the whole plant in a nice pic.

WHAT would these be???

While closely inspecting the garden (which I do once in a while) I came across these.
Quite a few.
And in the same area - in the daylily patch.
I found some a few weeks ago, then again some a few days ago, but like I said, not far apart from each other.
When they burst open, there's a nice purple color inside.
I have no idea what they are. Some "fun guy" (fungi) ?

Berlandiera lyrata... or "the chocolate daisy"

Indeed, there is a chocolate fragrance.
My plants don't look too good, being crammed between other taller plants and it looks like they need sun.
But they do bloom, spread their chocolate-y perfume around and even bless me with seeds.
What's good about this plant is that it doesn't have any pests, is not bothered by the heat and drought, and it blooms now, when there's quite little left to bloom in the garden.

Here are the 3 stages, flower, after-flower, seed.

Cute bugs... yeah, right!

Last week we had a religious holiday and as a rule, no work allowed. As I visited my parents and thus, my garden, I had plenty of time to take pics.
Since there isn't much going on towards the end of summer, plus the heat&drought combination so I focused on something else. BUGS!
And I found quite a few.
DRAGONFLIES (which I love!) and a few NOIDS.

This green whatever-it-is has been spotted on the same plant (Calotropis gigantea)

And a happy family of ...

And one more....

Crinum asiaticum ... again

Once a year, this Crinum blooms. Only once. Usually in late summer early fall - which is bad, cause there's never enough time for seeds. Not that it matters, as there's plenty of pups around the big "trunk" just waiting to leave the pot.
I know how hard it would be to remove them, so I kept postponing the big event.
Anyway, here it is, with lots and lots of blooms. Unfortunately... they don't last long :(

The Last... Lili-ummm!

I think this is pretty (much) the last lily to bloom in my garden.
I was a little anxious to see it bloom... this Lilium speciosum var rubrum was purchased together with other lily bulbs - some of the bloom not really matching what they were supposed to be - well, from a supplier in Poland.
But I am "+" this is Lilium speciosum var rubrum... or NOT?

Lilium speciosum var rubrum

Good Aloe, bad Aloe...

A few things happened since I posted about my cute succulents.
Well... one of the two Aloe polyphylla, the one looking sad, the one I thought it was lacking water (thus giving it more water) decided to rot and die.
Guess... too much water. I was imagining the opposite.
Here's what it looks like...

And here's what it looks like without it :(

 

And...the good news is ... another Aloe is gonna bloom! I think!